Posted on 03/29/2011 5:45:36 PM PDT by buccaneer81
The software company definitely seemed interested in hiring Tom Fleming. It set up breakfast and lunch meetings, then flew the Concord salesman to its headquarters in Virginia for interviews with a half-dozen executives, including the founder and chief executive. But after promising to get back to him in a week, the company never contacted him again.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
File a claim against them in small claims court.
That, I agree with. I also thin the next generation will benefit as well. My BIL is 51, has been out of his field (laid off from IT) for three years and is working driving an airport shuttle for 25% of his former salary. His kids (and mine, to a smaller degree) see how hard it is out there and that life can turn on a dime.
I predict a bumper crop of entrepreneurs and self-employed people in the next 10-15 years.
Tom Fleming is over 45, any questions?
That's one remedy, but it requires evidence. In the article one guy had the Headhunter intervene and squeeze it out of the company.
Spot on.
I turn 48 in June, have worked for the same company for 21 years and have seen people just like me cut loose. Looking over one's shoulder is no way to live.
Still, the function of HR is to (underlined) reject candidates, and to handle the layoffs. When a company, like say, Google, receives thousands of resumes a day, who do you think screens them and rejects the majority of them? HR. When your main function is rejecting (the hapless applicants and those laid off), that kinda affects your thinking, doesn't it. Let's not kid ourselves about the true function of HR.
This attitude has caused me to look for another career entirely.
Yeah— it’s a bad time to want to switch jobs, but it’s more of a 4-5 year plan. I think I can freelance with my current choice of change. They just ticked me off so bad it’s fueled me to do other things.
I’ve seen mid-level suits making $80k furious because guys in greasy coveralls made $90k with overtime.
I’ve heard of some great “bait and switch” tricks the HR people have tried on.
One is to offer a good paying job locally, then when people apply, to offer them a job in ‘Podunk’ at less than half that.
Another is to offer a “training wage” or “probationary period” at much less than full pay.
The CEO of one company suspected hanky-panky in his HR department, so he sent his nephew to interview with a perfect resume. Not only did the HR guy try to stick it to him with below standard pay, but sensing someone who really wanted the job, he demanded a kickback for hiring him. The nephew hesitated, then agreed, so sensing weakness, the HR guy hit on the nephew sexually.
When the nephew refused, the HR guy tried to bully, then threaten him that he would never work in that town again unless he agreed to the sex act. The nephew left, so, true to his word, the HR guy wrote up a scathing report on him, even accusing him of petty theft.
Soon the company had a new HR chief. The nephew. The old HR guy then sued the company for unfair dismissal. Their legal department was briefly concerned until a dozen employees came forward to complain about the old HR guy.
I seemed to have remembered that thread so I went back to look for myself. Yep, found myself - and see how far I've come from those days.
Wow, at the time I was pursuing my Masters (achieved that) and was a Senior Manager at an advertising agency in Chicago named Leo Burnett.
Now I'm a Principal Systems Architect at a large, international bank with a nice office and a staff.
I wish everyone could be as fortunate as I am.
Somehow, some way, HR almost always manages to filter out the truly good candidates and send the really crappy ones through to the hiring managers though.
I've been a hiring manager in my career and that's typically been my experience. I've only managed to find good people by BYPASSING H.R. and doing the recruiting myself.
H.R. Sucks, period. Typically staffed by a bunch of college "C" grade morons who know nothing more than to search resumes for buzz-words and acronyms because they have no real technical (or other) skills to speak of.
Again, just MY experience.
Nope. Wait till he turns 50, then 55. Then he'll really understand how hard it is to find a job....
I think HR types are behaving differently than in the past. When I was looking for work a few years back I was shocked at the lack of common courtesy. I’m doing okay now, but I recall being offered jobs on at least three occasions, but was never able to start due to some inexplicable lack of internal approvals. Been through the multiple interviews without any definitive rejection letter or response - in some cases received gratuitiously rude rejections. I think that some basic level of courtesy has eroded across society. I’m not an HR type, but do make a point to respond to every phone call/e-mail even if only in a cursory way as to do otherwise would be rude. HR people that do otherwise should be fired and perhaps learn some manners.
i’ve had headhunters ...
... the job i was in ...
No offense intended, but you know that "ka-donk" sound and those hysterical giggles you've probably heard when leaving an interview, or after submitting an application?
I know what caused it.
So true. In my company of roughly 1000 employees, the HR staff numbers about 15. Exactly ONE is a white male, and as you can guess, he is the spitting image of Harvey Fierstein.
One other function of HR is that of "hatchet man." I don't discipline my guys, by policy I have to tell HR what they did wrong, and then HR passes judgment and imposes sentence. I can't suspend anyone, or even tell them to go home early and cool off. It's like being a teacher and sending an unruly pupil to the office.
I grew up in MA. Digital was the promised land in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.
Everything you say is true. Spot on.
yes, but when you go through 3-4 interviews for a position and don't hear back, it's... not nice... this recently happened to someone i know who was interviewing with Amazon for an IT job... he had gone through four interviews... as far as he could tell, the last interview went well... the interviewer made it sound like there would be a next step... and then NADA... fortunately for this person, in two-months' time, he ended up receiving FOUR job offers... happy for him...
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