Can a bank fire you for cause if they know you are looking for other jobs?
I am shopping around for a job outside of the industry. Will / can I get fired for cause if my employer finds out
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You are an at will employee. You can be fired for any reason or no reason at all.
Yes I know. I should have been more precise in my wording. I'm asking whether in practice banks usually fire employees who are found to be shopping around.
Also banks will usually pay severance if they fire without cause, and won't if they fire for cause. Again, talking about usual practices not the exact letter of the law.
I would say it's unlikely, but not impossible. There are 2 scenarios I can see such a firing happening under:
1) they have to reduce headcount. In this case, they might as well let you go then since they know, or think, you're about to leave anyways. Usually this wouldn't be a factor, but given current trends of headcount reductions, it's possible. Your exploring other opportunities won't be the stated reason, but it will be a huge factor in being let go due to headcount reasons.
2) Vindictive firing. Some people would do this yeah, without knowing about your bank/group's culture its impossible for anyone on here to say if they would do that.
Really there isn't anything unique to IB in this regard. I know of people who have been let go under both circumstances. The first one makes sense, if I had to do a headcount reduction and got to the point of having to choose between 2 employees that are roughly equivalent, I 100% would pick the one I know to be exploring other opportunities. The second one I think is just dumb, but people do it.
As a general rule of thumb you should keep the fact that you're interviewing/exploring other opportunities a secret from your work colleagues. Your peers could use it against you, and higher ups could see it as a lack of commitment on your part, making it hard to move up the ladder if you decide to stay.
They can fire you whenever they want. I certainly wouldn't want to tell anyone I'm interviewing around. That said it's unlikely you're fired just for interviewing.
If you're asking if they will pull your severance for it, no. Even when someone is fired "for cause" in banking it's a negotiated exit and they agree to resign. Severance reduces any likelihood of lawsuits, maybe a top exec having an affair with an employee they pull severance since it's in the public eye, but a random employee will still get severance in most scenarios. Actually firing someone for cause is a FINRA nightmare.
For cause has a specific legal definition. As others have said, a bank can fire you for many reasons (and you are an at will employee), but firing someone “for cause” is a severe thing (usually has to do with lying, stealing, inappropriate behavior, etc). Searching for another job doesn’t fall into that definition.
People always bring up that a firm can fire you for any reason, etc, which while true, almost never happens with reputable firms (at least the way described on this site of screwing people over). You should see the way HR handles this stuff, they are very paranoid about reputational risk and legal risk. Every reputable firm I’ve worked at has been very careful on firing people.
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