Possibly just been found out

[ITMAN]

Just enquired with an agnecy loaclly about renting an office space and had booked a time to go and have a look, then she gave the name of the landlord - turns out its my curren full time employers friend - they dont know what im planning on doing....

what should I say? i mentioned i wanted to fit it out with computer desk / worksurface, so they will know its me, as he said oh is that *** from ****

getting worried now

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

I wouldn't assume it to be a big deal unless your FT employer runs a computer repair shop that you are currently employed under. If that is the case I don't think anyone here is going to tell you to lie about it.

 

[cmonova]

Well if your full time employees friend is doing business correctly it is not their place to run and tell your boss what you are doing. But, I would probably come clean vice something crazy happening and having it run ugly real quick.

 

[ITMAN]

well my FT employer is nothing to do with IT. basically i want to leave in about 8 monhts time and wanted to look at some offices and get an idea of what I can get so i decided to have a look, and well as i said turns out the owner of the business centre knows my boss

Obivously my current employer doesnt know anything, and dont want to get sacked before i leave! just worried he will find out, but i rang the agency and explained the sitatuiono and asked her to cancel the appointment and explaim that the "friend" i was looking at it for has decied not to do it....

problem is the man concerned knows i do PC's and so may not be that thick, and put 2 and 4 together and snitch.. or at least say oh hi ********* saw J the other day, he was enquiring about renting one of our offices.... bugger

 

[anonymous Mac Tech]

If this friend of your employer already knows that you were wanting to look at the office, I would say keep the appointment. Looks more like you are trying to hide something by canceling than keeping the appointment. But if they are not onto it being you yet, that's your call.

 

[georgenoise]

I wouldn't worry to much about it. You can't be fired because you want to go into business for yourself even if the business would be a conflict of interest unless you were no longer performing your job to satisfaction. Before I opened my shop I let my manager at Office Depot know about 9 months before I left so he had plenty of time to find a replacement manager. I later learned after looking through company emails that the store manager and regional wanted to make me "choose" between my own business or letting me go. Human resources said that it was only possible to let me go if my performance was suffering or I was soliciting my own business in store. Even if I was soliciting business I still had to be given a warning, a writeup, and then let go. I will say they came up with many BS things to say my performance was lacking and question me about but then I would just give them a comparison of my numbers to everyone else(which were normally average to above) and all they could say is we expect more out of you because your a manager. Needless to say I kept my cool but I left a lot earlier than expected because I couldn't put up with their crap anymore.
My best advice to you is judge your situation. If you work for a small company that doesn't have anyone to answer to and doesn't follow labor laws you might want to keep it quite. If you work for a national retailer though I wouldn't worry about it unless your already walking a thin line and have poor work ethics that makes it easy for them to put the pressure on and let you go. Either way, good luck to you and keep us posted.

 

[jbutler9]

You have every right to have two jobs, I don;t see a problem. just let it play out.

 

[computergeek1]

I am with everybody else on this, keep your appointment, and what you do outside the companys time, is nothing to do with them, you company does not own you, so if questions are asked, you have the option to be truthfuly or tell them it has nothing to do with them what you do outside company time. They can't sack you for that, you are just paranoid.

 

[ITMAN]

Cheers Guys

I had already cancelled it, out of fear!

Heres what im going to do

Wait, and IF he says anything i will say (as he knows I have been doing it PT for the last 8 years anyway)

"yeah i was looking for somwhere, bigger to do my work in as my flat is just too small, and its starting to get a bit cramped with all the stuff"

if he says why didnt i go

"becuase i didnt want you to get the wrong idea, and think that I was doing it to leave, which you may have thought"