Dear Employers,
A letter detailing what job seekers wish employers/supervisors would understand
We’re tired. We really are. You say that you are hiring, but really you aren’t? Why is that? Why give us false hope?
Do you understand what it feels like, to send in hundreds of job applications, receive false promises, and then get ghosted out of nowhere? Apparently, not because it’s “standard practice”. Whatever happened to just telling us honestly? To transparency? Because, trust us, as much as your time is valuable, so is ours, so we’re not going to get butthurt over a ‘no’. Yes, it may suck for the moment, but ultimately, we want to know asap whether or not we should move on, rather than anxiously going about our day.
And how about having clear and transparent expectations for new hires? Especially when it comes to promises of professional career development. Don’t raise our hopes up, only to cancel a WHOLE MONTH OF 1:1 meetings that were supposed to train and develop us, leaving us new hires to fend for ourselves.
Where was the communication of a replacement while they were on sick leave?
On top of that, don’t expect us to fulfill your expectations of “reaching the quota” much less a month earlier than when supposed to be ramped up when A WHOLE MONTH of our supposed training is nonexistent, and then throw us under the bus for “lack of communication” when all that we have been doing is communicate with all of our more senior coworkers asking for help to try to get us up to speed even though they themselves need to fulfill your expectations and therefore have a packed schedule. How ironic that the “lack of communication” is really coming from your end yet you’re blaming it on us? Wow. Talk about gaslighting! Toxic much?
If this is coming off as a rant, it is. I find it frustrating that numerous companies are posting fake job postings just to make it seem like their companies are growing. It’s annoying and tells me a lot about your company culture & management. It tells me that transparency is not valued, yet I bet that is something you expect or “value” from your current employees. Not enough time to look through every single job application Then hire more people to help you! Not enough budget for your department to hire more people? Then talk to the accounting/finance department.
Seek solutions like how job seekers actively seek for work.
I find it pretty hypocritical that in the workplace, there exists a double standard between the employer and the employee. During onboarding, expectations are set, of what the employer expects from the employee and vice versa. Expectations are like promises. They shouldn’t be broken. Broken expectations mean broken trust, and once trust is broken, it’s hard to repair it back. Trust is like glass. Once broken, even repaired, you can still see the fine cracks in the glass, a reminder of the damage inflicted.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand that sometimes, the employee is at fault. But how about the other cases? I’ll share my story as an example:
I used to work at a software company where I would obtain potential business clients for our product. The expectations were clear: it was a workplace where self-care was prioritized, that transparency was valued, and that professional development was highly valued, even reimbursed should we choose to continue on to grad school. The pay was ok, especially for a new uni grad. Everyone seemed friendly, and things were going great.
Then my supervisor had to take a whole month off for a medical emergency where surgery was involved. Understandable, of course, and I wished them a speedy recovery.
But then, the cracks were starting to come through.
I knew that with my supervisor gone, I was going to have to take charge of my own training since my supervisor took the month off when I was only 2 months old in the company. Every single day, I networked with my senior coworkers, asking them how to use all the tools I needed to succeed, all the processes, etc. I’m grateful that despite their busy schedules, they were at least able to spare even 30 mins-1 hour, to help me learn. Throughout the time I was going around learning from my coworkers, there was no official sub in for my supervisor to carry those 1:1 meetings that new hires under 90 days were supposed to get.
On top of that, instead of being fully ramped up at the end of the 90-day mark like I was supposed to, I was ramped up at the end of the 60-day mark. Although I did the best I could by bringing at least $60K worth of business to them, unfortunately, my performance wasn’t enough as it wasn’t reaching the quota they set. Which was unsurprising given the circumstances. The “buffer time” they gave me to improve? 1 week.
Just.
One. Week.
And of course, like the foolish little sheep I was, I tried my hardest to oblige. I don’t even know why I didn’t even question the timeframe. I just took it as is.
When the performance improvement didn’t happen at the speed to their liking, they pulled me into a Zoom and told me that that day was my last day. That was Aug 31, 2022. Turns out, I wasn’t the only one affected by this; in fact, it was my entire department.
Several months later, at the time I’m writing this, thankfully, things have gotten better, but they haven’t exactly returned to the way things were, at least financially. At least though, I’m no longer in a toxic work environment, and that’s what counts.
If anything, it makes me have an increased desire to work for myself, rather than for someone else.