December 2017 HR Bulletin

December 2017 HR Bulletin

Just When You Thought You’d Seen It All…

As HR professionals, we see the good, the bad, the ugly… and the downright hilarious. Our Consultants are often asked, “Do other companies have these kinds of issues?” As 2017 comes to a close, below are a few stories to make you smile and remind you that you’re not alone!

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A retail company was hiring for front-line customer service positions paid between $8-10 an hour. A well-dressed middle-aged man came in with a briefcase, a leather satchel, and his laptop. The interviewer reported the following conversation: During the interview, he started by telling me that I shouldn’t even start talking unless I was prepared to match his current job’s $60,000 salary. I reminded him that these jobs were entry-level jobs that paid accordingly and he told me that I had five minutes to “Wow” him into accepting a job. I give him a cursory rundown of the job and he let me know that he’ll settle for $45,000 in salary, but he can only work 7am-4pm because that’s when his mom is available to drop him off and pick him up. In an effort to conclude the interview, I let him know that we would keep his information on file. He stopped me and said he’ll take an entry level job if I let him use my phone to call his mom to come pick him up.

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An employment application received by Sierra HR listed a former position as “Self Employed: Marijuana Dealer.” (The candidate was not contacted for an interview.)

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An employee claimed that her supervisor was creating a hostile work environment by repeatedly asking her out when she wasn’t interested. She reported this claim to Human Resources. When HR investigated her complaint, the supervisor was dumb-struck and said he never asked her out, would never ask out a direct report, and rarely even had a conversation with her. After talking to all possible witnesses in the department, no one had ever seen or heard of any personal interaction between the supervisor and the employee. While reporting the preliminary findings to the employee, she disclosed that she was certain of his interest in her because she ‘had an extra brain cell’ that allowed her to ‘read his mind’. She knew in her mind that he was asking her out. How do you handle mental-telepathy harassment?!

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Sierra HR Partners was asked to conduct exit interviews and separation procedures for a client whose business was closing. Employees’ final workdays were pre-determined as each department wrapped up operations, and exit meetings were planned every week for approximately two months. Staff became accustomed to seeing our Consultant enter the building with a stack of paperwork to be completed, and the announcement to other employees quickly became a source of amusement for everyone: “The Terminator is here for you!”

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A supervisor at a newspaper called the HR department because an employee’s mother showed up with the employee for his performance review. She said she felt it was just like a ‘parent-teacher’ conference, and that her help would probably be needed to make sure her son met work standards. The son was 22.

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