Staffing Infection

There are articles constantly concerning the loss of jobs, the termination of positions, mass cutbacks of companies so we end up with a problem in that there are no jobs. That’s what many sensationalized articles want you, the reader to believe, so you’ll stay enthralled and see what happens next. Just how bad are thing? We better pick up that same newspaper, or read that same internet news page so we know just how bad off we are.

The truth seems to be that ‘yes’ there are less jobs than there used to be and depending on where in the country you are it might be a huge difference or maybe just something you notice because somebody you know is dealing with it.

Obama himself is a realist in that the economy seems to have stabilized, where as others see the current situation as an upswing, that there are more jobs coming and spending is up. They are both right given what parameters they are using for their points.

The staffing infection as I am calling it deals with the fact that there are companies hiring and yet there are issues. There are mortgage, banking, loan officer, cleaning, caretaking jobs opening up right now to deal with the houses that have been refinanced or the ones that the banks are trying to get refinanced, whether it’s to the same people or new ones.

The problem comes in that the staffing agencies that were handling all the jobs are relegated to handling all of what is available right now and that is still a lower amount that were available 6 to 12 months ago. People looking for work are being hustled by staffing agencies whether it’s because the companies don’t want to pay the accurate wage for these jobs and so the staffing agency is trying to pull the used car card “we’ll see what we can do” or they are all trying to get one person into that ones group of jobs they have.

Let’s say “A Fake Bank-AFB” is hiring for loan officers and processors so they contact all the local agencies to try to get people who can do the work. Agency “Not Your Friend-NYF” gets a contract and agency “We Want Money-WWM” also receives a deal to try to get people in their doors. You are signed up with both looking for work and you have past experience so you are a great candidate.

NYF calls you and says they have a great deal and even though your last job paid $18 an hour they can get you a job for 2 months at $13 with AFB. You tell them that is just a little too low so they tell you they can work on it and they think they can get you $15, right no with the economy that is the best they can do….(wink wink)

WWM contacts you too, they have an interview at some bank (actually also AFB-but they can’t tell you) and when you discuss you wage requirements they tell you it’s $14 but it might go up and it’s a 6 month minimum assignment.

They both schedule interviews for you, one chooses to phone screen first the other sets up a Saturday appointment. The phone screen happens but they tell you it’s an undetermined amount of time. The Saturday appointment cancels even though they swore they needed someone by Monday.

So why would they cancel these if they need help so bad. When you call the temp agencies back they give you the run around on we didn’t know, we will have to reschedule, they have cancelled or postponed the assignment for now….so many excuses so little time.

The fact is they had way too many applicants and they flooded the positions. The agencies are just trying to make themselves money and so when the bank gave them three positions they set 25 people up with interviews so make sure someone from theirs got the job.

They told the clients that were hired they would get $12 an hour, they get the contract fees, the hourly appreciation fees and hide the extra $2 an hour that they told the bank they were paying the employees. This is not to say that all of them are crooked and maybe they are doing things as legitimately as possible but the fact is they are fearing for their jobs too because they read the same articles about employment opportunities being down and they are worried.

Even in a crunch the right thing to do is still the right thing to do, don’t let the infection of fear cause you to make bad choices or treat someone else the wrong way.

Find an agency you trust and work with them, they will get the right things together and get you what they can honestly. Be honest with them and be flexible as much as you can and give them the guidelines and boundaries you need. That way, things should work out for everybody instead of problems with every verbal transaction that is made.