Hello everyone. I had permission to share my friend's story, and I mainly wanted to reach out to the antiwork subreddit because I feel like people here would understand how uncomfortable their situation is. Open to suggestions, advice.
For context: My friend works in the social services field. They have been employed at this place for 2 years. Friend told their current employer that they were looking to apply for a role outside of the organization that is aligned with their career goals. They received written and verbal support for this. The current employers even agreed to be their reference, and were made aware of the potential start dates to roles they were applying for along the process.
The recruiting process for this one role moves along quickly, and a few weeks later, the friend receives an offer letter with the start date formalized. Friend immediately reaches out to current employer to keep them in the loop and inform them of offer letter/start date. My friend signs the offer, and for reference, this start date is more than the customary two-weeks notice.
Now, the current boss has changed their tune, and is now demanding that my friend requests the prospective employer to move the start date out for at least two months out. The boss says this is because “this is expected of workers in the social services field, that the employees should be taking on new case loads, while finishing up data entry, and continuing as is until we have a new employee trained and ready to go.”
First of all, this isn't anywhere in the contract that friend has agreed to staying at least two months before moving onto a new organization. But the boss is saying this is customary. My friend feels that they are being put in an uncomfortable situation and does not want to start off on a weird note with new employers.
In fact the new employers have rolled out the red carpet to my friend, and are paying them above market average and offered an amazing benefits package (Union!!!). Additionally, friend does not want to leave this current organization with animosity, worried that they'll lose a reference.
I overheard a call and the entire time the boss was interrupting them throughout the conversation, and made it seem like it was my friend's responsibility to worry about a new hire and what not.
On that final note, their current boss is demanding to take over the start date negotiation with the new employers, or at least having Friend reach out to demand later start date and wants to receive confirmation/screenshots of this correspondence. Is it just me or is this weird?