Q: Recently a member of our support staff quit. She had told other employees that she was looking for a new job, which I heard about secondhand. I was told by one of the partners of our firm that I should have told him about her. My question is: If I hear that a person is seeking new employment, what obligation do I have to pass on such information? – Mitchell

A: Kate: Let’s start with the big picture: Half of the clients who come to my job-search organization, The Five O’Clock Club, are employed and looking for a new job. Of those, about one in six end up staying with his or her current employer. People are allowed to keep their options open. When my grandfather lived in Denmark 100 years ago, an employee was obligated to stay permanently with whoever hired him as a teenager – that’s why he came to the United States.

Dale: Which has become a place where looking for a new job is often a firing offense. That’s why your stats are important: Looking doesn’t necessarily mean leaving. The wise employer knows this. In my study of great bosses, I met one entrepreneur who would send his employees to talk to competitors; that way, if other companies were offering better deals, he would know before his best employees were lured away. So, Mitchell, if we are to assume the best about the partner, he felt he should have been warned so that he could have either intervened and saved the employee, or so he could have started building a pool of possible replacements.

Kate: As for an “obligation,” I’d say that you have one only if the employee is doing something to undermine the current employer. It’s crazy to “rat out” anyone who simply is looking for another job. The furthest I’d go is to say: “John doesn’t seem all that happy. I’ve heard a few rumblings. You might want to talk to him.” That assumes the best without setting off an assumption that the employee is on the way out.

– Kate Wendleton is the founder of The Five O’Clock Club, a career counseling network. Dale Dauten is the founder of The Innovators’ Lab.