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Apr-13-2005 10:06

Two of my agents have reported that they have been, I guess you could say "head-hunted" by another agency. I always assumed that you didn't try to recruit someone belonging to another agency. I have also seen other messages that point to this on the message board. Was I wrong? In my opinion it is an underhand thing to do without at least a cursory mention to a director at the agency concerned. Do any other directors have comments on this?

Apr-15-2005 05:23

I would never try to recruit an agent who is already in another agency. I totaly agree with sunny on this one. The only exeption would be if someone contacts me saying s/he wants to leave their agency. I would question them about the reason and if it sounds fair to me I would offer a new home. But they have to come to me with that!
I do agree with bigdoc about the grey area when you chat with someone for very long. I could say to a friend that it would be nice to have him/her around if they ever look for another home. But I still wont actively try to recruit them.

Apr-15-2005 18:58

I feel we shouldn't recruit from agencies. However, if someone's disinchanted with them, or us, this agent should give a two week notice so a replacement can be found. No, it's not the real world, but we're dealing with human being's feelings and should be considerate of them. I had an agent ask to join our agency, and wanted to leave hers, but I tried to discourage it. Someone else allowed her to join, but I was target of the hate mail from the other agency. I cried my heart out and almost quit this game for good. Yet, I too have rushed to the message boards to blast an agency for recruiting one of my agents, only to learn she had contacted them about leaving me. Talk about feeling like an idiot...I did! Of course I feel this way often...hehe. Seriously though, we shouldn't use the message boards to vent frustrations or blast each other. I'm sure Ben would appreicate it..hehe. I know I'm guilty a couple of times of being a smarty pants, then really regretted it afterwards. As long as we're considerate of each other's feelings, and try hard to work together as family, there's nothing we can't resolve.

Apr-15-2005 19:21

Also, concerning bribes, back when I co-owned "Lone Wolf Detective Agency", we offered $10,000 cash, all their equipmenet, plus give extra cases, if they'd subscribe to Sleuth, and join our agency. This worked well for us. Most of our agents were newbies. We never offered money, equipment, or bribes to anyone in an agency. As in real life, people like money and things that are FREE.

Apr-15-2005 21:27

I've never tried to recruit out of anyone else's agency, although I have been contacted by people wanting to leave their current agency and join ours. We have accepted some people in that situation, although I think it's best for agents who are shopping around for new agencies to tell their directors when they are leaving, and also to assume that any agency they approach will notice they are in an agency already and will likely contact their current directors as a matter of politeness.

In the end I think agencies are happiest when there is a good match among the members. Some people might not be happy with us, or we might not be happy with them. It's best to acknowledge that and move on.

Apr-16-2005 07:16

In my opinion "headhunting" is underhanded and should not be done. When I was disenchanted with an agency I would post myself on the recruiting board and then consider all offers. This way you know what you are getting before you join.