DP2

DecisionPoint
http://proethica.org/ontology/cases#DecisionPoint

DP2

Should Engineer A offer Engineer C a position at Firm Y as a legitimate exercise of competitive recruitment, or refrain from recruiting Firm X employees given his non-competition representation and the risk that the recruitment will be weaponized as the basis for client-facing disparagement of Firm X?

Engineer A offered Engineer C a position at Firm Y. Engineer C is an at-will employee of Firm X with no written non-compete agreement and no specialized proprietary knowledge that would restrict her competitive mobility. The ethical question is whether Engineer A's offer to Engineer C was permissible given the at-will employment symmetry principle, and whether the subsequent use of Engineer C's anticipated departure as a basis for disparaging Firm X to clients transforms the recruitment from a permissible act into the first step of an impermissible integrated strategy.

Offer Engineer C the position at Firm Y as a legitimate competitive recruitment, but strictly refrain from using her anticipated departure as a basis for any representations to Firm X's clients about Firm X's capacity, competing for clients solely on Firm Y's own merits.

Offer Engineer C the position and proactively contact Firm X's clients to inform them of her anticipated departure, representing that Firm X will be hard pressed to perform and directing clients to engage Firm Y — treating the departure as a legitimate competitive differentiator in client solicitations.

Solicit Firm X's clients for Firm Y first on the basis of Firm Y's own capabilities, and only thereafter recruit Engineer C, maintaining temporal and causal separation between the competitive solicitation and the staff recruitment to avoid the self-caused incapacity exploitation dynamic.

Engineer A