I was talking to a friend the other day who told me about someone who had just signed on as an executive at his business.

The business was excited to have this person come in and take things to the next level.

Until…. after signing the contract, and getting things ready, said hire backtracked and advised my friend that he was no longer going to take up the job.

Now I understand that things change, and that sometimes, despite the best of intentions, life gets in the way. But my question for readers here is – how much do you think a move like this impacts upon the professional credibility of an individual?

It may be an old-fashioned idea but once upon a time, an individual’s word (not to mention their signature on a contract) was considered sacrosanct. I realize that we live in a dynamic and rapidly-changing world, but I’d like to think that trust was still a valuable currency.

Am I wrong here? What would you all feel in a similar situation?

Ben Kepes

Ben Kepes is a technology evangelist, an investor, a commentator and a business adviser. Ben covers the convergence of technology, mobile, ubiquity and agility, all enabled by the Cloud. His areas of interest extend to enterprise software, software integration, financial/accounting software, platforms and infrastructure as well as articulating technology simply for everyday users.

1 Comment
  • Hey Ben,
    That’s an interesting one. Difficult to judge the individual as we don’t know the entire story, could have been his partner (the main bread winner) had taken a new job in a different area. Or perhaps they had undertaken more research on the Co. and discovered the Co./role/culture wasn’t a good fit for them. Even though it is a huge pain in the butt, what’s worse is when someone joins when they are not 100% about the role and then leaves 3 – 6 months later. I had that happen a few years back – I would have much rather they didn’t take up the role in the first place.

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