Dear Cellar

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by HungLikeJesus

I'll go first.

Dear Cellar,
An independent engineering consultant that I've worked on a project with for a few years made me this offer: If I refer any new work to him, he'll send 10% of any money he makes from that job back to me as a referral fee. That means, since he makes $150/hr, that I would get $15 for each hour that he works on that project, for doing essentially nothing.

Do you feel that this is ethical?

Signed HLJ

Dear HLJ, You have two situations here. One is about making money anyway that you can at every opportunity, that is not unethical, it is about survival. The other is about using your position in a company for personal gain, on company time, basically manipulating the system behind the scenes, based on business dealings on company time for personal gain. This is blatantly unethical.

Now if you were to deal with referrals outside of company time, based on business dealings off company time, off company property (phones, computers, blackberry's, etc...) then there is no problem.

IMHO there MUST be a clear delineation between what you do and profit from at work for personal gain, and what your work environment is expecting you to do for them on personal time. That includes any and all expectations of monetary reimbursement based upon business dealings with the said previous company on company time.

IMHO, you are walking an ethical and potentially legal tightrope...