Why an ex-employee had to pay over $600,000 for dealing with a competitor

His disclosure of confidential info before he had actually resigned hurt his old company

- Tan Ooi Boon

Dealing with a competitor came at a high price for a senior executive who was ordered to pay over $600,000 for acting against the interest of his firm while he was still employed.

Of course, the executive, the country manager of a technology company, was entitled to compete after he signed on with the other firm, but his actions in disclosing confidential information to that firm before he actually resigned put his actions in a whole different light.

About seven months before he left, the manager sent his prospective new employer a “business plan proposal” detailing customer transactions and a list of the sales achievements of key employees plus their salaries so that the competitor could tailor recruitment offers to these high performers. These acts were especially hurtful to his old company, which had no idea of his behaviour and even kept him on the team by engaging him as a consultant after he resigned so that he could continue to provide advice and assistance to the company. But the relationship soon soured when his former employer discovered that he was working with a competitor.

In the course of the dispute, the former employer discovered that the manager had even acted against the firm's interest some three years earlier when he got his colleagues to promote his side hustle of selling fruit juice during a team-building exercise.

He had claimed the exercise during the five-day workshop would foster team work, but he directed the participants to do tasks unrelated to their jobs, such as preparing marketing materials for the juice business and selling drinks. Senior High Court Judge Chan Seng Onn found that “the team-building exercise was a farce concocted” by the manager to divert the creativity and labour of the course participants to benefit his side business.