I was working with a recruiter while looking for a new position. He pulled a bait and switch on me where he pitched one job to me and then scheduled a phone interview with another. After that, I told him I would no longer work with him.<p>After all of this, he pitched my resume to my current employer, I'm guessing to get me fired or tarnish my reputation. Do I have any legal recourse? What should my next actions be?
Yikes, what a jerk.<p>Really, there's nothing immoral about speaking to recruiters when you're employed. It's within your rights to know what's out there, and what your current worth is.<p>That said, I'm not a lawyer, but if you lose your job over this (and I don't think a reasonable employer should fire you over it), it wouldn't hurt to speak with one. The recruiter would have a hard time explaining his motives for pitching you to your current employer, other than incompetence or maliciousness.
The behavior described was either unethical or (more likely) incompetent, either way he sounds like a Bad Actor.<p>> What should my next actions be?<p>Send a cease & desist letter. If he's with an agency, address it the owner & principals. Given how important reputations are in the recruiting business, his boss should be informed.<p>Here's a good read, with ideas for scripting your letter> <a href="http://corcodilos.com/blog/317/let-the-resume-wars-begin" rel="nofollow">http://corcodilos.com/blog/317/let-the-resume-wars-begin</a>
The latter has happened to me before, except I've never used a recruiter in my life. The recruiter had copied my LinkedIn profile into a Word document and had sent it to loads of companies, including my current employer.<p>Nothing really came from it. That company had a bad view of recruiters from the start, so they laughed it off as another incompetent recruiter.<p>In your case, you could try asking the recruiter why he did this. A response will let you know whether you are dealing with a malicious recruiter or a incompetent recruiter. Either way, reporting him to his boss would be the best course of action afterwards.
IANAL, but it really depends on what you want to achieve.<p>Posting his name on the internet is not going to give you anything. Given that you have no reliable proof it was an intent and not a mistake, it may cause all sorts of legal issues for you (like getting sued for libel, for example).<p>You may either let it go, or contact the company the recruiter works for (the way "dctoedt" described), stating that you (1) consider the recruiter's steps incompetent, unprofessional, and possibly done on purpose, and (2) the company is not going to do any more business with them (assuming the company decides that way).<p>Also, contacting the lawyer is not a bad idea (either let him check the letter or write it from scratch). If you have a legal department, they may take care of that.
Does your current employer know you want to leave?<p>How valuable are you to your employer? Is it possible to negotiate better terms (higher salary, better insurance, ...)? Some employers may go this route if they see a high-value employee in danger of being poached.
Let it go.<p>He's not going to last long in the recruiting business pulling stunts like that. Those guys get most of their candidates from personal referrals & their clients from people like your employer. Both of those bridges are burned.
You say that it's a malicious intent. Are you sure about this? I remember a recruiter once pitched me for a role in a company I did an internship previously - this was when I was student and started to look for my first job. It's possible that he saw that you were an <i>X</i> with <i>n</i> years of experience and sent it to your current company since they were looking for the same profile.<p>You mention that your current employer knows that you are looking, and that you are not worried about losing your job. In that case I'd just discard him as a crappy headhunter and move on.