The Employer Double Standard.
Posted: Friday, July 24, 2009
by By Popular Demand
Todays topic is Employers and employees. With my current work history and experience, I have learned a few things. The most basic being; upon your hire, you and your employer have agreed you will complete functions of the job description for a mutually agreed upon wage...well in some cases you bitterly just accept the wage, but regardless you take the pay. One would think it is common sense that if you chose not to do your job, or more realistically slipped up and got caught not doing your job, your employer would replace you.
One such job was as an Internet sales person for a large Nissan dealership. During the interview it sounded as if I was just going to make a few calls and send emails and such to potential customers in an attempt to set them up for an appointment to come in. Wow, what could be better? I just send a few emails make a few calls and get paid while the poor floor salesmen do all the work. Sounds too good to be true huh? Thats right it was. Upon my hire I learned not only was I one of the poor sales people, but I was a glorified telemarketer not an internet sales professional. As my supervisor put it, we were a phone team not really an internet team. My job was to communicate with the prospects by phone. Prospects who were suckered into giving their info to us in the first place. It was my job to sucker them (yes sucker and yes the car business is underhanded) into setting appointments to come see the car without giving them any info about the car. No there is no better way to put it, as all car business moves tricks or gimmicks to get people to buy. If you are curious about these tricks keep an eye out for my next article. Anyway we did this by calling people who didn't want to be called repeatedly until they answered.
Now looking back at that job, it is probably safe to say I would have been fired my first day if I told my boss: I wasn't going to speak with, nor email any customers, and rather than worry about setting appointments I was just going to surf the internet. Infact I probably would have been fired within my first hour. Hmmm, so I can be punished for lying during my interview and saying I will do my job duties, yet an employer can promise whatever they want to but not deliver once I, or the countless other employees that keep answering the add, start the job?
Now that one, I will admit, I should have seen coming. It was afterall a car dealership. I fell for one hell of a sales pitch. Now my childcare position on the other hand, their deception I did not see coming. Seeing as how I had experience in the field, I applied for a site director position. I was then offered a position. Notice I didn't say site director position. Anyway I accepted with the understanding I would be doing the described childcare duties during my probationary period of three months, the get a raise and promotion. Three months later I have been in charge of a site during the afternoon shift and got all the responsibility of a site director. The way my luck works this is not a good thing though. I not only get none of the pay of a site director, but now theres budget cuts and no raises.> Gasp! I can't believe I was lied to by an employer. Yes I realize things happen, but the economy didn't just take a dump it has been bad for a while. Which means yes, the organization had plenty of time to budget and plan for this summer. Meaning yes, They lied and had no problem just using people so that they could protect their jobs.
The pattern I am seeing is that people are leaving crap positions like the one I just described. The reason being, obviously, that the jobs are no good. Employers are having trouble filling positions, and keeping them full. So, in these economic times where people are holding onto jobs like a fat girl holds onto a guy at last call, it is much easier to bait an employee in by lying. Keeping them around eventhough they are unhappy doing something they didn't sign up for is easier these days because times are so uncertain that quitting without notice could land you out of work for six months.
The moral of the story; well there really isn't one, and I have now forgotten the point I was getting at. Ha ha, well, since we can't control who chooses to lie to us, and who tells us the truth. In all honesty this was a bit of a rant, and a piece for people frustrated with thier jobs to read, relate to, and hopefully get all my readers thinking. Sometimes its better to stick with something and see it through, rather than up and leave or quit. Aha that will be the moral of the story; hopping from job to job will only hurt you in the long run, not the employer.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Rasham, obviously you have had a bad experience. The answer to the question you pose is easy, though not easy to do. The company is owned by someone else and you can't control what they do, but you can control what you do. If you can put your head on your pillow at night and know you did the best job you could do, you have done your part. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what the other person does...it matters what you do. Sadly, many feel like they can do "whatever" because someone else does it. I hope you have a better future experience. Welcome to Searchwarp!
Thank you for the welcome. Yeah...well a lotta bad experiences maybe its more prevalent here(in nm), but employers tend to say one thing and deliver another all the time. For example I answered an add that stated the position was customer relations. They also told me(by phone) their product was to help people with asthma and other breathing problems. Once I showed up for orientation I learned that the job was actually for a door to door vaccuum salesman. Needless to say I walked out, but this is the kind of blatant lying I can't stand.
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