Ethics of hiring

Subject: Ethics of hiring
From: geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA
Date: Tue, 17 Jun 1997 11:49:06 -0500

Candace Bamber wondered about the ethics of not alerting a
potential new hire to problems at the company. Candace, I
think the ethical answer to your question is clear: you owe
it to the new hire to give them the unadorned truth about
the new job. As usual, the simplest test of how ethical
something is would be to ask how you'd feel if you were in
the same situation. Personally, I know I'd surely want to
hear the bad news so I could jump with both eyes open, and
for that reason, I'd offer the warning to any new employee.
I've only been employed in one situation where this
applied, and found myself in the position of warning my
potential new boss about the mess she was about to walk
into. She appreciated the warning, but took the job anyway.
(This isn't a flame or an attempt to sound morally superior
to you, by the way, so please don't take it that way.)

As you noted, there's another ethical angle to this: your
responsibility to your employer. If you end up hiring
someone who stays only long enough to see how bad the
situation is, and then leaves, your employer must start the
job search over again, and that's no good for them or you.
Finally, if they get enough "I'd love to work for you but
your employees warned me not to" messages, maybe things
will begin to change at your employer.

--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

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