Here is another question of the day from yours truly. Where do you draw the line of professionality. Here is the situation. I work for a client who owns a hotel. He mentions once that if i ever need a place to stay just to give him a call and he can set somthing up. I call him yesterday to see about checking out a room for a day. He sounds suprised and tells me to call the hotel and check on room availability. I call him back no answer. I call the hotel today to ask for him and they say he's free i call his office no answer. I feel like i tripped somewhere and I'm not seeing where.

Another situation I have is my wife is searching for a job and as a consultant I see a ton of different clientile that may or may not be hiring. Am I out of line by selling/inquring about the job for my wife? Am I crossing any ethical lines? Where do i draw the borders between professionality and unprofessional behavior?

Peace.

Point 1: Hotel

He probably forgot that he'd offered you a room, a throwaway remark perhaps?

Even when offered a "favor" from a client, one should always politely refuse. If you’ve seen Band of Brothers, there as a small but telling scene in episode one where Winters was chewing out Lt. Buck Compton for gambling with the enlisted men.

“Never put yourself in a position where you can take from these men.”

He was quite right. I never put myself in a position where I can take or accept “favors” from my clients or from people who want me to be their client. If you “owe” anybody anything, they will most certainly call that favor in at some point in time.

I always approach “corporate hospitality” very carefully, there is no such thing as a free lunch my friend. Use your gut feelings. If it feels dirty, tainted, dodgy, just politely decline. If it’s perfectly innocent like accepting a homemade meal with his wife and family, then by all means run with it.

I take ethics in business very seriously. I draw distinct lines in the sand of what is acceptable and what is not and people that deal with me know that. Sure enough I could make a lot more money cutting a few corners, but I have no intention of spending 5 years getting nailed in the ass by a horny inmate and people respect me for my “squeaky clean” stance.

Point 2: Wife

This is a tricky one. Nepotism always has and always will exist, it’s human nature to try and protect your own. I have been approached by personal friends that have asked me to “put a word in for them” somewhere. You have to be really careful here because if you do put in a good word for a friend/relative and that person quits on day two or isn’t really qualified enough for the job, you are going to look pretty stupid. You are also putting your customer in a very uncomfortable and embarrassing position, he doesn’t want to offend you by saying no.

There is another approach which is better for both yourself and your wife.

Keep your ears open, make discrete enquiries to see if anybody is looking to hire and then get your wife to formally apply for the job herself. She will no doubt be asked “how did you hear about us?” during the interview, and it won’t hurt her chances if she mentions at that point that her husband has dealt with that firm in the past. That way you are not directly involved, you haven’t stepped out of bounds with your client and if successful, you wife has won the job on her own merits. All you’ve done is nudge her in the direction of some companies that might be hiring.

Believe me, this approach is effective. The last three positions I’ve taken were never advertised in the press. In business it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. My wife told me about a rumor that my present employer was looking for someone, but hadn’t advertised the position yet. I nipped around the office a week later with a CV and was offered the job on my terms the very same day. Guess he figured that if I had the balls to simply stroll into his office and demand a hefty salary for a job that wasn’t even advertised yet, I’d have the balls to earn money for him.

de Coverly impresses

I once thought this an oxymoron...

Impressive, Much to think about here. I guess this experience gets built with time. I have only been doing the consultant thing for a couple years now. Figuring out what I can and can not do is tricky. I guess the reason i didn't think to much of the hotel option is because I was still paying for the room. And I wasn't getting such a substatial discount that it would be like OMG WTF. His comments such as " we are getting desperate to fill rooms" also led me to believe that this wouldn't be a problem. In the end I cancelled my reservation. Figured it best to just let the situation blow over.

I think Coverly was very informative. I believe what he said is on point and maintaining a moral/ethical stance may not be the easiest route


His comment on Winters is spot on for a manager/employee relationship but I don't think it directly relates to a consultant/client relationship as its a different type of relationship. Either way it is a good frame of mind to consider.

I love Band of Brothers and can't wait for the Pacific series coming soon.