Is it OK to Hire People from Your Friend’s Company? (2011)

While my hearth fights the need of shouting "stop behaving like a whiny bitch about the company relationships", then you realize that companies in US are equal to peoples.

And that, as John Stewart was pointing out recently, maybe sometimes they also pretends to have religious rights.

So I am not surprised that something like hires get taken as betrayals.

However, if logic had to enter this equation somehow, we should realize the purpose of a business is business. So, if an employee is an asset you should treat him as such, and let him go.

And if you or your friend CEO get emotionally attached to an employee, you have larger issues. One, maybe, is a narcissistic disorder.

This seems counterproductive. Executives should recuse themselves when emotionally compromised. A bona fide independent decision should calm a rational friend.

Business relationships are more complicated. An employee of your largest customer, for example. Good protocol works most of the time. Commercial reason and the law fill the gaps.

My 2 cents is this isn't that black and white, but it's very delicate. The only way it works is if the employee in question approaches their current boss first, saying, "Here is why I think it's time to move one. I would like to approach company Y. Can I have your blessing?" This gives their boss a chance to either fix the situation, or encourage the move. You can give a wink and nod that the interview would go well (you would never do this without confidence based on work experience that you'd hire them) but you can't formally start the process before this happens.

Edit: It's not actually very relevant to this discussion but to the extent that it is, the fact that California does NOT have such a law means that workers have more rights than states that do.