Fired employee helping to poach other employees

I am a mid-level manager in a relatively small software business (around 50-100 employees). I recently had to fire an employee for poor performance, who I'll refer to as "A" from here on. "A" did not take the firing well and there was quite a lot of drama involved. That was around 6 months ago. In the meantime, it seems that she has been in touch with her former coworkers, and has been working with them to update their resumes, apply jobs, and prepare for interviews. I know this because I have lost 3 people from my team who have all told me that "A" helped them to find other jobs on their way out. No one will tell me where their new position is, but "A" does not even seem to be working at a new company (based on her LinkedIn, what others have told me), so I don't think it's another company directly poaching our employees. I texted her to ask why she is doing this and she said that "people deserve better, I'm helping them find it", which I didn't appreciate. She has since blocked me after I tried to ask her politely to stop. I then had our legal team draft a cease and desist, which she has ignored and is continuing to help. I've actually heard that some employees who she didn't work with are trying to get in touch with her. Our legal team says that there's nothing else they can do beyond actually suing her, which they are weary to do since she's not actually breaking the contract she signed. I've looked up Tortious Interference and so I disagree that there's nothing we can do legally speaking, but I don't have the power to tell the legal team to do anything. Is this legal? Is there anything I can do? At this point, my team is down to about 25% capacity because of "A"'s poaching. This is in the US, if that helps.

Feb 19, 2025 - 20:59

I am a mid-level manager in a relatively small software business (around 50-100 employees). I recently had to fire an employee for poor performance, who I'll refer to as "A" from here on.

"A" did not take the firing well and there was quite a lot of drama involved. That was around 6 months ago. In the meantime, it seems that she has been in touch with her former coworkers, and has been working with them to update their resumes, apply jobs, and prepare for interviews.

I know this because I have lost 3 people from my team who have all told me that "A" helped them to find other jobs on their way out. No one will tell me where their new position is, but "A" does not even seem to be working at a new company (based on her LinkedIn, what others have told me), so I don't think it's another company directly poaching our employees.

I texted her to ask why she is doing this and she said that "people deserve better, I'm helping them find it", which I didn't appreciate. She has since blocked me after I tried to ask her politely to stop. I then had our legal team draft a cease and desist, which she has ignored and is continuing to help. I've actually heard that some employees who she didn't work with are trying to get in touch with her.

Our legal team says that there's nothing else they can do beyond actually suing her, which they are weary to do since she's not actually breaking the contract she signed. I've looked up Tortious Interference and so I disagree that there's nothing we can do legally speaking, but I don't have the power to tell the legal team to do anything.

Is this legal? Is there anything I can do? At this point, my team is down to about 25% capacity because of "A"'s poaching.

This is in the US, if that helps.