Seagate sued for 'fraudulently hiring engineer' Seagate is being sued for $2.7m by a laid-off engineer for allegedly inducing him to take a job that didn't exist. As reported in the St Paul's Pioneer Press, Chandramouli Vaidyanathan was hired by Seagate in February 2008 to move from a senior yield engineering job at Texas Instruments to join Seagate's Advanced Technology …
But permanent work is different to contracting -- you generally get paid less but, in doing so, are supposed to have a contract of employment and certain rights. It seems this guy was treated like a contractor when he was a permanent employee -- and possibly even induced to sign a fraudulent contract.
As for burning bridges -- simply leaving many companies will do that, at least to a degree, if you are a permanent member of staff. Again, this differs from contractors who are expected to "chase the money" a little since they're not expected to be loyal employees.
I don't know about contract laws in Blighty, but if your representation is correct, the difference from US laws would be that in Blighty you gain some rights after two years. Most permanent employment in the US is at will, mostly your employers will.
Rules will vary from State to State, hence the specific reference to Minnesota where the laws there likely is a case.
Companies need to realise they're messing with people's lives when they employ them. It's long past time that they fixed their casual attitude towards staff (such as calling them "resources", for example) and start acting as they would with any other business partner that they entered into a contractual arrangement with.
We're always being told to tell the truth on CVs - that lies will be found out (riiiight) and we could get sacked for misrepresenting ourselves or our qualifications. However, when was the last time that the "exciting position with huge potential for advancement" turned out to be anything more than the same old sh... in a different building?
He wasn't worth having as an employee in the first place. I have found this to be universally true through several recessions.
Really, you can piss and moan and sue your way through life - and a lot of people do - or you can network with other talented people during the good times, and throw lifelines to each other during the bad times.
If you're not in such a network, then take a hard look in the mirror and ask yourself why.
I happen to know of a Cambridge graduate, 15 years in the industry, several patents to his name, lots of published work, big network of contacts he'd built up over the years, and he's been struggling to find work for a few months now.
It's true that those who are more talented and connected find getting a new job easier, but it's certainly not true that it *guarantees* you'll get a job in short order.
I've found 'networking' (and I refer to the non technical form) to be mainly about what people can get from each other for nothing. There are of course exceptions but it has been my experience that people will take your help and advice (for free) and give very little or nothing in return when you need help. Those job prospects talked about in hushed voices rarely turn out to be more than hot air.
Where you get another company to offer one of your staff a job so that they leave without you having to dismiss them with all their redundancy pay and other legal entitlements etc and then the other company lets you go asap?
Its like constructive dismissal for the lazy.
Wish the banks would practice it a bit with directorships... oh hang on.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2025
