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A question of business ethics: Is it stealing business?
I just finished a job for a client. It was a web design dealio: a simple website promoting a just-released title. I've done a few of these now, mostly through the company I work for and a spin-off company based on that.
The client in mind was pleased with my work despite being a little put off by the lack of attentiveness on the part of my boss. A while ago, the client mentioned whether I did work on the side, as he had another website he wanted to update and move to a new hosting company. Now that our current project is completed, he has brought it up again and wants to know if I want to do it. He mentioned to me that he doesn't want this to "interrupt the relationship" with my boss and that we shouldn't mention it to him.
I'm not sure of the ethics of this.
The offered job in question is an update to a site related to an ebook and blog that has already been released and that we have nothing to do with.
What do you think?
If I agree to work with him on this other project as a freelancer, is this "stealing business" from a company I work for?
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Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
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