Is it ever OK to accept a job knowing that you might have
another opportunity several months down the road that may cause you to quit
that job you're accepting? A couple of incidents among readers recently have
raised the question.
The first incident involves a reader, E.C., who was
recently offered a new position, one that she believes she might enjoy more
than her current job. But she also recently received news that she was accepted
into a graduate school program to which she applied, but hasn't decided yet
about attending. The program would begin about eight months after she started
the new job -- if she takes the new job.
The second incident involves a reader, L.M., who is a
finalist for a position for which she's been interviewing for several months.
It's been a long search process. Before she and the other finalists have been
scheduled to meet on the site of the prospective company with the search
committee, she was offered another job at a different company. It's an
attractive job offer, but the job she really wants is the one for which
she's a finalist.
Is it OK for E.C. to accept the new position knowing she
may leave in eight months to attend the graduate school that accepted her? Is
anything wrong with L.M. accepting a new job knowing she's a finalist for a job
she'd take in a minute if it were offered?
In E.C.'s case, she hasn't yet decided if she will accept
the graduate school offer. If the job offer is for a job she believes she'd
like to do, she has no reason not to accept it. But even if she decides down
the road to go to graduate school, giving any company eight months of hard work
before moving on is not wrong. Even if she doesn't go to graduate school in
eight months, she might be offered something else someplace else. That too would
be OK to consider. While jumping around too frequently might raise concerns in
some future prospective employers about E.C., if she's willing to take that
risk, then that's her decision to make.
L.M.'s case strikes me as clear. She cannot be expected
to put her life on hold as a lengthy search process unfolds. Turning down any
good opportunity on the chance that she might be offered her dream job would be
foolish. If she's offered the dream job shortly after having accepted a
position, then she might find it awkward to give notice after only a few
months. But awkwardness here doesn't equal unethical behavior.
Each reader might be concerned about doing right by
whoever their employer happens to be at the time. The right thing is to be
concerned, work hard not to deceive their employers, but ultimately to do
what's right for them. Their employers are hardly likely to do something for
either of these employees if it would harm the best interests of the company.
As long as they are honest and do good work wherever they happen to be
employed, neither employee should be expected to ignore their own long-term
best interests.
Jeffrey L. Seglin, author of The Simple Art of Business Etiquette: How to Rise to the Top by Playing Nice, is a lecturer in public policy and director of the communications program atHarvard's Kennedy School. He is also the administrator of www.jeffreyseglin.com, a blog focused on ethical issues.
Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net.
Follow him on Twitter: @jseglin
(c) 2015 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.
2 comments:
Jeff, let us define the new job. If the new job requires no to minimal training (shoveling sand as an example), why not take it. Each is a warm body filling a need.
I am surmising it is not and training is needed. So each person is wasting the time and money of the company and putting the new co workers at a disadvantage because in a few months they are short handed again. A real employee who wants to stay may be passed over and the organization becomes a stronger place. A long term temp who just is in it for a few month is a drag.
A person who cares about only him or herself will do it for the few dollars and what is the real advantage?
The right thing is to determine the true desire and shoot for it. Not switching to anything that gives a little extra at the expense of everyone else involved.
Alan Owseichik
Greenfield, Ma.
Regardless of the end game, it is never permissible to "momentarily take a job" such as described in this example. These kinds of shenanigens, no matter how desirable, always come back to bite you in the behind. In dealings with changing jobs, it is always imcumbent on the person to play the game fairly from all quarters.
Charlie Seng
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