At-Will Employment Symmetry Applied to Engineer C Recruitment
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/127#At-Will_Employment_Symmetry_Applied_to_Engineer_C_Recruitment
Properties
Instance of
At-WillEmploymentSymmetryandEngineerMobilityRight
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#At-WillEmploymentSymmetryandEngineerMobilityRight
Applied to
Engineer A's offer of employment to Engineer C
Engineer C's freedom to accept competing employment
Balancing with
Competitive Employment Freedom With Confidentiality Constraint
Specialized Knowledge Constraint on Post-Departure Competition
Concrete expression
The Board found that Engineer A's offer of employment to Engineer C was not unethical because, absent a written agreement or specialized knowledge constraint, Engineer C had the same freedom to move to a competing firm as Firm X would have had to terminate her employment; the disruption to Firm X was acknowledged but characterized as the accepted cost of a free employment market
Confidence
0.92
Importance
high
Interpretation
The at-will symmetry principle establishes that the ethical evaluation of Engineer A's recruitment of Engineer C must begin from a presumption of permissibility, with the burden on finding a specific constraint (written agreement or specialized knowledge) that would override the default freedom
Invoked by
NSPE Board of Ethical Review
Tension resolution
No specialized knowledge constraint or written agreement was found, so the at-will symmetry principle governed and the employment offer was held permissible
Source Evidence
Source text
This approach is in essence the 'flip side' of the standard employment relationship where an employer, with few exceptions, may generally discontinue the services of an employed engineer 'at will.'
Text references
The BER cannot find any specific language in the NSPE Code of Ethics that would prevent one engineer from offering an employment position to another engineer.
This approach is in essence the 'flip side' of the standard employment relationship where an employer, with few exceptions, may generally discontinue the services of an employed engineer 'at will.'
While the departure of an employee is often disruptive and costly to an employer's operations as well as to a client's needs, this is the price that a free society pays in striking a balance between the rights of individual employees and the legitimate business considerations in the employment market.
TTL
@prefix case127: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/127#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case127:At-Will_Employment_Symmetry_Applied_to_Engineer_C_Recruitment a proeth:At-WillEmploymentSymmetryandEngineerMobilityRight,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "At-Will Employment Symmetry Applied to Engineer C Recruitment" ;
proeth:appliedto "Engineer A's offer of employment to Engineer C",
"Engineer C's freedom to accept competing employment" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Competitive Employment Freedom With Confidentiality Constraint",
"Specialized Knowledge Constraint on Post-Departure Competition" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The Board found that Engineer A's offer of employment to Engineer C was not unethical because, absent a written agreement or specialized knowledge constraint, Engineer C had the same freedom to move to a competing firm as Firm X would have had to terminate her employment; the disruption to Firm X was acknowledged but characterized as the accepted cost of a free employment market" ;
proeth:confidence "0.92" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "127" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-01T03:21:56.514585+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "127" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-01T03:21:56.514585+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "The at-will symmetry principle establishes that the ethical evaluation of Engineer A's recruitment of Engineer C must begin from a presumption of permissibility, with the burden on finding a specific constraint (written agreement or specialized knowledge) that would override the default freedom" ;
proeth:invokedby "NSPE Board of Ethical Review" ;
proeth:principleclass "At-Will Employment Symmetry and Engineer Mobility Right" ;
proeth:sourcetext "This approach is in essence the 'flip side' of the standard employment relationship where an employer, with few exceptions, may generally discontinue the services of an employed engineer 'at will.'" ;
proeth:tensionresolution "No specialized knowledge constraint or written agreement was found, so the at-will symmetry principle governed and the employment offer was held permissible" ;
proeth:textreferences "The BER cannot find any specific language in the NSPE Code of Ethics that would prevent one engineer from offering an employment position to another engineer.",
"This approach is in essence the 'flip side' of the standard employment relationship where an employer, with few exceptions, may generally discontinue the services of an employed engineer 'at will.'",
"While the departure of an employee is often disruptive and costly to an employer's operations as well as to a client's needs, this is the price that a free society pays in striking a balance between the rights of individual employees and the legitimate business considerations in the employment market." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 127 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-01T03:44:36.626967"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 127 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
127
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-03-01T03:21:56.514585+00:00
First case
127
Generated
2026-03-01T03:21:56.514585+00:00
Attributed to
Case 127 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-01T03:44:36.626967
Generated by
ProEthica Case 127 Extraction