Ethics of hiring

[geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA]

 Candace Bamber wondered about the ethics of not alerting a
 potential new hire to problems at the company. Candace, I
 think the ethical answer to your question is clear: you owe
 it to the new hire to give them the unadorned truth about
 the new job. As usual, the simplest test of how ethical
 something is would be to ask how you'd feel if you were in
 the same situation. Personally, I know I'd surely want to
 hear the bad news so I could jump with both eyes open, and
 for that reason, I'd offer the warning to any new employee.
 I've only been employed in one situation where this
 applied, and found myself in the position of warning my
 potential new boss about the mess she was about to walk
 into. She appreciated the warning, but took the job anyway.
 (This isn't a flame or an attempt to sound morally superior
 to you, by the way, so please don't take it that way.)

 As you noted, there's another ethical angle to this: your
 responsibility to your employer. If you end up hiring
 someone who stays only long enough to see how bad the
 situation is, and then leaves, your employer must start the
 job search over again, and that's no good for them or you.
 Finally, if they get enough "I'd love to work for you but
 your employees warned me not to" messages, maybe things
 will begin to change at your employer.

 --Geoff Hart     @8^{)}     geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
 Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.

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