Temporary Insanity

No, the title of this entry is not a statement of my mental health (though some might say otherwise)! One could argue that it would describe the state of mind of Giants fans one day after winning the Super Bowl. My thoughts had turned to baseball weeks ago so this is not about the over hyped, actually quite boring, media circus we just endured.

My purpose today is to share my take on 'temporary insanity' which is when people who are lucky enough to find contract employment really screw things up. Having been around the staffing industry for parts of 4 decades, rest assured I have seen a lot but the book never closes! What follows, in no particular order, could best be described as some of the biggest bloopers committed by temps on assignments:

A young lady hired to help a growing medical practice with their patient flow decided to lift up her scrubs to reveal the bruises she proudly received from her boyfriend over the weekend!

While standing in line to clock out at an industrial facility, a temp decided the person in front of him was rude and jabbed at him provoking a major scuffle.

Someone on assignment less than a month decided to write an email to a manager several levels above the immediate supervisor pointing out all the mistakes being made by the team.

A temp was unhappy because the computer system went down one day. Even though, everyone was told to sit tight in case things got fixed, this contractor decided to clock out and go home 5 hours early!

Another temp decided to blast the place nice enough to offer work because they did not offer whole milk with the FREE coffee available in the break room!

Suffice it to say, breaking into a vending machine to obtain free food is not a great way to extend a short term contract assignment!

And finally, attending your first team meeting as a temporary, at will, employee is not the time to tell the Vice President who authorized your hiring that the whole company is non-compliant with federal regulations especially when that is not part of your job description!

Have a great week! baseball season is almost here!

Simple Logic

Simple logic says that if someone is unemployed, and has been for an extended time, that the prospects of a contract opportunity, no matter what the pay rate, would be worth considering. This past week has given me the chance to have this conversation repeatedly and the results have underwhelmed me. Of course, a few realistic folks have jumped at the chance to be considered but more than half have declined because they are insisting on making the same salary they were laid off at perhaps 3 years ago. Wouldn't we all wish the world had not changed? Sadly, that is not reality and it is time to get real about prospects for the near future.

A potential candidate called me yesterday about a posting I had placed which gave a range of $25-37 hour for a supply chain professional from the manufacturing sector. She was a displaced CPA from the financial world who had some related experience going back over 10 years ago. The first thing she told me was she expected to earn over $100 an hour for the posted job and my rate must have been incorrect! After explaining the current facts of life and ascertaining she had been out of work for well over a year, it became apparent she was inflexible and the conversation stopped.

There is not a professional recruiter out there who likes paying people less than market value but the truth is that there is no market value right now. Whatever the employer feels they could afford has become today's market value.