Please don't fire me QUITE yet?

October 19, 2010 9:02 AM

How can I minimize the risk of getting fired from my current job when the boss finds out I'm seeking employment somewhere else?

I'm making a career change and giving up my totally unrelated consulting job to be a law enforcement officer. As part of the background investigation, the investigator needs to talk to my current employer. My employment with the police department won't start for several more months, yet the background investigation is going to start in the next couple of weeks.

Yes I DO want to go, but I'd rather not go until it's time for me to start with the PD. I guess the odds are they'll fire me on the spot, but I really would like to keep working until the new job starts.

My boss is a perfectly reasonable and nice person, but I don't have any idea how she/they will react about this. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to approach my boss with the info that a police investigator is going to be calling - in a way that may minimize my chances of getting canned and shown the door?

posted by anonymous to work & money (14 answers total)

If you're an "at will" employee, there isn't much you can do other than make an honest appeal to your current employer and hope they have a grain of compassion for someone attempting to move up in the world.

I would make a commitment to work for x number of weeks/months, assure them you'll give them a firm date once you have it, and make sure they understand that your level of performance will remain 100% and you'll make every effort to facilitate a smooth transition when you leave..
posted by HuronBob at 9:07 AM on October 19, 2010

I don't know what your work environment is like, but I can't imagine an office that would summarily fire someone who was looking to make a career change. If anything, they will probably appreciate the extended notice you'll be able to give, so that they'll be able to recruit and adequately train someone else to fill your position before your last day. Just be honest and tell your boss as soon as possible that you will be leaving in X months but would love to stay on until that time to wrap up your projects and help train your replacement.
posted by something something at 9:07 AM on October 19, 2010

Most likely they'll want to keep you until the end so you can train the new guy, write documentation, etc. Unless you have an overly vindictive boss I think you're overworrying. At a certain point you just need to tell him/her that you want to be a cop and you'll no longer be in this field. I think that's easier for emotional types to handle than "I'm leaving for a better company!"
posted by damn dirty ape at 9:11 AM on October 19, 2010

As part of the background investigation, the investigator needs to talk to my current employer.

Do they have to tell your current employer why you're getting a background check? If you explain to the PD your concern (ie: I have to keep working until you have a job for me) would they be willing to say something like "its just a routine background check"?

Lots of volunteer organizations -- Boy Scouts, etc -- require some sort of background check. I wonder if there is a way you could pass this off as one of those sorts of checks.
posted by anastasiav at 9:16 AM on October 19, 2010

I guess the odds are they'll fire me on the spot

What makes you think that? It's not like you're going to a competing organization and taking all the trade secrets with you. Go in to your boss and tell her that after a lot of thought, you've decided that you want to make a complete career change and that you've been accepted to start in [month 2011]. Tell her that until then you will continue to give 100% to this current organization, including training your replacement and tying up all your loose ends. And that she will be getting a reference call in the next couple of weeks.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 9:27 AM on October 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

Is there anyone else above you in the food chain that can speak for you as a supervisor that's not necessarily the boss? I wasn't so lucky at my last job, cause my boss was the president and the hire-fire man, but if you have a supervisor of yours that can speak on your work product, that may be best way to go.
posted by deezil at 9:27 AM on October 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

"You know that I love working here, and you're a great bunch of people to work for. But I don't think my heart is really in this consulting thing. So... [deep breath] I'm applying to the police force.

"I know, right? But it's something I want to do. Now, I don't know exactly how long this is going to take, but I want you to know that I will be here, giving 100 percent right up until I start on the force. I will let you know, just as soon as I find out, how long that'll be, but it's going to be several more months.

"Also, as part of the process, they're going to be doing a background investigation, so, obviously, they're going to be calling you to make sure I'm not a total psycho, ha ha.

"So, to recap, bad news, I'm going to be leaving soon. Good news, you know a cop now. Total win-win, amirite."
posted by Etrigan at 9:28 AM on October 19, 2010 [7 favorites]

The usual gardening leave/frogmarched out of the office routine that tends to happen in consulting companies is really unlikely to happen here, because you're not going to work for a competitor or client, which are the usual routes out of a consulting company (that or being canned for 'underperformance' as part of the bottom 30% purges).

