Why involving lawyers first doesn’t work

June 28, 2007 · Filed Under Adventures in (Mis)Management 

Jobster/Rdc and RecruitingBlogs.com have mended ways and that’s good for both of them. You know what would have been better? If JG & JD had worked this out without the need for a threatening letter from an attorney. JG wished that this had stayed a private matter. Well, he should have also wished that he had never sent a threatening letter but that would admit that he actually had some hand in this “mini circus.” Lawyers bring out the worst in people, it throws up a defense mechanism, and it usually throws up barriers to coming to a (less expensive) resolution. That’s why threatening lawyer letters make good press because you essentially have little left to lose if they are going to take you (the little guy) to court or shut you down.

In my line of work, involving lawyers is the last step, not the first. They should have reversed this process with JG talking with JD openly about how he felt he was violating his non-compete and that he was hurting Jobster. In a week or so, if things didn’t go well, it would have at least looked a bit better and they could have had a press release prepared if JD went public. If JG could blog and say “Yeah, I called personally and tried to work it out. I gave him some time to resolve it. It didn’t work out.” Of course, best case scenario (and probably most likely) is that they resolve it before mini circus stage and Jobster gets no bad publicity and gets more visibility into RecruitingBlogs.com.

I imagine some will accuse me of Monday morning quarterbacking this whole and they might be right if this hadn’t played out in the media so often. No less than two weeks ago did Angelina Jolie send the press into circus mode over a hasty letter from her attorneys. And guess what, since Fox had nothing to lose (they had already been barred from interviewing her), they made a big fracas of it and the media as a whole picked it up. Sound familiar?

Check out HRM Today for the latest in the HR blogosphere.

Comments

One Response to “Why involving lawyers first doesn’t work”

  1. Mike on August 5th, 2007 8:35 am

    It’s very beautifully.

    [Reply]

Leave a Reply




  • About

    Your HR Guy is a Human Resources Generalist practicing in the field. But don't let that fool you, this isn't a boring blog. I seek relevance and humor in a place we will spend much of our lives. Everything from workplace issues, job seeking and terrible bosses. Read more...

    View Lance Haun [lancehaun@gmail.com]'s profile on LinkedIn



    Featured on:




    Rate this Blog at Blogged

    Alltop, confirmation that I kick ass

  • RSS HRM Today

    • SHRM, Kennedy, & Blowing Up Human Resources
      When you believe in destroying the traditional model of Human Resources — much like I do — you run into major obstacles. The biggest obstacle in my life is also the biggest elephant in the room: it’s The Society for Human Resources Management. SHRM is the most influential Human Resouces association in America. It’s staffed with [...]
      Laurie Ruettimann
    • Stand up for Tolerance: 10th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance
      Today is the 10th Annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, dedicated to all those transgender folks who died as a result of anti-transgender violence. Thankfully, I have never lost a loved one to such an act of violence; but, I would never forgive myself if I had not spoken up and taken a stand on [...]
      Totally Consumed
    • The Best Piece of Advice
      I’m a bit reflective today because I’m formulating my Zig Ziglar inspired Wall of Gratitude (to be blogged later this weekend…stay tuned).  It has me thinking about all of the pivotal moments and life-changing people I’ve experienced in my short professional career. I presented the topic of MBTI preferences and Team Building to a group of [...]
      speakingofmbti
    • 10 Solutions To Our Ailing Economy
      Yes, I am going to nag about the economy again.  My economist friend in Oregon agreed with my posting yesterday.  He told me that there is only one Fortune 500 company left in Oregon (Nike); the rest put on their Nike’s and ran as fast they could away from this unfriendly-to-business state.  The same happened to Silicon [...]
      rulrici
    • Develop Your Strengths or Fix Your Weaknesses?
      Gary Vaynerchuk, blogger and creator of Wine Library TV, had a fantastic (and short) video on his personal blog yesterday titled “I suck!” Gary spends the first 60 seconds rattling off a list of things he’s horrible at, and then begins to explain how instead of dwelling on what he’s bad at, he’s instead chosen to [...]
      Chris Ferdinandi
    • Tip of the Week – Test Candidate Matching
      It’s Friday afternoon, and you just posted a position with your applicant tracking system (ATS). The position has been placed on your website, job boards and the other usual sources. When you come to work on Monday, you realize that you have had over 200 candidates apply for the position. Sound familiar? Well it doesn’t necessary [...]
      Jake Stupak
    • Fiddling While Rome Burns
      “Rome” is burning.  The “Rome” I am talking about is the private sector of the U.S. economy.  Last month, the only job sector that grew was government jobs.  I get this feeling that we are pulling a “Nero” watching this thing happen and are hopelessly standing by not doing anything about it.  I read HR Blogs, including [...]
      rulrici
    • Building Community in a Face-to-Faceless World
      Note from Lance: I asked my former employer to do a guest post about some of the cool things they are doing with some of the interesting challenges they face. Today’s author is Kristen Leal who manages QualitySmith’s PR and Talent Strategy. Thanks! I was filling up my water bottle one day at work when I [...]
      Lance Haun
    • Can HR REALLY be a Profit Center?
      In recent discussions I have heard two schools of thought regarding how HR can be viewed as a profit center: 1) By reducing costs such as absenteeism, turnover, and bad hires, HR can add more to the bottom line 2) HR can add value to the organization by increasing revenue I believe we are getting pretty good at [...]
      Cathy Martin
    • Communicating with emotional impact
      Here’s an easy way to add instant punch to your written and verbal communications. It doesn’t matter how good or bad a writer you think you are… you can do this: Communicate as if you were the recipient of the communication. Forget your role as transmitter. No one cares that you “have the floor;” people only care [...]
      JasonSeiden

  • RSS Background Check News