Dear Liz,

I work as a contract recruiter and staffing manager for several firms. Right now I have an ethical pickle to deal with and I could use your advice.

One of my clients, Company A, gives me a lot of work and I’m almost like an employee there. I’m also filling a management job at Company B, and one of the guys from Company A (“Tom,” a well-regarded person I deal with frequently, someone I know the company would hate to lose) is in the running for that spot.

Do I say something to my client (the VP of HR) at Company A about the fact that Tom is job-hunting? On the one hand, it’s a confidential job search (the people at Company A don’t know Tom is looking), but on the other hand, the VP of HR will be furious with me if his guy gets a new job and he finds out that I knew about it as it was happening.

What do I do?

Thanks,

Gary

Dear Gary,

This is a situation where you go into monkey mode — I’m talking about the “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” monkeys, of course. You say nothing.

A job search is always confidential, even if a job-seeker isn’t working. Tom may not get the job, in which case you’ll forget you ever saw his name on an interview schedule.

If he does snag the job and if the VP at Company A someday asks you, “Did you know Tom was interviewing with your client firm?” you’ll say “Yes.”

I am certain that Company A’s VP of HR will understand why you couldn’t and wouldn’t rat out his employee, and anyway, if Tom is so valuable to Company A, why doesn’t Tom know it, and why is he looking around?

Let’s say Tom gets the job and the VP finds out you knew about it. What is he going to do? Suggest you should have prevented Tom from getting the job, or that you should have thrown Tom under the bus by tattling on him for daring to change companies?

Either one would have been a horrendous ethical lapse. Smile at Tom when you see him in the hallway at either company, and keep your counsel.

If you are involved in the selection process for the job Tom’s pursuing, you can back out of that obligation by explaining that it’s not appropriate for you to be part of the selection process given your relationship with Tom and/or his current employer. Some recruiters would do that, and some wouldn’t.

Either way, your mantra needs to be, “What happens in my clients’ interview rooms stays there.”

Your integrity is not for sale to any client. If it were the VP himself whose named showed up on an interview roster at one of your other clients’ facilities one day, he’d expect you to use the same discretion.

Best,

Liz