Can an employer fire me for telling them I am looking for another position

[BarkingGhostar]

Reading these replies, some of your employers/bosses must really suck.

Yes, the employers suck. Count yourself lucky. My leadership (CEO, BoD, etc.) are a bunch of psychotic monkeys so detached from reality that they would surplus n-them from the company and still believe that 100% of the problems with the stock devaluation is because of employees.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

To follow up on my earlier post, I just received a new job offer yesterday. My current manager is someone I really like and respect but I don’t think he knows I was looking. There were times I wanted to tell him because I know there will be a huge (and negative) immediate impact, but as I previously mentioned, you just can’t risk it. Even if I were 100% sure that he would be cool about the whole thing, he would have to tell his management and it would likely not be positive for me.

So, come Monday morning, he will likely be very shocked and have to scramble for the next couple of weeks to put a plan in place to get my work done and to staff a new role they were pushing me into (part of why I decided to leave). He will probably sit and think for a few minutes and realize there were obvious signs he missed and will blame himself. I feel bad for him and my coworkers and will do everything I can to help but at the end of the day, the only people I owe anything to is my family. You can never lose sight of that fact even if you have to lie about whether you’re looking or not to your management. I hate having to lie more than almost anything but sometimes you have to in order to protect what is really important in your life.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Yes, the employers suck. Count yourself lucky. My leadership (CEO, BoD, etc.) are a bunch of psychotic monkeys so detached from reality that they would surplus n-them from the company and still believe that 100% of the problems with the stock devaluation is because of employees.

Did you read the story about Netflix and its culture which came out last week? I don’t know why anyone would want to work there - everyone seems to be a sociopath.

 

[ctbaars]

Yes, the employers suck. Count yourself lucky. My leadership (CEO, BoD, etc.) are a bunch of psychotic monkeys so detached from reality that they would surplus n-them from the company and still believe that 100% of the problems with the stock devaluation is because of employees.

You realize you are describing all of humankind. I would hazard a guess that 99% of us reading this have authority of some kind. With that kind of thought pattern, I think I would hate working for you too ...

 

[ctbaars]

Did you read the story about Netflix and its culture which came out last week? I don’t know why anyone would want to work there - everyone seems to be a sociopath.

No. Not sociopathic if it's normal. This is very common among white people.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

No. Not sociopathic if it's normal. This is very common among white people.

It isn't normal and saying it is common among "white people" is silly.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Did you read the story about Netflix and its culture which came out last week? I don’t know why anyone would want to work there - everyone seems to be a sociopath.

Seems when you read into a lot of "prestigious" companies it often turns out that they are actually terrible to work for. Tesla, Amazon, even Spacex are not very fun to work at from what I've read. Amazon is probably the worst, reading some of this stories reminds me a lot of chinese sweatshops.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

You realize you are describing all of humankind. I would hazard a guess that 99% of us reading this have authority of some kind. With that kind of thought pattern, I think I would hate working for you too ...

Working for me? No one works for me.

 

[RichUK]

What's the benefit of notifying them before you secure a new job?

Risk with no reward, lol.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Seems when you read into a lot of "prestigious" companies it often turns out that they are actually terrible to work for. Tesla, Amazon, even Spacex are not very fun to work at from what I've read. Amazon is probably the worst, reading some of this stories reminds me a lot of chinese sweatshops.

I find the Netflix thing comical because of the business they’re in - I mean, these guys aren’t curing cancer, landing people on Mars, or doing anything super important in the grand scheme. Why work in an environment like that?

And obviously Reed Hastings must exempt himself from the entire “keeper test” - who can forget his dumbass idea of splitting Netflix into two and calling the DVD business “Qwikster”? Even Saturday Night Live made fun of Netflix for that.

 

[destrekor]

I find the Netflix thing comical because of the business they’re in - I mean, these guys aren’t curing cancer, landing people on Mars, or doing anything super important in the grand scheme. Why work in an environment like that?

And obviously Reed Hastings must exempt himself from the entire “keeper test” - who can forget his dumbass idea of splitting Netflix into two and calling the DVD business “Qwikster”? Even Saturday Night Live made fun of Netflix for that.

Well they smartened up and now call it "DVD.com" which is worlds better. Why they had to change the name though in the first place, just stupid. Should have kept calling it Netflix, though I can see why they want to make the Netflix brand strictly streaming, the name really works well for that. "DVD.COM, a Netflix Company" gets the message across well enough.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm surprised they were even able to get a 3 letter domain name tbh. I figured all of those were taken, especially something like dvd.com. Funny thing is it redirects to dvd.netflix.com. Why waste a 3 letter domain if you only use it as a redirect!

 

[destrekor]

I'm surprised they were even able to get a 3 letter domain name tbh. I figured all of those were taken, especially something like dvd.com. Funny thing is it redirects to dvd.netflix.com. Why waste a 3 letter domain if you only use it as a redirect!

