You own a large company that sells a specialty product only a dozen other companies have the capability to produce, let’s say booster rockets. Your employees have very specific skill sets and are paid handsomely for what they do. You hired a new engineer a few years back and he blossomed into one of the best engineers in the business, he did so well in fact that you let one of your favorite engineers go and gave the new engineer an enormous raise, you just couldn’t keep them both.

A few years go by and the new engineer starts slacking, he can’t keep up with new technology and isn’t willing to put in the work to get better. He’s under contract so you decide to stick with him hoping he’ll come along. Then you start hearing about complaints he has with your number one client, he thinks the your customer doesn’t hire enough minorities and is racist, this is your best client. He’s becoming a cancer in your business and starting to influence the other employees so you let him go when his contract is up.

Years of training and developing him gone to waste. It’s crushed your business and it’s going to take another five to ten years to rebuild. You’re amazed when your competitors start calling for references on your old employee, they’ve all seen the damage he did to your company yet they want to hear it from you since you know him best. Whether or not you give him a good reference is inconsequential, the damage he did with his baseless complaints against your best client is being felt industry wide.

Nobody will hire your former engineer, they don’t want anything to do with someone who obviously has an axe to grind and they don’t want their business to suffer because some one hit wonder boy feels aggrieved. As his former employer you can’t blame them, it’s smart business, you only wish you hadn’t hired him in the first place.

Now your former engineer is suing not only you but your competitors for unfair hiring practices through his union.

In that context is it fair?

 

If he was an NFL quarterback would that change your mind?

It shouldn’t, it’s the same thing.