The guts of HR/Office Managers/Recruiters

[myironlung]

Alright so I just wanted to know how often you guys/girls have come across these HR/Office Manager/Job Recruiter types who are completely unprofessional. I would also like to know some of your stories. Personally, I think some of these people are horrible human beings, and I have no idea where they ever got their manners/ethics from. The lack of common courtesy among some of the people I have dealt with is just astonishing.

 

This one place was an urgent care center, responded to an ad online. The office manager emails me for an interview. I show up and it goes well. I go back for a second interview. It goes well and I get an email in the next few days offering me the position with wage, benefits and all. He sends me an "info packet" and I have to send it back to him, my social security, license info etc...A week goes by, no response...I email him asking if he got my stuff, a week goes by no response, I call him, no response....I email again (the guy preferred email), a week goes by no response until finally another week goes by and he says in one line "the position has already been filled and your documents have been destroyed by company policy." MEANWHILE, 4 months go by, and i see an email sent by the office manager saying "hey we are expanding and wanted to know if you'd be interested in joining our team." !!!! My jaw dropped with the audacity this guy had. This guy had a huge pair for that email.

 

Another place, ortho outpatient (mostly auto and workers comp). I respond to the ad online. Recruiter gives me a call, sets up an interview. Interview goes well, get invited to a second interview, goes well (met with the physician as well). I ask if I could shadow the physician for a day to get a better feel for the practice and my role....I come in for a third day and do just that. They tell me its down to me and another candidate and they would call me in 3 days. Never get the call, wait another week. Call the recruiter asking if he heard anything. He says no. I call the office manager the same day and he says "we have all the things we need right now for making a decision, I'll call you next week." That week goes by and I hear nothing. I call him again and he says YET AGAIN "we'll have a decision by next week." Well sure enough he never calls me and I wrote an email to the recruiter asking him what the hell was going on. He never responds to the email. MEANWHILE 4 months go by and then this office manager leaves a message on my phone to call him back, which i obviously ignore, he calls again a few days later, again I don't respond to this insulting request. Now I get an email from his recruiter asking if I was still interested in the position. What's funny is that he responded to my original email 4 months ago!!!!

 

I'm in my 20's and I find it awful ironic that I'm the one who feels like I need to teach these 40, 50 and 60 year olds how to have some common courtesy. What a sorry bunch of scumbags. Now they are getting a dose of their own medicine!!

 

Anyone else have some stories?

[Contrarian]

Yeah...

 

In 2008, I answered a local ad for a PA on call to the local Inpatient Psych Unit for restraint physicals.

 

I was called by the unit director, and we scheduled a interview.

 

I arrive for the interview and wait 20mins past the scheduled interview time before I am informed by the secretary that the director had a important matter to attend to and asks if we can re-schedule.

 

I say sure, and we re-schedule for a week later.

 

I re-arrange my schedule (move patients around, etc) and arrive to the rescheduled interview as planned. I sit in the waiting area 30mins past interview time before I see the director. He then tells me that something came up and TOLD me that we needed to reschedule.

 

I politely declined another re-schedule...

 

Fast forward to March 2011.

 

I'm being introduced by our CEO to a group of healthcare executives in a meeting at the local hospital of several "invested" community Mental Healthcare parties.

 

The director from the above encounter, who is now the director of the brand spankin newly remodeled hospital inpatient psych unit comes into the room (30mins late), interrupts the conversation and actually expects everyone in the meeting to backtrack... to bring him up to speed on the issues we had already discussed.

 

He then asked who I was... and I was again introduced by our CEO.

He said, "Nice to meet you."

I simply responded, "We have met before." He then wanted to further interrupt the meeting to discuss where, but I simply assured him that we had met previously and then diverted the conversation back to the topics we were there to discuss.

 

After the meeting... the Medical Director of the Inpatient Psych unit asked me if I wanted a tour of the new unit. Being polite, I said, "Sure"...!!!

 

After she shows me around, she offers me a job... revealing that they had been looking for a psych provider for 8 months.