I'd vote for taking your boss aside, telling him the date you plan to leave and why the PD are going to be asking about you and taking it from there.

One caveat though - you're sure, aside from this background check, that you have the new job in the bag right? Because you don't want to lose this job because you're looking at another and then not end up with either job.
posted by Happy Dave at 9:30 AM on October 19, 2010

Consulting, in my experience, is not a profession where bosses get super-vindictive about people leaving. It's naturally a career with an extremely high turnover rate, and yesterday's employee has a way of turning into tomorrow's client, so nobody looks to burn too many bridges unnecessarily. The exception to this is if you're leaving to go work for a competitor or strike out as an independent consultant, but that doesn't apply here.

In any case, I'd recommend telling your boss straight-up, before the background investigation starts, and letting the chips fall where they may. The problem with lying about what the background check is for is that when you take the new job, it will become obvious that you were lying, and people remember and hold a grudge over that kind of thing for a long, long time.
posted by strangely stunted trees at 9:32 AM on October 19, 2010

You can tell them you're looking into a career change, and that you're not sure whether you actually can be considered as a viable candidate for the force, but that any rate they will be calling to check stuff about you etc. etc.

In other words, don't make it sound like you already have the job when you basically don't.
posted by hermitosis at 9:42 AM on October 19, 2010 [3 favorites]

I hate to encourage people to flat-out lie (vs avoiding/prevaricating in response to things that are nobody's business, where I think you have a blank check to fib) but this might be a just time.

I think anastasiav's idea is a good one and you might not even have to vary the story much - does your police department have a volunteer reserve? A friend of mine in Fairfax, VA applied to join and they now do a full background investigation for volunteers as well. So you might look into whether that's a plausible cover story.

I'd also suggest care about burning your bridges. My friend in Fairfax, despite being rather astonishingly straight-laced, was bounced after the polygraph because of a few questionable readings. Presumably they had more applicants than they strictly needed and could afford to draw a bright (and not always fair) line. If you department is as capricious and you think your firm is the type to frog-march someone out you may want to make sure this new gig is in the bag.
posted by phearlez at 10:40 AM on October 19, 2010

I would tell him he has the right to remain silent, though.
posted by ouke at 11:04 AM on October 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

I would echo the suggestion to be careful about burning bridges. I had a conditional appointment as an FBI special agent a few years ago. Eleven months into the hiring process (after they had talked with my employer and many of my contacts), a questionable polygraph result ended the entire process for me. Even if you think you have nothing to lie about, I thought the same way before my test (and didn't lie about anything on the test). Polygraph tests have a terrible false positive rate.

For what it's worth, I told my employer by sitting down with my boss and saying something similar to what Etrigan suggested -- "I enjoy working here with this team and will be happy to continue doing so -- but working as an FBI agent is a dream job for me. I have to see if this opportunity leads somewhere." He was completely supportive, and that prompted the VP (my manager's manager) to tell me the story of his CIA application process. Law enforcement has enough mystique around it that most of the people I talked to were curious, rather than angry that I was thinking of leaving. If your boss is generally "perfectly reasonable and nice", I wouldn't expect an on-the-spot firing. (Do you have a specific reason to think they'll do that?)

That being said, once they know you've considered leaving you may very well find your opportunities limited if you stay. This was the case for me, and I ended up leaving on my own about two years later. Do be prepared for that.
posted by jdwhite at 12:16 PM on October 19, 2010

Honesty is the best policy. Be as upfront and forthcoming as possible. It's the only dignified way to act, and honestly, it will make you look much better when the police talk to your boss. And really, why act like you have something to hide? Make sure that your employer knows that you are not unhappy with the job (even if maybe you are) but that your reasons for searching other employment are a desire for (whatever makes you want to be in law enforcement). Make it plain that there is no guarantee you will get the work, and in the event that you don't, that you are happy to stay on with the company (and would like to!), since as far as consulting goes, you are satisfied with the current position.
posted by molecicco at 1:18 PM on October 19, 2010