Employee Ethics

Shaun Carollo

Shaun Carollo

Slave to Swirls
Here's the deal; I have tought myself everything I know, well, you guys did, but I have no way in knowing how good my technique is aside from what you guys do on your details. So I search around for a really nice shop to work at to further my career/hobby and found one about 15 minutes from my shop.

I set up an interview and got hired. Here is my dilemna,(sp?) I operate my own thing (2-3 cars per week if that) but I really want to work here so I can learn what they do and cross check mine to see if I can improve my process. I also want to make some extra money while still doing my own thing. I have been landing more customers on the phone by saying how I also work at ___ full time.

Should I tell my boss? What would you do?

Thanks,
Shaun
 
I don't think your boss would mind, so long as you're not doing it the other way around, as in mentioning to his prospective customers that you could do their car on the side for less or something like that. That would be bad... er, unethical.
 
I may be readin this wrong but I would stop what you are doing immediately. What you are doing is considerd stealing. And Could/Would be fired if caught. I have fired sevral people for doing this. What i would do is go to your boss And explain the situation.
 
Tell your boss. Be honest just as in your post... well, maybe leave out the part about getting work by using his name! There can't be a conflict of interest if he knows what's going on, as long as you do the side-gigs on your own time.
 
If you're redirecting his customers to your own business, that's a problem. But if I understand correctly, that is not the case. Then, so long as you didn't sign a non-compete agreement, you're doing nothing wrong. What you do on your own time is your business (no pun intended).

Of course, you can be fired for it. You can be fired at any time for any reason or for no reason at all. Your boss doesn't need a reason to fire you, so why give him one.

If I were in your shoes I'd keep my mouth shut, at least until you establish a good working relationship with your boss. Then you can better judge how he is likely to react. I wouldn't use his business name, because it will sooner or later get back to him. You can share your news with him later, if you want to.

In the mean time, be punctual, make his customers happy, and take the opportunity to learn all you can. My .02
 
unless your boss looks through rose colored glasses, he knows that side work from his employees exists. if you are telling people that call for an appointment hat you can do it cheaper on the side and give your number, that is wrong. i don't feel you are doing anyhting wrong by telling people where you work, because if they are happy that actually reflects goods on the company. i have never approached a customer and told them i can do work cheaper at home ,but several have asked me. i turned them down unless they were really good friends through work. as long as you are not taking work away from your boss, you show up on time, do good work, and treat customers right. i don't think you have done anything wrong. i wouldn't mention it. after your shift is done, you are on your own time.
 
maximv1 said:
unless your boss looks through rose colored glasses, he knows that side work from his employees exists. if you are telling people that call for an appointment hat you can do it cheaper on the side and give your number, that is wrong. i don't feel you are doing anyhting wrong by telling people where you work, because if they are happy that actually reflects goods on the company. i have never approached a customer and told them i can do work cheaper at home ,but several have asked me. i turned them down unless they were really good friends through work. as long as you are not taking work away from your boss, you show up on time, do good work, and treat customers right. i don't think you have done anything wrong. i wouldn't mention it. after your shift is done, you are on your own time.
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This is how I feel too. If you tell customers at work you can do it cheaper..not cool. If you tell your customers you work at place X, no harm.
 
If you didn't sign a non-compete than you're fine. As long as you're not direstly siphoning business away from your employer it's cool. My friend works at a local dealership and they let him use their garage for details that he does away from work. They figure that he's a good detailer and him cranking out good looking details from their shop on his free time gives the impression that their staff does high quality work and enjoys what they do.
 
I have never stolen one of his customers by any means at all. I would never think of doing that. And in my initial post I said it was 15 min from my "shop," well, my shop is more like my parents garage/the back of my car.

Thanks for all your responses everybody.

-Shaun
 
Yeah, you are cool at what you are doing man. I remember when I worked for an architect a few years ago it was a small firm, only like 8 employees and we only did commercial buildings. Well, the boss said he could not stop us from doing houses and additions on the side but did not really like it. I was like W.T.F.? We don't even do residential in the office so why should he care at all? He was a drunk anyway. LOL Doing those side jobs was good income on the side!
 
tubafeak said:
If you didn't sign a non-compete than you're fine.
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Just for clarification (sorry tubafeak, not trying to single you out), but this is not a situation for a non-compete... at least most of them. Non-competes take effect once an employee leaves the company, as an effort to protect company assets and/or intellectual property. I have every one of my DJ's on a 6-month non-compete, and the more popular are on 12-month non-competes. Basically it means if the leave my stations, for whatever reason, they cannot work at another radio station with 100 mile radius for the defined time... I don't want them taking listeners with them when they go!

It looks like the majority of responses are leaning towards the 'its OK" side, but as a boss I will tell you this... if an employee of mine started a side-gig that could potentially be a conflict with his primary job, no matter how big or small that conflict might be -- and the employee was not honest with me in disclosing this when they started the business -- I would have grounds to immediatly fire them. It would take some really strong reasons to keep that from happening. Very few people are irreplaceable anymore.
 
Very few employers really approve of Moonlighting in any field. They may not say or do anything, but most don't like it.
I think doing it "on the sly" is likely to cause even more hard feelings.
It's a tough call since he might tell you to stop if you tell him about it.
Put yourself in his position and think how you would feel about it if you had an employee doing what you are doing.
Since your title does read "Ethics", I think I would consider it unethical.:)
I wouldn't do it, but that's possibly just me.

Charles
 
I would keep your side work 100% seperate from his shop and your job. Dont mention it to anyone, including customers.

If you have a burred line in the sand, then you need to disclose what you do immediatly, and just tell him, you wanted some pro experience, see what happens.

If you are lucky enough to be working at a place like Anthony A's, or Superior Shine's, then man.....dont mess it up whatever you do.
 
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