TWERKS 7/6 Edition

[erinshelley21]

I'm still mostly in limbo on whether or not I want to leave the self-employed life. I reeeeeally like the perks but reeeeeally hate the stress that this job has caused me for the very little amount of money that I make from it. I'm also having a difficult time envisioning life without the flexibility. Although I just came up with a solution to the current situation that would be a problem so I guess everything would just sort of work out. According to my mom, my brother is now leaning towards getting out all together too since the government will probably force us out in a few years anyways.

DH still has not made up his mind on whether he wants to move or not. He is the one that is the unhappiest in our current house, so I'm trying to be patient. But I'm also on a mission to decorate it and keep pointing out the positives to living where we live so he'll decide staying is the best choice. I'm ready to get started on the renovations.

Basically my entire life is in the "shit or get off the pot" stage and I need some stuff to start happening before I lose my f'ing mind.

[frozenpeas]

I'm always good for an update on my recruiting/hiring woes. Brief recap--

entry-level position
reports to my direct report
1st hire lasted less than 3 full days due to inability to modify time/space/train schedules to her liking
HR forgot to post job for several weeks
HR posted wrong job
HR & candidates lost ability to tell time/navigate time zones resulting in missed phone interviews

I think that's where I left it last. After a few more missteps with potential candidates (more blown off phone interviews, one likely candidate poached by another dept), we are ready to make an offer. And now HR changed the process.

He has to come in for one more interview (this is #4--2 phone, 2 in-person, and at least the 6th person he's interviewed with). For an entry level position.

And instead of HR, the hiring manager (my direct report) has to perform the reference checks (3). Which have been enhanced to 11 multi-part questions. For an entry level position.

My direct is way too swamped to do this--which is exactly why I need to hire someone to help him asap--so I am spending my Friday chasing down old soccer coaches & former supervisors from life guarding jobs this kid had 2 summers ago. Because again (say it with me), this is FOR AN ENTRY LEVEL POSITION. 3 professional references for someone just out of college is a tall order.

Side question--do hiring managers perform reference checks where you work, or does HR? I've never had to do them before (especially for this low-level of a hire) and I've already lodged all the complaints. But is this the norm and I've just been lucky?

[akafred]

frozenpeas, I'm pretty sure no one actually checks references where I work. They just want you to have them.

[mommyatty]

frozenpeas - our HR has a contractor that checks references as part of the background check we run. That's it.

Ok, remember how DH was so miserable in his job that we decided he would quit and SAH for 2 years? He just got called to interview next week for another job. I'm trying to decide if that's good news or bad news. He applied for this job so long ago, he had forgotten about it. I'm not sure he would be any happier.

[akafred]

Jul 7, 2017 11:28:18 GMT -5 mommyatty said:

frozenpeas - our HR has a contractor that checks references as part of the background check we run. That's it.

Ok, remember how DH was so miserable in his job that we decided he would quit and SAH for 2 years? He just got called to interview next week for another job. I'm trying to decide if that's good news or bad news. He applied for this job so long ago, he had forgotten about it. I'm not sure he would be any happier.

Well I hope he knocks em dead in the interview and gets to face a tough decision.

[saraml13]

frozenpeas, +1 that many places don't even check references, although they usually ask for them at some point in the process. When they do check, it's done by HR or by the outside recruiting firm that sourced the candidate. The only case where I would see the hiring manager maybe contacting a reference directly is if the reference is someone in the hiring manager's network and the hiring manager wants to get the inside scoop versus the official HR answer.

[k3am]

frozenpeas, in my industry, for entry level, we don't bother checking references. For higher up levels, if we're hiring in market, we back channel and don't check references. (Ie: We're hiring Bob. Bob used to work with Joan while she was at their prior company. Let's talk to Joan about Bob.)

[k3am]

erinshelley21, please don't fall into the trap of thinking that full-time, working for someone else type work doesn't offer flexibility.

I stayed with my old company because they gave me so much flexibility in dealing with DD's health issues since I'd been working there for 8 years. It was one of my BIGGEST hesitations in leaving. I *needed* that flexibility. When other pain points became too much and I moved, I found out... I actually get MORE flexibility here. And I get SUPPORT here. Within the first 5 months, I found out that DD was going to need brain surgery and I was going to be having a baby. And no one blinked.

[twinmomma]

frozenpeas, HR handles all that for us. I've never done more than have an actual interview with the candidate. Everything else is handled by other people who tell me it's all set.

[twinmomma]

Jul 7, 2017 11:49:48 GMT -5 k3am said:

erinshelley21 , please don't fall into the trap of thinking that full-time, working for someone else type work doesn't offer flexibility.

I stayed with my old company because they gave me so much flexibility in dealing with DD's health issues since I'd been working there for 8 years. It was one of my BIGGEST hesitations in leaving. I *needed* that flexibility. When other pain points became too much and I moved, I found out... I actually get MORE flexibility here. And I get SUPPORT here. Within the first 5 months, I found out that DD was going to need brain surgery and I was going to be having a baby. And no one blinked.

I agree 100%. I thought I had great "flexibility" at my last job, when I worked for a small business. Turns out, when you work for a big, real company like I do now, the flexibility and accommodations are at a whole new level. I often felt like I worked for myself at my last job because of the level of responsibility and stress I had there and it is so nice to feel like I can leave work at work now. 

[xctsclrx]

frozenpeas,no one even asked for my references when I was hired here, but even right out of college I had more professional references than a soccer coach. I had my manager during my internship, My senior project adviser and my ROTC instructors, plus 2 professors that I had for several classes and I was the nerd to participated in classes.

That is a lot of work for an entry level person though. Odd.

[erinshelley21]

k3am, twinmomma, definitely needed to hear that.

[greenmonkey1]

erinshelley21 I am going to third the previous comments about self-employment being inherently more flexible than working for someone else. DH is self-employed and he quotes flexibility as one of the reasons why he does not want to look for a different job. Except in my opinion his job has zero flexibility. Sure he has some time flexibility on the daily that I do not have working for an employer. But we rarely take a vacation because he has no coverage and if something happens nights/weekends that's all on him too. When I had postpartum complications he was trying to negotiate something for work. He took 0 paternity leave with any of the three kids (and there were issues with all three).

You might find that working for an employer is actually more flexible and less stressful. Plus, you might end up making more money when you take into consideration total compensation.

[k3am]

This is obviously an update to nothing, but I'm happy about it.

DH is a consultant. He's on a shitty client and working at the google campus. Our neighbor contracts at google, so they have the same badge type. And our neighbor let us know that as a contractor at google, we qualify for 15% off at daycare. That's close to $500 A MONTH.

Do you know how much wine/how many pedicures/pairs of shoes/whatevers I can spend that money on?

[mellym]

frozenpeas, I can't imagine we check references for an entry level position. It's usually 1-2 interviews and then, when can you start? HR handles all of our background checks.

[billie]

frozenpeas that seems really excessive for an entry level position

[callmekd]

k3am thanks for the update. Will keep thinking of you!

[k3am]

We're scheduled for 9/6.

[mustardseed2007]

I'm glad you have a date k3am.

[k3am]

56 days. It's a LONG wait.

They tried to schedule us for 8/2, but we already have a vacation scheduled. #priorities.