Have you ever put in a job application thinking that you were applying for one position, only to find out later that they were filling a job that was totally different, for something you didn’t want, were not good at to beginwith and were made to feel like you were a slacker for not taking it? We’ve all had those experiences, right? Well recently I tried applying for a job that set off some alarm bells not only for myself, but also for Wifey and it reminded me of an experience I had back in California a few years ago.
This morning I went to Craigslist as part of my daily job search and it looked as though I had found a couple of jobs that would suit me. One was for Copy/Mail Support in Boise, and the other was for an Administrative Assistant in Nampa. On the surface they looked as thought they would be a couple of good fits so I decided to check into them further and try my luck by applying. Hey, I won $3 this week playing Powerball and I won $7 a week or so ago so I figured that my luck has to be changing, right?
The Copy/Mail Support job was for IKON Office Solutions, who puts together documents for various businesses. They look like a high-scale version of Kinko’s in other words (no offense to all of you who happen to work at Kinko’s). Anyway part of the qualifications for working there requires that you have experience in use & operation of shrink-wrap, paper cutter, hole driller, bindery equipment, jogger, tape machine, electric stapler, scales, collators & related equipment. I looked at those and I thought “hmmm, do I have any experience with that stuff?” and the answers came back “no, no, no, no, what’s that, no, kind of, no and no.”
That’s the thing sometimes about some of these ads on Craigslist – they can be veeeery misleading as to what the job really is and what it entails. But the best one was for the Administrative Assistant position.
It seemed pretty straightforward at first as it was typical of what they considered an Admin. Assists’ duties to be. Part of the ad was as follows:
This is a full-time, non-exempt position Monday – Friday, 8-5 with a one hour lunch. The position will be required to take after hours on-call following initial training. The position provides administrative and data entry support for large accounts. Must possess strong phone skills and etiquette (primary phone contact); excellent computer skills and intermediate Miscrosoft office skills; ability to handle electronic and paper filing, can show high proficiency in business English, spelling and arithmetic. Effectively and independently completes all tasks required. Is not afraid to ask questions or take responsibility for mistakes and get them corrected.
“Is not afraid to ask questions or take responsibility for mistakes and get them corrected?” I saw that and I went “uh, what was the last person who held this job really like?!? Were they some kind of total screw-up who tried to deflect responsibility for their own failure to someone else? Just how bad were they? But I decided to read on:
In addition to typing, filing and data entry; performs duties such as creating and maintaining spreadsheets for account tracking, account maintenance, issues passwords and access cards and works on special projects (i.e. 10-digit dialing conversions, audit assessment assistance). Deals with a diverse group of important external callers and visitors as well as internal contacts at all levels of the organization. Ensures customer and account confidentiality through established controls. Independent judgment is required to plan, prioritize, and organize diversified workload, recommends changes in office practices or procedures.
The position is office based and not a telecommuter position. Position will require employment screening and testing.
I looks like a typical Admin Assist position, so I decided to follow the web address they gave me and apply for the position. What I found was a page where I could fill in the usual information: job history, education, personal info, etc. But further down the page there were a lot of questions that made me think that something else might have been afoot. Questions like:
What are your likes and dislikes with your former or current employer? Explain.
Are you willing to work On-Call?
What were the last two books or professional publications you have read?
In what way(s) do you express your personality in the work place?
What is your interpretation of “success”?
How do you handle an irrate customer?
Would you share with us a recent accomplishment you are most proud of?
You have just been notified you are receiving an award. What was the award? What was it for? What was the venue? Who was the audience?
What is your Customer Service background?
When would you use voicemail?
What is your skill level with Word and Excel? Please explain why you think this is your level.
Now those are just a few samplings of the questions that were on this application. Just one of those questions were not enough to ring any alarm bells, but the combination of them raised a red flag with me and with Wifey when I told her about them, and to the both of us they screamed only one thing:
SALES!!!!!!
We both came to the same conclusion that this was a “bait and switch” and that this was actually a sales gig in disguise. The fact that they were asking customer service questions was not the tip-off, but the fact that they asked if I was willing to work “on-call.” Since when does an office position that has 9-5 hours require you to be “on-call?” There is only one position outside of Health Care that requires anyone to be “on-call”, and that’s Sales.
Now I don’t know about you, but if an employer has to resort to tactics such as these in order to secure a staff, doesn’t that speak volumes about their trustworthiness and what kind of a boss they would be like to work for? If they are willing to lie to you about what the job entails during the application process, what else are they willing to lie about when you’re on the job? Are they willing to order you to “work off the clock” in order to “save on the budget?” In other words, are they willing to threaten you with your job if you don’t work unpaid overtime? It’s not unheard of ya know, Wal-Mart Managers in California were doing this a few years ago, and there are more horror stories of it happening to more and more employees in today’s economy.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but if they can’t be honest about the type of job they are trying to fill during the employment process, then that is an indication that they will not be honest with you or treat you fairly while on the job and you would be better off not working for them.
This is not the first time I have encountered this type of “bait-and-switch” either. A few years back when I lived in California I applied for an Admin. Assist position for a boat parts company. A couple of weeks went by after I put in the application and I hadn’t heard anything until I got a phone call one night. The gentleman on the other end of the line was trying to gauge my interest in accepting the commission sales job that was being offered. I was confused and explained to him that the ad stated that the position was for an Administrative Assistant working in their office and that was what I had applied for. He became very agitated upon hearing this, and he testily told me that the position required that I be on the sales floor, that I would be working on commission, and that he was looking for someone who would be “a team player.” The last hing he said to me was “now do you want the job or not?!?!?”
Needless to say I was not impressed with his attitude and the fact that he was willing to go to such lengths to staff his store. I started to explain to him that I was looking for an office position, and was about to suggest that he be a little more truthful in his advertising when he cut me off, said that I was wasting his time and hung up on me.
Now I know there are some of you out there who are saying that I should have just lied and taken the job and made the best of it. But to be totally honest his demeanor on the phone to me was an indication of what kind of boss he would have been like to work for, and as I related the story to other people they told me that I was right and that I was much better off not working there.
Even though there are a lot of us who would take anything that comes along we still need to exercise caution. There are a lot of stories out there where people who still have jobs are being taken advantage of and abused by their bosses, and are afraid to do anything about it because of the current economic circumstances.
Let me say this right here and now: just because we are “desperate for any job” does not mean that we have to put ourselves into a position where we will be abused or taken advantage of. I know that it is an “employers market” right now, but that will not always be the case. Plus there are some consumers out there who will not do business with certain companies or small businesses because of the way that they treat their employees. I have seen this happen at places where their rotten treatment of their employees has resulted in a drop-off of business, and in this economy businesses either big or small cannot afford to piss off their customers. This includes how well they treat their employees because a lot of customers judge a business on how well or how badly they treat their own people. This applies to Main Street as much as it applies to Wall Street.
So just be careful when you apply for a job and make sure that it is the actual job that you not only want, but one that is being advertised. If it sounds “too good to be true” or if it seems “weird” or “off” somehow, then you have the option to walk away. If you get a bad “vibe” from the supervisor, keep looking. Chances are if they are acting angry and aggressive during the application process then that is a pretty good indication of what kind of supervisor they will be.
In other words, you are not the only one who has to pass muster here – if they don’t measure up to your standards of what a job and a boss should be, then find someone and someplace that does measure up.
You have some power here, you should not have to surrender that power to pay your bills.
