Something Wicked This Way Comes

Maybe you've heard.  Maybe you have not. But a certain part of the U.S. population is under suspicion lately. They are the unemployed. As reported in The Huffington Post, there is a belief that the unemployed should not be considered applicants for open positions based solely on their employment status. Tim Sackett and Kris Dunn on Fistful of Talent subsequently posted their thoughts here as to why this may occur. As amusing as it was, their points raised some concerns for me that the unemployed can be easily stereotyped based on some poorly constructed assumptions. I'm also concerned these assumptions will cause recruiters to pass on qualified individuals. 

Wicked In Thought
 
The first assumption is that if you are unemployed, you're applying for everything and anything. For recruiters, this is creating an overwhelming number of applicants for one open position. Depending on where you live, the rate of re-employment can be as high as 12 months. An unemployed acquaintance of mine in Pennsylvania who has been networking feverishly trying to find work, reported to me that people she has met lately are typically finding a position after 12 months. If this is true, and if it was me out of work for 12 months, I know that my finances would be feeling the pinch. I would be desperate to do anything.  Heck I might even be persuaded to recruit again.

Perhaps this assumption is true but I find it difficult to feel sympathy for the recruiter that receives an enormous number of applicants for one position.  It's difficult to have sympathy because you have a job.  And if you have 400 resumes to read, then it sounds like you have enough work to do to keep you busy; enough work to keep you employed. Considering that anyone could lose their job at the drop of the hat, recruiters should be grateful there is work for themselves. If you lose your job then you just become one of the 400 resumes being reviewed. I think you'd be wise to quit judging if someone is spamming.

The second assumption is if a resume shows a gap of 12 months between jobs the applicant has done nothing in 12 months except hang out. Imagine you're a generalist in the middle of Pennsylvania. You work in health care. Your company is bought and merging leads to job losses.  Since there are not a great deal of jobs for HR Generalists, maybe you need to think about your options before posting just for anything.  It requires a scan of the external market and to determine which path to choose: stay in HR or reinvent yourself. After a few weeks of regrouping, now's time to decide. If you decide to stay in the field that is scarce for jobs, the number of jobs to apply for will be few and the rate of re-employment is slow. As far as taking odd jobs for income and to demonstrate you're not lazy is a good idea. But chances are an applicants not going to put irrelevant job experience on a resume. In other words, the resume doesn't show you everything.

Wicked In Deed
 
If resumes showed you everything, they would reveal the ugly truth behind these two individuals. If either of these two came knocking on my door for a job, I would think twice about letting them in.

First, when my partner and I were in a bagel shop in Boston, we were trying to decide where to sit.  A guy sitting by the door was saying hello.  The place was busy with people going to work, so I had no idea he was talking to me.  When I notice his voice raising and verbally complaining whomever he was talking to was not responding back, I looked over.  It was then he pointed out that he was talking to me, and continued to berate us for not being friendly.  I studied the guy for a good 30 seconds and I noticed three things (1) he was well-dressed, well-groomed and sitting with a laptop, (2) he had no excuse for his rude behavior, (3) I wondered if he acts like this at his workplace.

Second, when we were boarding the plane from Philly to Boston, we happened to be in front of five guys wearing Phillies hats.  They were in Boston for the weekend to see the Phillies play the Red Sox.  They were loud and rowdy in the jetway and one of them pushed me from behind.  I looked back and he just turned his eyes away.  Moments later while in the aisle of the plane making our way to our seats, the same guy pushed me again.  This time when I turned around, he said, "you have a problem?"  I turned back and just started telling my partner who was in front of me that the guy behind me was pushing me. The guy behind me starts berating me, saying he can hear me and telling me to shut up. Furthermore says he didn't push me, but that if I didn't shut up that he would shove me. The situation never went beyond this. But my thoughts veered toward the WTF and I imagined that this guy probably acts like this at work.

I know it would be ideal if candidates acted like this through a resume.  But they don't so recruiters are forced to put their wicked barometers to the test, and find the angels amidst the 400 resumes.

Wicked In Word

Chances are you have been unemployed.  Maybe it was a long time ago in a personal galaxy far removed from where you are now.  Maybe it was not your fault.  But maybe it was. I was fired from a job one time many years ago. Did I deserve it? Without a doubt.

There's no need to go into the gory details as to how it happened or what events led to the job's ultimate ending. The why is more important, and that why was because I was an idiot. When I look back on that day and think, if this was a court of law I would have plead guilty on the grounds of temporary idiocy.

This is not to imply that I'm not an idiot right now, or have not had my share of idiotic moments between then and now.  But on that day back in 1986, my idiot barometer hit an all-time record low. Despite that day, I stand before you now as a very employable guy.

After that incident, I know it was difficult to persuade someone that I was worth hiring. I think it's typical to be suspicious when someone loses a job if it's not part of a reduction-in-force. But there's no need to invite this type of wickedness into your workplace. It's not the unemployed that are wicked. It's the suspicion as a generality that is wicked. And printing that the unemployed need not apply in your want ads is the most wicked of all.