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pastafarian
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« on: April 23, 2009, 08:26:43 AM » |
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We had a search this year, which unsurprisingly took a lot of our collective time, and much conciliation with the Dean. We offered the position, it was accepted, and our new colleague signed onboard.
Now s/he has contacted us, in an email that has left us all fuming. Home institution has, apparently, counteroffered and they "never expected this to happen!" (The whole mail is a mix of this smug/breathless style.) In a nutshell, s/he is reneging on us.
In the context of a bad year anyway, this news leaves me fuming. Do people have no ethics in these situations? I know our profession rewards disloyalty, but this is a bit much. Are we just supposed to pass along best wishes and tacitly condone such bad behavior? Is this kind of poor form more common than I realized?
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shrek
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« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2009, 08:31:01 AM » |
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Happens all the time.
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grasshopper
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« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2009, 08:32:52 AM » |
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Oh, that sucks.
You should have hired me.
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mouseman
Oh dear, how did I become a
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 7,103
The Validater/Validator-in-Chief
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« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2009, 08:50:43 AM » |
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If you rejected me, you totally deserved it.
If not, I agree with Grassy, that sucks big time.
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In the midst of the word he was trying to say,
In the midst of his laughter and glee,
He had softly and suddenly vanished away -- -
For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.
Lewis Carroll
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hibiscus
Junior member
Posts: 57
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« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2009, 09:05:46 AM » |
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Pasta: it's been a while since I've been on the hiring side although I do remember well the labor of plotting and grooming to poach and retain certain talent. However, now that I am firmly on the other side, fighting for crumbs, I am inadvertantly smirking at your indignant plaint. Sorry. Sure it sucks, but I can't also help but dwell upon the supreme delight of the renegee (?). What I would not do to pursue the wicked pleasure of a reneg with a certain organization! Remains a favorite fantasy. And 'you' of course is used only symbolically :-)
Grassy and Mouse: LOL!
~ Hibiscus
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sibyl
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« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2009, 09:06:07 AM » |
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Yes, it is terrible. The fact that many institutions treat many candidates just as terribly doesn't make this any less terrible.
You are certainly entitled to vent. You may or may not decide to resolve never to consider her again if she shows up as a candidate for a job or a scholarly panel or an article. Then you need to get back on the phone and hire one of your other candidates for the job. Although you committed a lot of emotional energy to your top choice, you know very well that most of the other candidates will also do a good job, if perhaps a slightly different one.
I don't, however, think that this is a breach of ethics. She has an obligation to give you prompt notice, but the candidate's responsibility to herself necessarily trumps her responsibility to your institution.
Good luck.
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"I do not pretend to set people right, but I do see that they are often wrong." -- Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
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mozman
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« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2009, 09:06:24 AM » |
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Universities pull offered positions all the time in the name of "Financial Exigencies". It sounds like your candidate had a financial exigency of their own.
Since candidates (and employees) have no guarantee of loyalty from their institutions, why should they have any loyalty of their own? In these days of tenure revocation, pay cuts and canceled positions, how can you hold it against a candidate for holding their own interests as paramount? God knows no one else will do it.
Suck it up. If you really wanted them, you should have counter-counter offered.
mm
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Could you grow the foot into another patient? I mean, you are a scientist.
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inthelab
Where beloved molecules abide
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 4,240
Who knew?
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« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2009, 09:25:35 AM » |
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Sure does happen all the time. Chime with mozman on the coun ter offer.
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inthelab, I love you for that.
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ruralguy
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« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2009, 09:27:34 AM » |
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This is odd, since in my experience, most folks who go to the home institution for a counter offer have no intention of staying under just about any circumstances. This candidate must have really wanted to stay put from the begining.
No one is loyal to anyone, anywhere. I would just wish her luck and forget about it.
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airball
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« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2009, 09:37:08 AM » |
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We know how you feel. Just this year we had a bunch of schools announce searches and then renege on them. The search committees said that they never expected this to happen and that they were sorry. It was just that the financial picture changed.
Do they have no ethics?
Sincerely,
Everyone on the Job Market
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History would kick your ass around the Bodleian Library, and then it would smile and laugh.
-scheherazade
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voxprincipalis
Foxaliciously Cinnamon-Scented (and Most Poetic)
Member-Moderator
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 17,442
Has potentially infinite removable wallets
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« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2009, 10:20:09 AM » |
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We had a search this year, which unsurprisingly took a lot of our collective time, and much conciliation with the Dean. We offered the position, it was accepted, and our new colleague signed onboard.
When you say "signed onboard," do you literally mean she signed a contract? If she signed a contract, she is acting in bad faith. The time to negotiate a counter-offer at her own institution would have been while she had your school's offer in hand but had not yet signed it. VP |
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If you need me, I'll be hiding under a rock until mid-August. Try not to need me, unless you come bearing Chinese food.
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pink_
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« Reply #11 on: April 23, 2009, 10:33:28 AM » |
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We know how you feel. Just this year we had a bunch of schools announce searches and then renege on them. The search committees said that they never expected this to happen and that they were sorry. It was just that the financial picture changed.
Do they have no ethics?
Sincerely,
Everyone on the Job Market
Not even close to a similar situation. |
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Horses don't have seatbelts. Listen to Pink, she's smart.
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kamiakin
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« Reply #12 on: April 23, 2009, 10:40:12 AM » |
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Did you counter? Was there a signed contract?
This is business, not a personal relationship.
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losemygrip
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« Reply #13 on: April 23, 2009, 10:53:36 AM » |
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So Pastafarian, are you going to start a whispering campaign about this individual, blackening his/her reputation in your entire field? Because that's what a lot of people around here claim will happen if you renege. Why don't you just go ahead and post the name right here?
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aristotelian
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« Reply #14 on: April 23, 2009, 10:59:25 AM » |
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That sucks, but isn't it better than hiring someone who will turn out to be disgruntled for the next 6 years? I'd rather find out now than than after investing 6 years in a person.
It may seem unethical from a professionalism point of view, but that does not mean that the person is unethical in any absolute sense. The person may be caught in tension between conflicting ethical imperatives -- obligations not only to professional colleagues but also to family members and so on. It is very understandable why a person might accept a job and then change her mind under different circumstances.
It does sound like the candidate could have done a better job of communicating the decision, however.
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« Last Edit: April 23, 2009, 11:00:21 AM by aristotelian »
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