Most people are honest, trustworthy and hard-working. Perhaps I’m naive, but treat people as you would like them to be, and as you would like to be treated, and you get their best efforts.
Things aren’t always as they seem. A couple of years ago I ended a relationship, because the other party wasn’t living up to its side of the agreement, and it threatened my whole business. I talked to the other party, then, reluctantly, used the courts when that failed. I didn’t just walk away, I tried to make it work, and then ended it in a professional, legal manner.
When one of my vendors’ employees quit, he implied I should do business with his new firm. It would have violated my contract with his employer. Even though my day to day relationship was with him, I had no doubt the correct response was to honor my contract and contact his employer.
I’m confident the owner will work hard to keep my business, if he doesn’t I’ll renegotiate the agreement. Worst case, I won’t renew.
Most importantly, I can look myself in the eye. To me that’s integrity.
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Uri
Hmmm this post is a little interesting. Can you reply me any related articles?
Not something I researched first,so I don’t have references for you. Just my view on the ethics of the situation. There may be issues regarding the legal relationship between the employer and employee. There is a lot of material online concerning effectiveness of non-solicitation agreements, which varies based on legal jurisdiction, and how they are drafted. A rule of thumb is that if a non-solicitation agreement is too restrictive, it’s unenforceable. What constitutes too restrictive varies wildly. You really need local legal help to figure it all out.
Back to ethics and integrity, I believe the employee is acting unethically and should find his own customers, and I don’t want to reward such behavior. Also, I don’t know how well the employer, my vendor, can do the work having lost the employee, so I’m keeping my options open by giving the vendor a second chance. If the vendor fails, I can seek other options with a clear conscience.