It's all but guaranteed that they had to buy the domain from a third party. They registered the domain in 2012, but I can't find a firm answer as to whether they bought it from an independent third party or snagged a fresh registration after the previous registration was not renewed in a timely manner. The domain was registered to another entity prior to Netflix's registration, so it wasn't like nobody ever bought the domain beforehand. It apparently was just not a successful website.

 

[Red Squirrel]

It's all but guaranteed that they had to buy the domain from a third party. They registered the domain in 2012, but I can't find a firm answer as to whether they bought it from an independent third party or snagged a fresh registration after the previous registration was not renewed in a timely manner. The domain was registered to another entity prior to Netflix's registration, so it wasn't like nobody ever bought the domain beforehand. It apparently was just not a successful website.

Yeah I guess they would have the money to just buy it out. Probably what ended up happening.

 

[zerocool84]

Seems when you read into a lot of "prestigious" companies it often turns out that they are actually terrible to work for. Tesla, Amazon, even Spacex are not very fun to work at from what I've read. Amazon is probably the worst, reading some of this stories reminds me a lot of chinese sweatshops.

At Amazon, what you're reading about is warehouse work. They aren't tech workers working in an office. Warehouse workers are usually treated like crap, especially at an insanely huge company that ships millions of items a day. It's unskilled labor so they have high turnover and low pay.

 

[Red Squirrel]

At Amazon, what you're reading about is warehouse work. They aren't tech workers working in an office. Warehouse workers are usually treated like crap, especially at an insanely huge company that ships millions of items a day. It's unskilled labor so they have high turnover and low pay.

Yeah it was those workers, but it does paint a picture of how badly they treat their employees. I'm sure data centre workers are probably working in similar conditions... though at least data centres have good A/C, but they only do it because they care about the servers, not the employees.

 

[NesuD]

Can an employer fire me for telling them I am looking for another position

Many places employers can fire you for no reason at all. Depends where you live. That said why would you tell them you are looking? It's none of their business and I am here to tell you they most certainly will not tell you if they are interviewing candidates to replace you. Employers like to promote the 2 weeks notice thing but fact is almost none of them will give you the same consideration if they are about to let you go.

 

[destrekor]

Yeah it was those workers, but it does paint a picture of how badly they treat their employees. I'm sure data centre workers are probably working in similar conditions... though at least data centres have good A/C, but they only do it because they care about the servers, not the employees.

No, I cannot imagine any datacenter employee having similar work conditions as a warehouse employee.

 

[destrekor]

Many places employers can fire you for no reason at all. Depends where you live. That said why would you tell them you are looking? It's none of their business and I am here to tell you they most certainly will not tell you if they are interviewing candidates to replace you. Employers like to promote the 2 weeks notice thing but fact is almost none of them will give you the same consideration if they are about to let you go.

It's a simple bartering scenario: upselling your worth to eek out more compensation from the employer. "I am looking for another job, because you aren't paying me enough based on how I evaluate my work." The idea being that you would be fishing for a counter-offer -- "I'm looking for another job because I don't feel I am getting the pay I deserve here. Would you like to try to keep me by giving me a raise?"

 

[Hugo Drax]

Due to harassment that has been going on for years, and poor leadership? I have hesitated to report the harassment because it comes from my manager and a guy who is very senior to me and helps me out a lot. If I got on either of their bad sides, my job would become hell.

When I say fire, I mean let me go in a way that I don't get any severance or unemployment, and such that it looks like I was let go for a negative reason when my future employer inquires why I was let go?

I am thinking to let my VP know once I have a month left on my apartment lease. I should have enough saved up to survive for about 6 months, and my credentials are good, but I'm really hoping for severance + unemployment.

I want to start looking for a job in a different industry now, but I don't have the network/skill set yet so I'm hoping in 6 months I'll have a better chance.

No just quietly look for another job and once you have it then quit. Otherwise you will be on the losing end of that process.

 

[Brovane]

Seems when you read into a lot of "prestigious" companies it often turns out that they are actually terrible to work for. Tesla, Amazon, even Spacex are not very fun to work at from what I've read. Amazon is probably the worst, reading some of this stories reminds me a lot of chinese sweatshops.

Where did you read that SpaceX is not fun to work at? Looking at Glassdoor reviews most of them seem to be that it is a lot of hard work but it is a very cool company to work for.

 

[deadlyapp]

Where did you read that SpaceX is not fun to work at? Looking at Glassdoor reviews most of them seem to be that it is a lot of hard work but it is a very cool company to work for.

Just depends on what you judge as "cool". Most of the people who work at these more prestigious, competitive companies work long hours and backbreaking deadlines because there is an air of "if I don't do it, someone will" or that they are going to be a part of something bigger. They are kept disillusioned by the other benefits these companies offer, like social events, food, games, etc.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Where did you read that SpaceX is not fun to work at? Looking at Glassdoor reviews most of them seem to be that it is a lot of hard work but it is a very cool company to work for.

Was an AMA on Reddit if I recall. While it's cool to know what the end result of what you work on is, the long hours and constant push etc can burn you right out and you don't have much of a life outside of work.