At-Will Employment Symmetry Invoked By Engineer A Upon Termination Notice
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/171#At-Will_Employment_Symmetry_Invoked_By_Engineer_A_Upon_Termination_Notice
Properties
Instance of
At-WillEmploymentSymmetryandEngineerMobilityRight
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#At-WillEmploymentSymmetryandEngineerMobilityRight
Applied to
Engineer A's solicitation of Engineer B's clients after receiving termination notice
Balancing with
Loyalty
Specialized Knowledge Constraint on Post-Departure Competition
Concrete expression
Engineer A, having received an employer-initiated termination notice citing lack of work, exercised the reciprocal mobility right to begin soliciting prospective clients for a new engineering firm while still serving out the notice period.
Confidence
0.88
Importance
high
Interpretation
Because Engineer B initiated the termination rather than Engineer A voluntarily departing, the moral weight of the loyalty obligation is reduced; Engineer A's solicitation is the natural exercise of the mobility right that mirrors the employer's termination right.
Invoked by
Engineer A Pre-Departure Client-Soliciting Termination-Notified Engineer
Tension resolution
The employer-initiated nature of the termination shifts the ethical balance toward permitting solicitation, provided no active contracts are supplanted and no confidential knowledge is exploited.
Source Evidence
Source text
Engineer B notified Engineer A that Engineer B was going to terminate Engineer A because of lack of work. Engineer A thereupon notified clients of Engineer B that Engineer A was planning to start another engineering firm and would appreciate being considered for future work.
Text references
Engineer A thereupon notified clients of Engineer B that Engineer A was planning to start another engineering firm and would appreciate being considered for future work.
Engineer B notified Engineer A that Engineer B was going to terminate Engineer A because of lack of work.
TTL
@prefix case171: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/171#> .
@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#> .
case171:At-Will_Employment_Symmetry_Invoked_By_Engineer_A_Upon_Termination_Notice a proeth:At-WillEmploymentSymmetryandEngineerMobilityRight,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "At-Will Employment Symmetry Invoked By Engineer A Upon Termination Notice" ;
proeth:appliedto "Engineer A's solicitation of Engineer B's clients after receiving termination notice" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Loyalty",
"Specialized Knowledge Constraint on Post-Departure Competition" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A, having received an employer-initiated termination notice citing lack of work, exercised the reciprocal mobility right to begin soliciting prospective clients for a new engineering firm while still serving out the notice period." ;
proeth:confidence "0.88" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "171" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-03-02T14:28:39.943101+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "171" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-03-02T14:28:39.943101+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "Because Engineer B initiated the termination rather than Engineer A voluntarily departing, the moral weight of the loyalty obligation is reduced; Engineer A's solicitation is the natural exercise of the mobility right that mirrors the employer's termination right." ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Pre-Departure Client-Soliciting Termination-Notified Engineer" ;
proeth:principleclass "At-Will Employment Symmetry and Engineer Mobility Right" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Engineer B notified Engineer A that Engineer B was going to terminate Engineer A because of lack of work. Engineer A thereupon notified clients of Engineer B that Engineer A was planning to start another engineering firm and would appreciate being considered for future work." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The employer-initiated nature of the termination shifts the ethical balance toward permitting solicitation, provided no active contracts are supplanted and no confidential knowledge is exploited." ;
proeth:textreferences "Engineer A thereupon notified clients of Engineer B that Engineer A was planning to start another engineering firm and would appreciate being considered for future work.",
"Engineer B notified Engineer A that Engineer B was going to terminate Engineer A because of lack of work." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 171 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-03-02T14:51:15.268999"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 171 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
171
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-03-02T14:28:39.943101+00:00
First case
171
Generated
2026-03-02T14:28:39.943101+00:00
Attributed to
Case 171 Extraction
Generated
2026-03-02T14:51:15.268999
Generated by
ProEthica Case 171 Extraction