Legal for employer to advertise your job before you've left?

[TheGeneral]

So I transferred to a new job with the same company about 6 months ago. Long story short, it hasn't lived up to expectations, a lot of grunt work and not very much of the interesting work that was originally described to me. So I went to my managers with my opinions and told them that I still wanted to do the best work I could for them, but that I wanted to see if I could try to make a graceful transition to another department, or else I'd have to leave altogether. They thought about it but finally said ok, you can look for other positions within our company, since this would give them more continuity than if I just quit altogether.

After that, I started looking around and did some interviews (while still keeping up with my current job) but so far nothing has worked out, it's been about a month. My managers know about my progress in this regard. Then I saw that they recently posted my job as an open position on our company's job board, as well as the big job search engines (monster.com, etc.). Needless to say, this didn't give me a great feeling. Having seen the job posting, another co-worker asked me "so where are you going?" to which I had no reply.

Now, I understand that they need to be able to staff my job when I leave. I didn't mind when they discreetly brought someone in to interview before the job was publicly posted. But is it asking too much for them to wait until I at least have a decent prospect before advertising my job all over the place? They've generally been pretty civil with me throught this, but maybe they're trying to force me to resign by creating a unpleasant work environment? Or am I making too much of this? I know other people have applied for the job and I'm wondering if they find someone they like, are they just going to kick me to the curb one Friday afternoon? I don't think they have cause to fire me, but I am an at-will employee so anything goes?

Honestly, I think I'm going to grad school in July, so I had hoped to stay employed until then, but now I wonder if I can make it that long. I haven't told them about my school plan yet because I wasn't 100% sure, but now it looks pretty likely. Should I just go ahead and tell them 5 months early, or is that going to just put me in an even worse spot to hold onto my job? I was planning on giving them a months notice so as not to burn any bridges, but this seems too early.

 

[bssc]

I don't see why not. At our Megacorp, we have people overlap so the departing person can train the newbie. It sounds like you have at will employment. And they can always argue that they added a second position and then declined to fill yours when you left.

 

[REWahoo]

A friend once called me up to say I needed to look at an ad in the WSJ since the job description looked very familiar. Turns out my company was looking for a replacement for me, and I had no plans on leaving! Happily, it turns out the reason was due to a planned promotion, although I didn't know that at the time.

In your situation you effectively told your employer you are planning on leaving. That might not have been the message you wanted to convey, but that was what they heard. Since they have a business to run, they are doing what they think is necessary to minimize any disruption due to your absence. If I were in their shoes I would do the same, but I would probably tell you I was looking for a potential replacement.

 

[perinova]

I agree with Re-Wahoo. The people you are working with might be nice people taken separately but: 1. they are looking after themselves 2. corporations do not act collectivelly as those otherwise nice individuals would.
Honesty in the work place doesn't pay I am afraid:
Never tell your employer that you might laving shortly. Never tell your employer you are there for ever by the way. You will be considered discard or taken advantage of.
You did well not to tell them about your school plan. But do they really not know? You might have confided to a ""friend"" within the company.
Six months is not much I wouldn't worry about it, specially there is nothing much you can do.

 

[TheGeneral]

Sounds like you guys are right, not much to do but sit tight until the summer and see what happens. Though I must say that few things are more de-motivating than being marked for replacement in such an obvious manner. I guess I asked for it.

 

[bssc]

Sell them on why they should keep you around to train your replacement.

 

[Meadbh]

When I was a medical resident in Europe we had 6 month contracts. Once, my job was advertised three weeks after I started, for the next cycle. Made me feel really welcome - NOT!

The recruiting process may take several months so your employers are just listening to your messaging, putting two and two together, and planning accordingly.

OTOH, I fired someone last week. I am not yet advertising the position because this is an opportunity to revise the job description to target people with the skills we need now.

 

[Texas Proud]

General....

You told them you are going to LEAVE... either internal or external... YOU QUIT.. why should they wait for your time line to replace you... you could leave next week and they are holding the bag...

NEVER tell someone you are going to leave UNTIL you know the date you want to leave...

And there is nothing in the law preventing this either... they could just fire you when they get a replacement...

 

[Turtle]

[color =maroon][/color] As an employer I never ever ever want you to tell me you are looking for a job... or 'may' be moving away... The only thing an unofficial resignation gives me is a headache.

 

[HobbyDave]

Yeah, I think that's a good point. I don't want to know if my guys are looking for a new job, because that gives me a problem.

On one hand, if they don't tell me, and they give 2 weeks suddenly, then I try to replace them immediately. It might cause problems, but there was nothing I could do about it, so I deal.

On the other hand, if they tell me they're looking around, my primary responsibility is to my team. If I can see a serious problem coming if they quit, I might need to do something about it. I might need to replace them, move them off the important projects, etc. I basically need to make them non-important as fast as possible.

It isn't a matter of being nice, it's a matter of my primary responsibility being the continuation of the businesses under my responsibility umbrella.