Comments on: You’ll pay to quit this job

By: Jake Joehl

Jake Joehl — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:23:05 +0000

Another thought just popped into my mind as I was reading this over again. This whole “you’ll pay to quit this job” thing kind of reminds me of an aspect of ADA paratransit. At least this was true when I used ADA paratransit, and I think it applies to some other states. Let’s take just an ordinary Joe or whomever you want to call this person. They are in a routine where they need to get to school or work by bus on a daily basis. If said person doesn’t need a ride on a given day, the thing to do in most cases is call up the transportation provider and let them know Joe isn’t coming today because he’s not feeling well, or whatever the case may be. You don’t need to do anything if Joe is coming that day, the bus will just show up. That is, unless Joe uses ADA paratransit. Using the paratransit company logic, every day that Joe needs a ride he has to call up the company, and whenever he does not need a ride for any reason he does nothing. I know this isn’t exactly related to the situation you discuss here, but I can see some similarities.

By: Jake Joehl

Jake Joehl — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:10:14 +0000

I’ve never heard of something like this before, but in a way I’m not too surprised. Some people will honestly do whatever it darn well takes to take advantage of others. I’ve known this fact for quite awhile, and it’s exactly why I gave up on receiving VR services. Those of us with disabilities truly are vulnerable, and even some people without disabilities are at times vulnerable. This job candidate should take the matter to the Better Business Bureau and report the company immediately.

By: Kimberley

Kimberley — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:13:45 +0000

I’m not even sure if that is legal. I would probably print the e-mail and mail it along to the Department of Labour.

I work for a recruiting firm – we wouldn’t work with a company like this at all! We would never put our candidates into a situation where they are set up to fail from the start.

By: ann_arbitrary

ann_arbitrary — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:55:41 +0000

Oh my god. These horror stories. Yeah, I bet XYZ has a LOT of devoted employees. *rolls eyes* More than Google, even!

I think part of the problem here is that so many companies are concerned about ROI when it comes to recruiting. Recruiting fees are STEEP and hiring is a beastly process. The way it’s configured very much encourages predatory hiring practices such as this (headhunting — literally). There are a few companies that are trying correct the inefficiencies: a lot of online recruiting sites offer some kind of money-back guarantee on candidates. Dayak, which my company uses, even lets you select your recruiting fee on a sliding scale. In these cases it’s a little easier to see strong ROI. I bet company XYZ is stuck in some money pit of a model, though, and are too cozy to change.

I’m surprised managers get away with this kind of behavior because promising candidates are needles in hay stacks these days. Lucille is right — jobs ARE out there if you know how to look, and I think most intelligent people wouldn’t put up with this b-s-. I can just imagine the reaction if I made a job listing that required the candidate to pay my fees! *rolls eyes again*

By: Terry Novak

Terry Novak — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:49:21 +0000

As a former HR Manager, Director and Vice-President, of private and public concerns, I reccommend to anyone who feels uncomfortable or threatened during an interview that they address the matter during the experience and see if they can resolve the feelings with logical explinations. Please remember that even though the interview process is barbaric at times, the process and the feelings you get reflect the situation.

By: Lucille

Lucille — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:52:58 +0000

What is nice about being a little wiser is that you realize you don’t HAVE to take this job. Just as there aren’t 40,000 jobs out there for you (and you don’t have 40,000 choices of jobs today), there aren’t 40,000 crappy interviews like this one. I think this guy should write a comedy routine about it.

One of the worst interviews I ever went on was when the employees tried to get me to solve a b-tree problem but described it so badly (something about sharks and whales) that I couldn’t figure it out until they mentioned it was a b-tree problem. Of course, I was so stupid. Then the manager saw me. At the end of that interview he asked me if his chief technology guy could see me, though it was unscheduled. I asked to use the bath room (I had been there for several hours without even a glass of water) and when I came back to the room, the chief guy started yelling at me that I started his interview late.