That's different, though. That's a business situation. The equivalent situation would be if I hired her, she started working for me, and I kept interviewing candidates and then fired her right before graduation because I found a stronger candidate.

Shoulda made an employment contract for a term. 'Course, I bet you like to retain the right to terminate employment at will. Can't have it both ways.

Sometimes I think employees are the debil.

I'll come work for you Rainman

I won't quit, promise!

As an added bonus, I won't leave when you fire me either! How is THAT for dedication?!

I don't know, maybe I'm just bitter after working at fortune 500 companies my entire career, but I don't see much loyalty to employee's from the employer any more, so why should employer's expect it?

...but she turned down another job, which could have still kept her employed for the duration......

Mostly, I'm just poking your cage with a stick, but I've had an employer take a dump on me, after I accepted a job with them and turned down another for More money.....

I know its crappy, and leaves you in a bind....and for causing your beard to Molt, I hope she gets herpes, but loyalty is a strange thing in todays market.

2 years ago, I turned down a $15k raise to move to another town for another job........Out of loyalty, I decided to stay, and asked my employer for a raise....It took 9 months, to get 4k(see also -11k/yr)......upon that, they asked me to guarantee I'd stay 2 years............I told them that my word was binding. I don't give my word without meaning it.

my word is binding if I gave it, but before I did, could the Boss GUARANTEE, that under NO circumstances would I not find myself out of a job, due to budgets etc.........He couldn't. I didn't.

I told him I would not actively seek employment for a year, but have other companies call me all the time......I've had 3 unsolicited offers since New Years.

my 2 years are up.......if you'd like to open an Iowa division, I'm available......but I'm not taking your fargin MENSA test.

seriously, you don't remember? AC/Dc was on the tube...

Have you talked to her about it? Either casually or in the context of a formal "exit interview?" Not to say that she'll be honest with you. She probably won't. But it's worth a try.

From your perspective it was a great fit and she was doing well. But it's rare for someone (especially a bright woman in math and science) to do what she's done without some reason. Most of us don't leave employment that we really like.

Maybe from her perspective she didn't feel as though she fit in. Maybe there were things in the organizational culture that she found distasteful. Or maybe she felt that she was low-balled during salary negotiations and pulled a T.O. in order to get a whole lot more money elsewhere.

I don't what your company does. I don't mean to be sexist and I'm trying not to jump to conclusions but is your firm very male dominated? I've had friends and have myself worked in intensely male-dominated environments that we all found personally repellant. In these cases, most women pretend to get along, bite their tongues and find a way to leave as soon as possible. I'm not talking here about an environment of harrassment and overt discrimination, but one of not-so-subtle hostility and/or indifference. This is particularly true in science and engineering fields.

If she has a particularly savvy coping style then she could well leave you with the impression that she was comfortable with your company all the while hating it.

Of course, it may not be a gender thing. It may be how interesting the work is ... what she began to perceive her career trajectory might be ... her opinion of her supervisor... lifestyle and general corporate culture issues ... or ... again ... money. Regardless, I would look at this as a labor market issue (not so much an ethical issue) and I would try to find out why she bolted so fast.

In the end, the important question for you is employee recruitment and retention. In the long run, the answer to that question is what's valuable to your company.

I understand the whole loyalty thing, and it's an employee's right to leave, but she had hardly even started. To me, this is not about loyalty so much as it is keeping your word.

I mean, this gal is engaged to be married. Is she still dating to see if maybe she can snag a better husband before the wedding?

maybe the leaving has more to do with her impending marraige and a job her to be hubby has taken somewhere else...............

*sniff* I didn't even get an obligatory "We'll call you"

I don't wanna interfere with Kevin's rant,so just a head's up your inbox is FULL.

What it boils down to is there is a right and wrong way of doing things, not everyone abides by them, be it the employer or employee. But if something does happen you hope it is on the up and up and not like Rain Man has witnessed.

I think that all of us in the business realm would like that. Heck I have been let go a couple times in my business career once was on the up and up and I can live with that, that is business. The other wasn't, that was business too, but still hurt (but karma is a you know what and all I can say haha ;) )

All you can say is that there is a right way and wrong way about doing things and you have to look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day.

There's a simple fix for this. Make your new employees sign a contract for "X" number of years. We do that with the physicians we hire and include a no compete clause to make sure they aren't working for the competitor during their off hours.