

Ask HN: Recruiter Blackmail - myth

I was working with a recruiter while looking for a new position. He pulled a bait and switch on me where he pitched one job to me and then scheduled a phone interview with another. After that, I told him I would no longer work with him.<p>After all of this, he pitched my resume to my current employer, I&#x27;m guessing to get me fired or tarnish my reputation. Do I have any legal recourse? What should my next actions be?
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gdubs
Yikes, what a jerk.

Really, there's nothing immoral about speaking to recruiters when you're
employed. It's within your rights to know what's out there, and what your
current worth is.

That said, I'm not a lawyer, but if you lose your job over this (and I don't
think a reasonable employer should fire you over it), it wouldn't hurt to
speak with one. The recruiter would have a hard time explaining his motives
for pitching you to your current employer, other than incompetence or
maliciousness.

~~~
tptacek
His motives seem obviously to be malign, but what's the theory under which
he's liable for damages?

~~~
patio11
If I say "tortious interference" is that adequately specific?

~~~
dctoedt
If the OP doesn't get fired, it might be tough for him (her?) to prove that he
suffered any damages, a _sine qua non_ of that kind of claim. [1]

[1] E.g.,
[http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/intentional_interference_with...](http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/intentional_interference_with_contractual_relations)

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JSeymourATL
The behavior described was either unethical or (more likely) incompetent,
either way he sounds like a Bad Actor.

> What should my next actions be?

Send a cease & desist letter. If he's with an agency, address it the owner &
principals. Given how important reputations are in the recruiting business,
his boss should be informed.

Here's a good read, with ideas for scripting your letter>
[http://corcodilos.com/blog/317/let-the-resume-wars-
begin](http://corcodilos.com/blog/317/let-the-resume-wars-begin)

~~~
myth
I even doubt incompetence. If he has my resume with my current job listed on
it and pitches to that exact same job, it's purposeful and malicious.

~~~
vorg
The difference between incompetent and malicious is a sliding scale, not two
discrete slots. If a recruiter isn't checking resumes properly before sending
them out, he's already maliciously decided that quantity sent out is more
important than doing quality work. I'd even say his decision to become a
recruiter in the first place is malicious, the recruiting industry's very
existence being based on hiding information, poaching workers from unfinished
jobs, and legal trickery.

~~~
JSeymourATL
>vorg: That's a fascinating view of recruiting albeit myopic. A recruiters
role is NOT to shanghai people or break up a happy home. Given the
confidential and highly personal nature of the business, a certain degree of
trust and transparency is always required.

------
schmidtc
If this guy works for a firm it would be worth notifying them. A good firm
will want to protect it's brand.

~~~
myth
I'd like to but they don't really have the right people to contact on their
site. I also figured I should break off contact in the case that I speak with
a lawyer. From what I've learned in the past, the next person to contact them
should be a lawyer.

~~~
dctoedt
> _they don 't really have the right people to contact on their site._

In situations like that, I usually send it by certified mail, return receipt
requested, with an address like this:

    
    
      XYZ Corporation
      ATTENTION:  LEGAL DEPARTMENT
      [street address, etc.]
    

The "Attention: Legal Department" part, plus the certified mail, will normally
get the attention of the mailroom people, who presumably will route the letter
to where it needs to go.

Pro tip: Get a certified-mail card from the post office before you put the
letter in the envelope. Write or print out the certified-mail serial number
(from the card) on the letter itself. Keep a photocopy of the letter, with the
certified-mail number on it, in your files. That way, you'll have evidence
that you sent _that_ letter with _that_ certified-mail card.

(Long ago at a motion hearing, an opposing counsel told a judge that he never
got a certain letter from a colleague of mine, for whom I was filling in at
the hearing. The opposing counsel said, "Your Honor, my secretary signed the
card, but it must have been for some other communication, because I never got
this letter." My colleague hadn't put the certified-mail number on the letter,
so I had no proof otherwise; the judge gave the opposing counsel the benefit
of the doubt. A couple of years after that, the opposing counsel was
disbarred, for something unrelated.)

------
EnderMB
The latter has happened to me before, except I've never used a recruiter in my
life. The recruiter had copied my LinkedIn profile into a Word document and
had sent it to loads of companies, including my current employer.

Nothing really came from it. That company had a bad view of recruiters from
the start, so they laughed it off as another incompetent recruiter.

In your case, you could try asking the recruiter why he did this. A response
will let you know whether you are dealing with a malicious recruiter or a
incompetent recruiter. Either way, reporting him to his boss would be the best
course of action afterwards.

------
adamkochanowicz
You could start by posting his full name here.

~~~
Spoom
Don't do that, you'll prejudice a potential future lawsuit.

~~~
gregcohn
out of curiosity, why?

~~~
vellum
The firm might settle if they don't want this published on the internet. In
that case, they'd ask for a confidentiality agreement. If OP publishes their
name, then he loses that leverage.

~~~
gregcohn
haha yes. of course the bastards would do this and then demand
confidentiality. i guess it depends, then, on whether the OP would get greater
satisfaction from publishing or from settling.

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tomiko_nakamura
IANAL, but it really depends on what you want to achieve.

Posting his name on the internet is not going to give you anything. Given that
you have no reliable proof it was an intent and not a mistake, it may cause
all sorts of legal issues for you (like getting sued for libel, for example).

You may either let it go, or contact the company the recruiter works for (the
way "dctoedt" described), stating that you (1) consider the recruiter's steps
incompetent, unprofessional, and possibly done on purpose, and (2) the company
is not going to do any more business with them (assuming the company decides
that way).

Also, contacting the lawyer is not a bad idea (either let him check the letter
or write it from scratch). If you have a legal department, they may take care
of that.

------
mschuster91
Does your current employer know you want to leave?

How valuable are you to your employer? Is it possible to negotiate better
terms (higher salary, better insurance, ...)? Some employers may go this route
if they see a high-value employee in danger of being poached.

~~~
myth
I told my employer I was planning on leaving, then changed my mind. Both my
employer and I are happy with my work. I was seeing what else is out there.
This definitely feels like malicious intent.

------
andrewdubinsky
Let it go.

He's not going to last long in the recruiting business pulling stunts like
that. Those guys get most of their candidates from personal referrals & their
clients from people like your employer. Both of those bridges are burned.

~~~
vijayr
I agree. Where I work, they keep a blacklist of companies/recruiters. They
will never ever talk to those in the blacklist. This list was built over a
period of time by people who worked at different places. So it is fairly
long/comprehensive.

------
S4M
You say that it's a malicious intent. Are you sure about this? I remember a
recruiter once pitched me for a role in a company I did an internship
previously - this was when I was student and started to look for my first job.
It's possible that he saw that you were an _X_ with _n_ years of experience
and sent it to your current company since they were looking for the same
profile.

You mention that your current employer knows that you are looking, and that
you are not worried about losing your job. In that case I'd just discard him
as a crappy headhunter and move on.

~~~
myth
I told him at the end of last week that I didn't like the bait and switch he
pulled on me and that I would not work with him again. I didn't take the call
he set me up on. He said how he had to repair damage with the client he was
courting with my resume.

He kept trying to pitch opportunities Monday to which I didn't respond.

He sent an email to my boss with my resume yesterday.

It's entirely too convenient to be stupidity.

EDIT: I just found out from my boss that there was no prior back and forth
between the recruiter and him when the recruiter sent him my resume. My boss
didn't respond to emails or calls. The recruiter just sent him my resume.

~~~
S4M
OK, that headhunter is a scum. But there is no damage from your side. I don't
know if you can sue him or not, but if you can there's little to gain from it,
so the best would be to just ignore him.

