Dear Mary-anne. My ex-boss says I'm poaching her clients and wants to take me to court.

QUESTION: 

I’ve worked in a nail bar and been a loyal employee for 12 years. I believed I was friends with my boss, but recently I decided to leave and I’ve seen another side to her.

I left because I wanted to work from a room at my house and run my own business. I never signed a contract when I started out, it was a relaxed sort of agreement.

My ex-boss hit the roof when I said I was leaving and called me conniving. She would hardly speak to me as I worked out my last three weeks and she wouldn’t let me tell anyone I was leaving. If they knew I was going, she wouldn’t let me say where I was going.

I’m several weeks into my new venture and my old clients are finding out and starting to come to see me. My boss said she’s going to take me to court for poaching her clients.

ANSWER: 

 Running a small business is a tough gig, especially this year. And a nail bar is particularly vulnerable, as it essentially offers a luxury service in a climate where every dollar counts. The margins between your ex-boss’s outgoings and earnings may be borderline, at best, and she’s clearly worried about her business surviving, especially as you’re setting up another nail bar in competition with her.

You say you never signed a contract, so you can’t be in breach of anything. It’s actually illegal to have no employment contract, so your ex-boss should be careful before she flaps futile court threats to appear threatening and tough. People cite pending court action all the time, often it’s just bully behaviour and ignorance. I quite understand that your ex-boss is disappointed, but her reaction shows her true colours.

It’s always tough, losing a good employee. Your ex-boss should have offered you an incentive to stay, when you first said you were leaving. Then, if you’d declined that, she’d have been better off wishing you well and acknowledging what a great employee you were. She could also have asked for some feedback on how she might improve her nail bar as a better work environment. But mostly, your ex-boss should’ve focused on her own business. I would have thought finding a new employee to train up was a priority. But most important, she needs to care for the clients she already has. Offering something free for those loyal patrons is a good way to show appreciation and entice them to stay.

Employees are not owned and it sounds as if you’ve done everything right, by working out your notice and maintaining your silence. Clients are not owned either. They can vote with their feet and support whichever business they choose.

If you want to talk this over further, you can ring the Citizens Advice Bureau for free advice. If her threats escalate, they may advise you to contact your lawyer, but I think she’ll fizz out when she realises you’re not intimidated.