So, on Friday I started a new temp assignment in the HR Department of a local private hospital. The recruitment consultant told me that they were ok with me looking for a more permanent position and taking time off for interviews, as long as I gave them around a week's notice if I found something else, which is pretty cool of them. She also told me that it was a HR Coordinator's role which they needed filled while they recruited for the permanent position, because the person previously in the position had been promoted, so there was an opportunity for it to turn permanent if I was interested. Sounds pretty cool, right. So, here's how my three days of working for them went.
Friday, I arrive and meet the person currently in the role, who will be training me. I say 'training' in the loosest sense of the word, because it was loosely training. It seems she had been in the role for 6 weeks on a temp basis, and was now moving to another role - in another organisation. Strike one for my agency! The few minutes of training she managed to squeeze in between her social activities mainly consisted of her updating errors in her hand-over notes as she showed me how to do things like sort and distribute the mail (strike one for her). It quickly became pretty clear that this role was more a receptionist role for the HR Department than a coordination role. Strike two for my agency. She then proceeded to tell me all about her new job. Here's where I got really angry.
You see, the agency who sent me for this role also put me up for a 6mth contract with another company. I was told that although they were very happy with me, I didn't get the position because they'd upgraded the position and taken someone with more experience (ie instead of a coordinator they hired an advisor). So you can imagine how shocked I was to hear the person training me tell me that this was where they were going. I was more shocked to discover that not only did she have less experience than me, she was being paid less than I had been told was on offer, had lied about the experience she did have, and was planning to move overseas in three months time. Strike three for the agency, and strikes two and three for her. This is only the first day, and already they're both out! Luckily she's leaving the pitch, but the agency is still out there swinging.
I won't bore you with what was an essentially drool-worthy (as in, in your sleep) day yesterday. The most interesting thing there is that I left work early for an interview with a local university. Cue today. This morning, I received a phone call from the uni's consultant to offer me the position, starting Monday. Since my consultant was coming to work today to organise the paperwork for my temp role, I decided to discuss it with them when they came in. I know it's a day short of the week's notice they'd asked, but I figure it won't be much of an issue. Apparently, I figured wrong.
My consultant (who bought her boss along for good measure) tells me I'll just have to call them and arrange to start after this assignment finishes, because my 2 week temporary contract includes a four-week notice period clause. I'm compelled to point out the fact that I haven't signed the contract yet, and in any case would have questioned that before I signed it, due to previous discussions. It is decided that they will speak to the HR Manager before the contract is signed to make sure it's ok for me to finish on Friday. My consultant then takes me aside and tells me that they've agreed I can finish today. Um, what? I thought we said Friday. But no, they say, have a break. I almost point out that I've had a break for 2 weeks before these oh-so-tiring three days of menial office work and that should get me through, but I just nod (the job's not really worth arguing for) and head back to my desk. One of the other HR girls says I can go home now if I like, but I shake my head and say no, I'll finish up what I've started today, tidy things up etc. I'm then told firmly that I should go home, because that was the HR Manager's decision. Again, um what? So, with all the dignity and the biggest smile I could muster, I pick up my bag, throw my things in it, shut my computer down and bounce out the door without looking back.
The uni's consultant called me not long after to confirm my start date, and let me know she was negotiating salary etc and would come to me soon with an offer. She almost fell off her chair when she heard the story, claiming she'd never heard such a thing as someone being terminated for being offered another job. I'd even told them that the start date hadn't been confirmed and I hadn't completely accepted yet (the start date would have been negotiable anyway). We both put this down to a severe overreaction.
After I filled out my timesheet for the week, I sent an email to my former consultant, expressing my disappointment. I have a certain knack for, as someone once put it, kicking in the nuts so innocently you wouldn't realise it's happened if it didn't hurt. As I like to think of it, cutting the flesh without appearing to slide in the knife, and leaving no real evidence it happened. Usually, this talent is reserved for resignation letters and people I don't like at work, but let's just say I made a couple of cuts in said email.
The events of this week caused two dilemmas for me, one of which was immediately cancelled out by the circumstances that caused the other. The first was, do I tell the agency that the person they've just placed is a liar who plans to skip out early on their contract, costing them money? This was cancelled out by the circumstances of being put out of work and having to struggle harder to make ends meet for the next few weeks - let them find out the hard way. I'm pretty sure their commission is more than half a week of my wages! :-) Revenge is sweet.
0 comments:
Post a Comment