To expect recruitment agency not to discuss my contact with them with my current employer!

[calidadsuprema]

I have been registered with a recruitment agency for a number of years and from time to time over the last few years they have been in touch to offer me roles and I have had coffee a couple of times with one of the consultants just to keep in touch. I declined any roles they offered but have kept in touch.

I was approached the consultant a couple of months recently to apply for a job which I was quite interested in. Its a very small sector and my line manager is close friends with a senior manager in the new company so I let my line manager know I had been asked about applying for the new role (out of professional courtesy).

I applied for the new role and after an extensive interview process, I was offered the job. After consideration, I declined and decided to stay in my current role. My line manager knew I was being interviewed and that I was offered the job.

Line manager was annoyed that agency approached me as our company are also a client of the agency (ie we use temp staff from them). Line manager made a formal complaint to agency about trying to poach me.

My line manager today forwarded me emails from the agency to my line manager giving detailed information about my contact with them over the last 6 months - agency trying to show I have been actively looking for new employment rather than them headhunting. I am livid that agency has disclosed information about my contact with them to my line manager. Sure this is a breach of confidentiality between agency and me?

Do you have a copy of your agreements with the agency, terms and conditions you would have agreed to when you registered?

Yes, I'd be very angry too, certainly if any correspondence has been detailed. I would say it was a breech of confidentiality although I don't have any real knowledge about the legislation around this.
I suppose the agency will have just weighed up which client was more valuable to them and decided it is your employer not you and that it was worth risking losing you to keep your employer. I'm not sure how much could be done other thank not using them again.

I've given up on expecting ethics from recruitment companies.

We used to have an exclusive contract with one of them whereby they were given all of our recruitment but in return were forbidden from contacting any staff placed with a view to headhunting them for a period of 2 years. Why would I pay thousands for them to place someone to then have them contact those self same staff in 6 months and offer them a position somewhere else and earn a nice healthy commission for doing sweet FA ?

So in those circumstances, yes I would have complained to the recruitment agency but I wouldn't have expected them to provide that level of information and a simply denial would have sufficed. So no, I don't think you are being unreasonable.

The agency did not place me in my current job. The consultant will doubtless be annoyed I turned down the new role and is looking to cover their own backside in terms of contacting me. I have kept in touch with them over the years as you never know when a dream job might come up but I am devastated that they can disclose details of my contact with them such as ..
"Cali emailed us on XXX date...". My line manager is the sort that forgives when one is headhunted but not if one appears to be actively looking elsewhere...I am beyond furious with the agency.

But why should the agency be accused of poaching you when they didn't? You were registered with them and the agency were about to get into trouble and possibly lose a client through no fault of their own?

But you told your line manager. And they were then potentially going to cut off business with the agency for poaching you. I don't think they really had any option but to prove this wasn't the case. If you told the manager anyway I don't really see why you are upset.

The agency should have checked with the OP that she was ok to have them clarify the position. If the agency didn't place her then the employer had no real right to complain.

Poaching is an issue but only if the agency placed the employee originally and you have a contract that they refrain from doing so.

So yes, the agency let you down by their disclosure but so did your line manager by contacting them.

Sauce I was registered with them years ago - they only got an updated copy of my cv when they approached me about the recent job. I kept my line manager informed about this due to to their friendship with senior manager in the new company.

I am concerned that agency sending confidential details about me. I could have said nothing about the new job bit felt honesty was the best policy. Looks like I was wrong.

What will your manager do op? I don't think that there is much she can do is there?

It's unfortunate but the agency were left with little choice as your boss was accusing them of poaching you.

They called you about a role they thought would be right for you. It was and you were offered the role which you declined. So you were their legitimate candidate.

The only person at fault here is your boss. He has no right to tell people how / when they can job hunt. It's not bloody North Korea.

You have every right to hear about suitable roles, go for interview and further your career.

Unless the agency promised your boss they would never contact someone from your work place then they did nothing wrong either.

WTAF? That's a huge breach of confidence. I would be reporting them to - I don't know who. Information Commissioner, quite possibly.

Not sure about the legalities of this but if your employer has accused the agency of trying to poach you when you had actually approached them then they are just defending themselves.

I would be very surprised if there isn't a clause in their T&C's that means they can do this.

I know someone who had to give an employers reference with their application and then didn't even get an interview for the actual job, so discretion is not at the top of the employment agency's list.

Yes I agree the agency should not have had to send private emails just an honest explanation would have sufficed. You were their candidate and they did not place you so really the hands off agreement does not apply. Your boss is acting rather high handed IMO
I am guessing he is hoping that you aren't proactively looking perhaps some reassurance if that is the case.

I'm going to assume here that you contacted them via a personal email account. If so, then in forwarding your email address they've broken data protection. I appreciate their need to show they weren't poaching but that doesn't make them above the law, so if that is the case then I'd be making a very serious complaint on data protection grounds - not least the principle that the data protection act requires that data is not used in any way that may cause damage or distress.

There could be a data protection issue so you could try contacting REC to find out about that? I'm not sure they can forward private correspondence though not sure emails are considered private missives.

However you did let your line manager know so the issue is with them contacting you. You could say to your manager that you were not an "active" candidate and that you were effectively head hunted for this role. As the field you work in so small it would be crazy of you not to explore options. As it turned out you are very happy where you are and did not see how you did anything wrong.

If I were your line manager I would be upping your money to keep an obviously strong employee who my competitors wanted. I would also be agreeing preferential agreement with the agency to ensure they didn't send best candidates to competitors but to my company.

You have done nothing wrong. You are allowed to be registered with whoever you want. The agency had a formal complaint made against them so were trying to prove their innocence. They had done nothing wrong either.

Is there any way you can accept this job? Your line manager sounds like a bully.

I had a similar situation years ago. Agency I got my current job with used to contact me every now and then about jobs. I declined as I wasn't interested. Then my manager started to recruit for dept, agency contacted me to ask if I was interested in them putting my CV forward (they clearly forgot they got me my current job and I couldn't apply for this job in my own department. I didn't reply to the letter I received, but they sent my CV to my own fucking boss! I was luckily informed of this by his deputy who believed me that I wasn't looking for another job and made sure my boss knew. I kicked up the biggest shitstorm with the agency and I heard years later that this tale of monumental fuckwittery is still talked about in hushed tones

buncha similar thing happened to me! I wonder if it was the same company? In my case, the agency contacted me via my personal email & also a separate message (from a different consultant) on Linkedin.
The irony was, in the time since they had got me this job (2yrs previous), they had never contacted me. The first time was for jobs going in my own department!
Upshot was, they lost the exclusive contract with my company for this & a number of other stuff ups!

This sounds like a rather straightforward breach of data protection legislation.
Unless you have given the agency permission to share you information with others, they cannot do so.

Your beef here is with your manager tbh, especially if the agency didn't place you in your current job. As a pp said, it's not North Korea - people use contacts to get jobs all the time. And you have been a little bit misleading saying you were headhunted. And of course, they'll make mo money continuing to place at your firm than the will from one fee for placing you.

That said, they shouldn't have passed on personal details. I think a strongly worded letter to head office is in order, but you should also clear the air with your bonkers boss.

I hope work today was OK and that your boss was reasonable. You have done nothing wrong and your loyalty and skills should be recognised. They should be pleased you didn't go to a competitor FGS!!

Clear DP breach. Wankers. Cut contact and encourage your employer to too if you can. Then report them.

How did your line manager know the agency represented you? Sounds like you tried to put an "I was approached" spin on your " under the radar" job hunting. That's the only reason to be so upset!

Ps your line manager sounds a twat