Well I created another mess for myself at work.

A co-worker is expecting his first baby. We work at a minimum wage job with no guarantee of a minimum amount of hours and no benefits. I'm not particularly fond of this co-worker, but he's an excellent worker.

Any way here's the problem. He'd made a comment a few weeks ago that he'd hoped to be hired by one of the larger companies nearby by now. New baby on the way, he needs a steady income with benefits. My husband came home from work yesterday and said that the hiring freeze where he works has been lifted. I immediately thought of this guy.

We happened to be working immediately together today, so I told him that hypothetically the largest company in the area is now hiring, they pay very well, insurance benefits start immediately upon being hired (even with new baby on the way, mother and child are also immediately covered by insurance). I mentioned that if he was interested, he could put my husband down as a reference which would put his application on the short list. (Translation - as long as he's able to pass the physcial, he'll get the job).

Now my boss is absolutely livid. My name is mud. She's going to discuss this with the owner of the company we work for (which is not even in the same general field as the one he's applying to. We work at a fast food joint and the place he's applying to is a manufacturing plant).

One the one hand, I don't think I did anything morally or ethically wrong. He'd been actively looking for another job, and would have been informed of the openings in this company had he gone to job services on Friday afternoon rather than in the morning. But on the other, this confrontation has left me feeling guilty.

So what do you think, should I have kept this information to myself? Was I wrong? Did I cross a line?