Once, I would have said "That is very unprofessional. Are you sure you want to do that? You'll lose karma, or something." But honestly? With darn few exceptions, employment isn't a sacred trust. It's just business. They underbid. Would they keep you on the payroll, out of a sense of fairness, if it developed that you were not the best offer? Nope. You'd be shown the door. It's just business.
I'd recommend a simple phone call. "Hiya Bob, thank you for your time in getting us to this offer of employment. Circumstances have changed and it looks like I will not be able to work for your firm. I apologize for the inconvenience. ... Yes, Bob, I appreciate that this puts you in a bit of a lurch. Please accept my apologies. Would you like me to recap this conversation in a letter? Thank you Bob. Best of luck finding a candidate."
I don't particularly suggest telling them that you're taking employment elsewhere. That's something you tell your friend. They're not your friend. If you worked there, they would still not be your friend. Bob might eventually have become your friend, but right now Bob is a corporate officer of a company which underbid for your services. You don't particularly owe them explanations or excuses.
>> Would they keep you on the payroll, out of a sense of fairness, if it developed that you were not the best offer? Nope. You'd be shown the door
Yes, in most cases they would, if you turn out to be even (say) 30% as good as they think you were when they made the offer.
There is a lot of inertia involved in getting rid of employees, and most employers keep marginal employees long after it might make sense to get rid of them. Not out of a sense of fairness as much as a desire for a productive work environment for everyone.
'Would they keep you on the payroll, out of a sense of fairness, if it developed that you were not the best offer? Nope. You'd be shown the door. It's just business.' <-- dead wrong.
You can't rescind an offer after extending an offer just because a better candidate showed up at your door. Because he hasnt joined yet, in most states the at-will rules dont apply. In NJ and NY, for example, the employer is legally obligated to pay damages.
After joining, the implied-contract exception to at-will employment kicks in [in most states] which would protect you in the case a better candidate came. If you actually were incompetent and demonstrated it on the job, that would be a different story, but there should be no concern about it ...
I read something from BLS about this a long time ago, and I'll try to dig out a citation.
Careful. The three exceptions in that document are:
* Public interest (clearly inapplicable)
* Implied contract
* Covenant of good faith
The latter two seem like real issues for tech companies. But the HR process of every moderately professional company in the world is designed in part to inoculate them from "implied contract" claims, so having an offer withdrawn is unlikely to leave you with a viable implied contract claim.
Eleven states, including CA and MA, honor some "covenant of good faith" process. But it's unclear to me how exposed the standard offer letter used by most companies are to "covenant" claims. For instance, most will state specifically that "Your employment with Company is at-will and either party can terminate the relationship at any time with or without cause and with or without notice."
I don't think you're right; Patrick is probably not "dead wrong" that companies can withdraw offers.
I'd recommend a simple phone call. "Hiya Bob, thank you for your time in getting us to this offer of employment. Circumstances have changed and it looks like I will not be able to work for your firm. I apologize for the inconvenience. ... Yes, Bob, I appreciate that this puts you in a bit of a lurch. Please accept my apologies. Would you like me to recap this conversation in a letter? Thank you Bob. Best of luck finding a candidate."
I don't particularly suggest telling them that you're taking employment elsewhere. That's something you tell your friend. They're not your friend. If you worked there, they would still not be your friend. Bob might eventually have become your friend, but right now Bob is a corporate officer of a company which underbid for your services. You don't particularly owe them explanations or excuses.
At-will employment is a two-way street.