Friday, August 12th, I was contacted around 5pm by a local employment agency letting me know I was chosen for a position I applied for on Thursday. My start date was Tuesday, August 15th! As I mentioned in a few of my other daily posts, I was beyond excited for the changes ahead... but, it wasn't all as it seemed to be...
My first official day back to work and also my last official day of work. Smh. I went through a local employment agency to find a job. Many people have referred me to them, so it wasn't a complete shot in the dark. However, the job when I applied for it last Thursday was an administrative position who would assist with inbound and outbound calls. It was within the healthcare field and assisting with calls for appointments for the elderly. None of which were ever an issue. I assumed it would be an assistant helping within a call center. Nothing was in the description about pay being different in any way, so it would have been a steady pay with no surprises like commissions. I was qualified for it. The pay was okay; it was a three month temp position, so no benefits were available. And a BIG bonus for me was that there were four daycare's within walking distance...if I ever needed to walk.
Well, I jinxed myself for sure. It was too good to be true.
Tuesday morning, I was up on-time, hair and makeup done, cooked a healthy breakfast for myself and little man (he ate with me), made my fruit smoothie with greens and put it in a to-go cup (for the car ride), grabbed my resume's (just in case), got dressed, slipped on my shoes, gave Mark a goodbye kiss and I was out the door completely prepared. I even left 45 minutes early, so I could stop by the bank and find a decent parking spot.
I walked in 20 minutes early to find 8 people standing in the lobby, two of which were the company owner and the employment agencies contact. The company owner was very polished; seemed to be very excited we were going to start training within an hour (give or take). The employment agency lady - while she was appropriately dressed, she kept to herself like everyone was a germ. Wouldn't shake hands with anyone (we all tried), maintained "her" space from everyone and when someone would sit next to her, she would get up and move across the room. I've never met anyone like that.
The owner then took the applicants one-by-one upstairs for a small tour of the office and into an "office" (which was really a small closet) - all the desks had no phones or computers, the "office" in which we were in also didn't have a computer or phone, but it did have a ton of computer cables on top of the desks that were very obviously jammed in the room. The owner was very polite and professional (also reminded me of a previous boss I had), addressed himself and even introduced the Chief Operations Officer of the company (who was in jeans and sneakers). They both asked about my background and what kind of employment I was interested in, as well as discussing possible shifts. Then they showed me to the training room, in the back of the building, with 5 folding tables and an office meeting table crammed into a room that way maybe 10'x10'. I asked how many people we were expecting, as I was the first one in the room...they were expecting 20-25 applicants. There was no way that many people were going to fit in that room...comfortably...for several hours of training for five days.
While patiently waiting in the room and watching various employee's, the company owner and our "trainer" frantically running around like they were unorganized, fellow applicants would come in and join a conversation we sparked up to pass the time. Each of us agreed that the company wasn't nearly as ready for a training that day, as they should have been. They didn't have a trainer or even an employee prepared to train a group of new applicants, they would bring stuff in the room then take it back out, they would remove a few people from the room, then let them come back in. After waiting TWO HOURS the training room was starting to become cramped, as there was already 18 of us in there waiting... the "trainer" came in to tell us that she couldn't begin until everyone's backgrounds were run and they ended up removing 4 people and sending them home. The company owner referred to our "trainer" as their "Mother Hen" who trained everyone. Another applicant asked her how many employee's she's trained and she said we were her first training class. She's only been a trainer for a few weeks, but has never been on her own. Our trainer also never put her cell phone down, would constantly answer her cell phone throughout training, etc. It wasn't until she started slide shows for us about "Sexual Harassment in the Workplace" did a few of us notice that she was on Facebook on another screen (which you could see on the slide show screen) chatting with friends about how much she dreaded training. I'm not sure how everyone else took it, but I saw it as very unprofessional.
I shrugged it off and went along with training. Right before lunch someone had asked what the scale on the whiteboard was for. Our trainer explained that the company was a commission based company and everyone had that SHOCKED look on their face. There was a lot of stuff the company was about, that we were never told upfront. One of the biggest things was that it was a commission based company. Another was that, our shift time's would change frequently. Those of us with little kids in daycare; wouldn't work for us.
Before lunch, I apologized to the trainer for taking up so much of her time, as the company would not be a good fit for me. As I wasn't told by the employment agency what to expect with the company, I am unable to fulfill their job requirements.
While it does mean that I am out of a job again, the employment agency didn't disclose what the company was truly looking for in their future employees. When I brought all this information to the employment agency's attention at the end of the day, the lady who was present this morning (the germ lady) got nasty with me saying "I should have just stuck with it, because they did find a job for me." Even if it wasn't the one I applied for.
I won't be going through that employment agency again, nor will I refer any of my friends to them. You don't send an applicant to a company without disclosing who they're applying for and you don't tell someone that they should keep the job, even if they aren't suited for it. It believe it's a waste of time and money the company could be saving.
While some readers may not agree, I'm okay with that. I basically just needed to vent.
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