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Danger! Lousy employer ahead
Reasons why job seekers may want to bolt for the exit
One time, when a company I worked for was in the midst of a hiring binge, I had an illuminating experience. My car was in the shop, so I called a cab to get to the office. Luckily, the taxi company had our home phone on file under my husband's name, because as soon as I told the driver where I was headed, he started his monologue.
"Oh yes, that is a great company to work for," he informed me. "What do you do there?" "Uh, I work in the office," I said. "I type." "Yes, everyone I know is trying to get a job there," he continued, "and the person to see is Liz Ryan. It is hard to get to this Liz Ryan. She controls the hiring at this company. My cousin knows someone who knows her. I'm going to try to approach her through my cousin. All of us drivers are trying to contact Liz Ryan, to get a job at this company."
The matter of manners
You could say I felt conflicted. Should I own up to my maiden/professional name and identity? I wavered. Finally, I decided that coming out to this cabdriver would not be a good thing, in light of the fact that I regularly took cabs to the airport. Sympathetic as I was to the driver's situation, by spilling the beans I would be setting myself up to convert many future taxicab rides into one-on-one job-seeker pitches. I kept my counsel.
Still, that experience reminded me that hiring managers and human-resources folks have a solemn obligation to the job-seeking public, in that we control who gets hired and who doesn't. Whenever we fill a job, someone will get the nod and others will get a "no thanks" letter — if they're lucky.
When there are fewer jobs than candidates — meaning most of the time — that power to dole out sought-after positions carries with it a serious responsibility: namely, to treat job candidates with respect and courtesy. Unfortunately, we often fall short of that standard.
Early warning
Take the issue of "offer letters," which I raised in this column not long ago. Several readers approved of the advice I offered my friend Bill: to ask for a written offer letter before seriously considering a job opportunity.
But others took exception to my view that all bona fide job offers must be proffered in writing. Astoundingly (to me at least), several HR folks and hiring managers pointed to the time and energy it takes to commit an offer to paper, and said, in effect: "If the candidate doesn't accept the offer over the phone, we won't put it on paper."
On reflection, there's a certain equilibrium at work here. A company that would hesitate to put in writing the details of an offer for full-time, permanent (what we used to call permanent, anyway) employment is a company that any self-respecting candidate should shun. So, the good news is that by broadcasting its priorities to job-seekers up front ("Shoot, I don't have 40 minutes to get you an offer letter made up ... do you want the blinkin' job, or should I call the next name on the list?"), such a company will do a good job of securing the second-tier candidates it so richly deserves. More discerning candidates will simply keep looking.
Time for a cab?
I started thinking about the loud, ugly message that is conveyed when an employer balks at the simple request to put an offer in writing, and came up with several more "runaway" scenarios for the benefit of people currently on the job market. Any of these red flags is sufficient cause to remove yourself from consideration by a given employer.
At a minimum, if you run into one of these situations, you can dig more deeply to find out what's up and whether the opportunity is compelling enough to get you to overlook the slight. For your own benefit, I would ask a lot of questions — and keep your cab fare handy — if any of these warning signs turn up in a job search:
They request verification of your current salary in the form of a W-2 or tax return.
If you're surprised to hear that this is a common practice, then I'm happy for you — many job seekers have been dealing with it for years. If a company believes what you've said about your accomplishments and challenges at past jobs, if it believes what you've said about your likes and dislikes, your strengths and weaknesses, and everything else you discussed at the interview, but can't believe what you say about your past earnings without written proof — then it doesn't deserve you.
This practice is so unspeakably tacky that I can hardly move my fingers over the keys to write this, but run — RUN — away from a company that asks for proof of your past compensation.
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