Company Discovers Employee is Interviewing With Competitor, Tells Competitor to Reject Him, and They Oblige, Even Though They Were Going to Offer Him The Job

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Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Jul 1, 2026 12:30 PM EDT

This guy must be a really good hire if the higher-ups at his company are willing to go to this length to keep him. 

One of the most stressful parts of finding a new job is trying to keep your current workplace from finding out you're looking. It's not always easy to do that, especially if you're dressing up nicely for a day when you're supposed to be going to a "doctor's appointment" in the middle of the workday. It can also be difficult when you're working in a niche industry where everybody knows everybody. If you apply to your company's sister company, or a company with several former employees of your current company, there's a nonzero chance that people at the company you're applying to are going to snitch to your current employer that you're looking for a new job. Why would they do such a thing? Because they want to maintain a relationship with their previous employer, and what better way to do that than to throw someone under the bus for trying to seek an opportunity as they did! 

The manager in this story was shocked to discover that a young, promising employee who was referred to work at their company was rejected because his employer did not want to poach an employee from a competitor, which is just ridiculous.

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  • A young professional having a job interview
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    A model of a young professional interviewing at a competitor of his current company, without the knowledge that the higher-ups at both companies are going to ruin any chance he has of getting the job. 

  • My candidate was rejected because a higher-up at his current company told a higher-up at my company to shut it down.

    I interviewed someone for a low-ish level position that was great and came highly recommended. They work for a direct competitor of my company. HR was taking a suspiciously long time to send
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • the offer and I was finally told the applicant was being rejected despite getting great feedback throughout the process. Someone high up at the interviewee's company found out and reached out to
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • someone high up at my company to shut it down. I was told there's nothing I can do about it and they aren't eligible to apply again now or in the near future. I'm mystified this has happened! And we are not
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • a stressed-out manager in an office building
    via Sebastian Herrmann

    A representation of a stressed-out manager discovering that a higher-up at a competing company made a gentleman's agreement with a higher-up at his company not to hire a promising young candidate after he was directly referred. 

  • to attempt to hire from this company anymore. My industry is small so inevitably, people bounce around between companies. It's difficult to find good people though and 10- 15% of the pool of candidates
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • in the industry were just made ineligible to me. I would understand if this was a high level position but it's for an associate level with 3-5 years of experience. We haven't been. actively poaching from them so
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • I don't know why the competitor felt the need to do it and why my company caved. Back to the drawing board I guess. I was just wondering if any other managers have experienced this?
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • **Edit: I got clarification that it's because they were referred by someone already working here. They're considering that "actively recruiting" and they have internally decided not to actively recruit from this
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • competitor or 1 other competitor.
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • the competitor of this manager's company, holding an all-hands meeting for his employees
    via Austin Distel

    A photo of what could be the office of the competitor of this manager's company, holding an all-hands meeting for its employees

  • Fruit Juicante I once interviewed for a job, 3 rounds including a presentation, got sent an offer. References called. Then told "Someone high up thought your name sounded too ambitious." Called over and over to hear an explanation of what that meant, never got an answer. Ridiculous.
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • LaFlamaBlanca MiM I wasn't even selected for a first round interview recently because I had 14 years of experience for a position that required 8. I hit all the boxes quite well, had a director-level reference inside the company. Said they were "looking for a more entry level person". With 8 years of experience. I'm currently a director and this position was not. The reasons people have for hiring/not hiring baffle me sometimes.
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • Ctrl4ltDelight OP Definitely no non-compete clauses. Not really a thing in this industry. People move around constantly. They have some of our former employees, we have a couple of theirs but very few. None of whom are high level or even in management.
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • I_am_Hambone FYI - This is illegal in a lot of the world.
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • Asgardian_Force_User This is correct. OP: reach out to the candidate from a burner account and let them know what happened. If you can find out the senior leaders at both your company and theirs, give the candidate names. In the less-corrupt portions of the world, that information is very useful for Labor complaints and/or lawsuits.
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • zugzwangister This isn't advice from somebody in leadership. I think what the company did s ks, and that would motivate me to find someplace where I would be proud to work. In the meantime, I wouldn't put my livelihood at risk to do something which might not accomplish anything. Risk too high. Reward too small.
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • Milennial_Crew_6969 Is this some kind of non Compete clause or something? This sounds very questionable.
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight

    The original poster clarified that there is no non-compete clause in place at their company. 

  • Alt123Acct What you described was called Blacklisting and is illegal
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • danaredding My company has been involved in federal lawsuits about stuff like this - it's an anti-trust violation. Agreeing not to recruit from each others companies keeps wages low.
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • Ctrl4ltDelight OP got clarification that it's because they were referred by someone already working here. They're considering that "actively recruiting" and they have internally decided not to actively recruit from this competitor or 1 other competitor.
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight
  • exseus That doesn't even make sense though unless the person referring them only did so because they worked at this other place. More than likely they referred them because they know them and they know they would make a good employee. This is all smoke to make the rejection feel legit, when it is really just two farts making a gentalmans agreement not to take eachothers employees, but at the cost to you and all the other employees. And as others have said, is an illegal practice in the US and ma
    via u/Ctrl4ltDelight

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