Two problems arise when you look for work while still working. One is purely logistical: finding the time and energy to devote to the job hunt when the major share of your time and effort is going into your job. The other is confidentiality: keeping your job plans a secret.
Don't underestimate the difficulty of keeping your job plans secret, and don't underestimate the consequences of being found out. Occasionally, if your employers get wind of the fact that you're looking elsewhere, they may make an offer that could induce you to stay. Our studies show, however, that most employees who accept a counter offer from their current company usually leave within a year, anyway. More money and added perks, apparently, don't defuse the basic ingredients of discontent. Usually, as soon as your company suspects that you're getting ready to leave, you can consider yourself as good as fired-whether you find a new job or not.
How ethical is it to look for one job when you're still working for somebody else? It's hard to say. If one of the companies you're talking to is a direct competitor to your present company, and if in your current job you're becoming privy to information that could aid the competition, ethics and laws relating to trade secrets become an issue. This explains why some contracts forbid an executive from taking another job with a rival company until a certain amount of time has elapsed.
Then again, no one can condemn you for wanting to advance your career. In the end, the ethics involved in this situation are a matter of your own sense of propriety.
But ethics apart, watch your step. If I were working at one job and looking elsewhere, I wouldn't tell anybody in the company-not even my secretary, although I recognize that this isn't easy. Loyal as, my secretary may be to me, who is to say that a secretary might not spill the beans inadvertently?
Don't tell even your closest friend in the company what you're up to. I heard recently of an advertising executive who told a man he thought to be a very close friend that he was looking around for another job, only to discover within a few days that his "friend" was making a pitch for his own position. I need hardly add that the two are no longer friends.
Be careful, too, that you don't give yourself away, which is easier to do than you may think. Seasoned managers have a sixth sense that tells them when an employee is looking around for another job. If you don't want to draw attention to yourself, give heed to the following points:
- Don't begin taking noticeably longer lunch hours than usual and be careful about being absent from work too frequently. Both changes in your normal pattern are red flags that signal you're out getting job interviews.
- Keep personal phone calls to a minimum. The surest way to arouse the suspicion of a secretary is to take a lot of calls you'd rather the secretary didn't know about.
- Maintain your normal level of communication with management. Staying out of sight is an almost certain tip-off that you're planning a move.
- Don't begin coming to work dressed noticeably better than usual. The immediate question your appearance will arouse is: "Why does he/she look so good today?" A job interview will loom as a possible answer.
- Don't begin clearing your desk of personal effects.
- Don't make a noticeable change in your vacation pattern. Managers know that employees who intend to leave frequently take a vacation just before announcing their decision.
- Don't be less aggressive in the office than you usually are. Recently I heard of an advertising executive who thought he was being super-careful about his job search, but was nonetheless called aside by his boss, who asked why he was thinking of leaving.
"Because," the boss said, "you're being too nice. We haven't had a good argument in a month!"
Tempting though it is, don't use your current office as any sort of job headquarters. And even if you have a little bit of freedom in your job, don't be too eager to set up interviews during normal working hours. Your current employers may not find out but your would-be employers might question the dedication of a person who was out on a job interview while still on company time. If they know you're working, the company you're talking to about a job will usually make arrangements to see you either before or after normal working hours. And letting your would-be employers know that, dissatisfaction apart, you still feel as if you owe your current employer an honest day's work isn't going to hurt you one bit.
