[Mick]

I'm fine whenever a first round talent makes a sound decision for his future.

When a fellow employee leaves a company for a better gig, do you all stomp your feet and hold hands and cast aspersions on that employee's character? Good grief.

No, but that's not an apt comparison.  What you're describing is similar to the graduating seniors who graduate (or leave at the end of the season) and go on to the NFL. 

What you're describing is more akin to what I experienced at a Big Five firm about 15 years ago.  We had been working on a very large potential life sciences client based in the SF Bay Area.  You've heard of them, trust me.  The fee would have added about 4% annualized revenue to the office, and about 25% to our life sciences practice.  The chairman of the firm, the head of the industry practice and his right hand, the head of the office, the head of the audit practice and 4-5 others were in the office at 8:30 on a Saturday morning preparing for the final orals presentation which took place two days later on Monday at midday.

The #2 partner in the life sciences practice was central to our efforts.  His name and face were very prominent on the proposal, on handouts, on posterboards, on our web site; all of which we'd spent months preparing.  He was going to be the ringleader and the key relationship partner.

At 8:20 a.m., he resigned with no notice to join our key competitor...who happened to be the key competitor for that specific prospective client. 

That's how it feels to me.  Like someone who left with a job unfinished and who didn't give a sxxt about his teammates.

The team may be pissed. Good. It's a valuable life lesson - things don't always go like you want and you better develop some self-reliance.

Your satisfaction at the team's likely anger seems a bit misplaced.  Stanford students and alumni generally have developed self-reliance at an accelerated pace prior to matriculation, and this little incident would add next to nothing to their self-reliance skills.

[Mick]

I'm fine whenever a first round talent makes a sound decision for his future.

When a fellow employee leaves a company for a better gig, do you all stomp your feet and hold hands and cast aspersions on that employee's character? Good grief.

No, but that's not an apt comparison.  What you're describing is similar to the graduating seniors who graduate (or leave at the end of the season) and go on to the NFL. 

What you're describing is more akin to what I experienced at a Big Five firm about 15 years ago.  We had been working on a very large potential life sciences client based in the SF Bay Area.  You've heard of them, trust me.  The fee would have added about 4% annualized revenue to the office, and about 25% to our life sciences practice.  The chairman of the firm, the head of the industry practice and his right hand, the head of the office, the head of the audit practice and 4-5 others were in the office at 8:30 on a Saturday morning preparing for the final orals presentation which took place two days later on Monday at midday.

The #2 partner in the life sciences practice was central to our efforts.  His name and face were very prominent on the proposal, on handouts, on posterboards, on our web site; all of which we'd spent months preparing.  He was going to be the ringleader and the key relationship partner.

At 8:20 a.m., he resigned with no notice to join our key competitor...who happened to be the key competitor for that specific prospective client. 

That's how it feels to me.  Like someone who left with a job unfinished and who didn't give a sxxt about his teammates.

The team may be pissed. Good. It's a valuable life lesson - things don't always go like you want and you better develop some self-reliance.

Your satisfaction at the team's likely anger seems a bit misplaced.  Stanford students and alumni generally have developed self-reliance at an accelerated pace prior to matriculation, and this little incident would add next to nothing to their self-reliance skills.