[n00b101]

I know someone who left a finance job in NYC to move to London. Was fired in his first week; the trading desk he had joined was abruptly closed down. I guess senior management kept the plans secret from the line managers who kept on hiring without knowing what was coming. So I don't think this sort of thing only happens in start-ups (if anything, I would guess this type of thing is more likely to happen in a large company where your hiring manager is several levels down from the CEO and might not have any idea that his business unit is about to be closed/divested/relocated/etc).

[jrockway]

Big companies definitely do things like this.

When I was hired by Google, I lived in Chicago. They wanted me to relocate to NYC because there weren't any open positions in Chicago at the time. Within a week of joining I got an email sent to all engineers in NYC asking if anyone wanted to move to Chicago. SIGH.

Oh well, it's good to see the world.

[jackweirdy]

That's awful; not least because (depending on their role) gardening leave might apply, preventing them from getting a job in the finance industry for months

[jsprogrammer]

The company should be responsible for lost wages due to the solicited employee's detrimental reliance on the company's representations.

[retube]

would get gardening leave for sure, prob 3 months. That doesn't stop you looking for new work tho, and the leave itself is not a problem, all banks expect to have to wait 3 months before a new recruit can join.