I tell her that I would be interested in discussing the details further, so she says that she would talk with the director to set up a interview day.

 

7 days pass and I get a email from the lead PA expressing excitement about me possibly "joining the team."

The email states that they recieved my CV and application and since I already have hospital credentials everything is in order and "ready to go." The only thing we need to do is discuss compensation with the director.

 

3 weeks pass then the Director finally emails me asking me about my interest in the position.

I respond to this email the same day I recieved it. Then waited 5 days with no response from him, before I sent a email to the medical director, and CC'd the lead PA and this inconsiderate director detailing my "under-whelming" interactions with the director in both 2008 and recently, and asking that they withdraw my name from consideration for a position with that unit.

 

Basically, I explained that if the director was this disrespectful of me and my time PRIOR to employment... then it wasn't likely going to get any better once employed. I then suggested that this obvious "pattern of behavior" was likely the reason why they have been unable to fill their vacancies and that they (Lead PA & Medical Director) should simply take over that aspect of the admin duties if they were ever going to find and KEEP quality providers.

 

Now I see this guy every few months in meetings and just chuckle at his pomposity and self-absorbed silliness...

 

The humor stems from his visible frustation when the folks from our practice (CEO, and Several Providers that attend these meetings) refuse to play to his nonsense and flat out calls him on his BS AND refuse to call him "DOCTOR." (Phd Psychology)

 

He once, in one of these meetings tried to correct me on calling him "Mr. XXX"... and tried to insist that I call him doctor.

 

'I smiled and told him that as a fullly trained Clinician, Licensed by this state to "Practice Medicine"...

I only refer to and call PHYSICIANS "Doctor" in the hospital setting to avoid patient confusion... and since these meetings are always held in a conference room... IN THE HOSPITAL.... he will continue to be referred to and addressed as Mr. XXX.'

 

The looks on the faces of the other meeting attendees (mostly physicians, my supervisor and my CEO) was priceless...

His medical director suddenly had to leave the room presumably to regain her composure... and my CEO still gets a chuckle out of that one.

[ninjapac]

Well here's my story:

 

I applied for an ER position and the recruiter took a while to get back to me (2 months) and set up the interview with the director. I wasn't terribly bothered by the delay in his response. I met with the ER director and was hired to work part time. I actually work for a company that provides the Er with providers. I was told that they are hiring another PA (part time) and we would be able to begin work at the same time. There are a total of 4 PAs working. The person that schedules our shifts provided me with the available dates after everyone chose their shifts. I actually was not able to work in Sept or Oct because the shifts were taken by all of the other PAs. We choose our shifts 2 months in advance. I called the recruiter to tell him how upset I was and he wasn't taking my concerns seriously. He actually told me that I was hired per diem. This was the first time I heard per diem in any conversation. I replied by letting him know that I was hired part time just like the other PA and I have a contract to prove it!! He then went on to say that i am soo lucky that I was even hired for the job. There were 10 other PAs that applied for the same job. I told him that if those 10 PAs knew that they were only being hired to take the left-over shifts they probably wouldn't have wasted their time. He wasn't even ashamed at what he was saying or the tone that he was talking to me in. He further went on to say, "well why don't you tell me how many shifts you expected to work." I told him at least once a week but it seems like it will be a challenge to work once a month. I was very frustrated because the other PA that was hired with me worked 4 shifts in Sept and 9 in Oct. 10 shifts is full time status. The recruiter had no empathy and spoke in a sarcastic tone. He ended the conversation saying that there isn't much anyone could do for me except to tell the other new PA to "share the wealth." When I received the next 2 months schedule I was able to work on Thanksgiving and Dec 24, 25, and the 31st. I didn't bother calling the recruiter again.

[myironlung]

Pretty good one contrarian, I especially like the "doctor" rationale. I would have loved to deliver that one to him. Wonder how that guy can manage to exist as a human being in society period.

 

Ninja- sounds familiar. I love how you found those golden specifics AFTER you accept. Such an informative recruiter and director! But hey who cares they still get paid!!