One of my coworkers just told me he's put his resume out there and just had a phone interview - he did this on site, at our office!
This is not a duplicate of Should I raise concerns about a co-worker possibly leaving? ; in that post, the poster had already told their immediate supervisor and it seemed not to be getting up the chain. I work in a much smaller office, and, my coworker has told me he is scared of being fired - for reasons which are not reasonable - but I have repeatedly told him (truthfully) that everything I've heard strongly suggests his boss has no plans to replace him anytime soon.
This is also not a duplicate of Should I inform my manager that a colleague is looking for another job if I was told that in confidence? because I did not promise that I would not say anything to anyone. The highest voted, accepted answer to that question says:
Don't tell your boss that your colleague is looking for another job. You explicitly state you told the colleague that is leaving you would not say anything. Just on general principle you should not say anything. Let the managers manage, and keep your honor intact.
This is a conclusion based on premises that are not applicable here.
Anyway, I am in an uncomfortable position now. I don't know whether I should:
- Keep this to myself - it was told in confidence; he didn't explicitly say it but he did basically whisper it to me after both of our bosses had left for the day.
- Say something along the lines of "<coworker> seems really worried lately and had made some off-hand comments about you being unhappy with his work. You might want to give him some encouragement because he seemed really worried about things" if it comes up, but don't go out of my way to say anything
- Go out of my way to tell my boss
As far as my relationship with this coworker goes, we've hung out maybe 4 times outside of the office in the last year (he's only been working here a year); I consider him a friend but by no means a close friend. But now he's forcing me to decide between loyalty to him and loyalty to my company. What should I do?
Update:
I took @JeffO's advice and pulled my coworker aside this morning and told him that he can't be talking to me about his own interview process and why it's a conflict of interest for me. He understood, agreed, and said he would not discuss it with me anymore.