What if your new chair were pulled out from under you?

No matter how valid the reasons - or how profuse the hiring manager's apologies - a prospective employer's about-face still puts the worker in an awkward

spot.

Consider this story, from Bruce Robertson, a human-resources manager in suburban Washington, about a man he interviewed recently.

"He had been working at a local company and decided it was time to look for a new job. He went for interviews at quite a few places and was eventually hired at a local government contractor. He was very happy to be offered an increase of 30 per cent of his current salary. He was told they really did not need him for over a month, so he decided to give the standard two-weeks' notice to his old employer and then go on the two-week trip to Asia he had always dreamed about," Robertson wrote in a recent e-mail.

"One month later he went to his new employer and was met by his new boss. The man greeted him strangely and asked what he was doing there."

Apparently the job offer had been withdrawn because of funding problems, but no one had told the worker. He tried to go back to his old employer, but his position had already been filled.

The man went to a lawyer, Robertson said, but he was told that there was no case. He couldn't collect unemployment benefit because he had quit his last job and never actually went to work at the new one.

As unfair as all of that sounds, that's how it

would turn out for most

people.

Mimi Moore, an expert in labour and employment law at the Chicago office of Bryan Cave, said that

generally the only people who have legal recourse against fickle employers

are those with strong employment contracts. "They aren't very common, except for very high-level executives."

Angry workers wondering if they can sue an employer for costs incurred as a result of accepting a phantom job, such as relocating, should know that it is "really difficult" to prove such a claim, and that the legal fees can quickly exceed the damages, Moore said.

So, what would you do if your new chair were pulled out from under you?