Talent Manager's Journal
What are you doing with all that talent?
Talent Manager’s Journal amuse-bouche #33
Posted by on December 6, 2011
Sorry, we can’t make an exception.
You finally started the new job you worked so hard to get. A nice tidy offer from a major financial institution. Sitting in orientation you cover a mountain of paperwork, policies, and list of rules and regs as long as your arm. One new hire speaks up and says. ” Who do I inform about taking a few hours off to attend a court date I have? I will have to do a half day to make it. ” The trainer says, ” We can’t make an accommodation like that since you are new and have not build up any flex time. Sorry, we can’t make an exception.”
What a lousy first impression. What a signal to send to a new hire. Why not just tell the person, ” We really don’t care what you need to do. Just make sure your personal life doesn’t interfere with your work obligations.”
Any surprise that new hire didn’t return from lunch?
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Doug – - –
Good story … and good for your friend for walking out and not coming back. The unfortunate thing is that lots of folks can’t walk out and have to suffer in silence, so to speak — creating immediate resentment, dis-engagement, etc. To your point, in the end, the company loses far more than the two hours they would have “lost” (only in theory, not in cash, of course) if they had made an “exception” for the new employee. So short-sighted … but, sadly, probably emblematic of lots of other dysfunctional elements in their corporate culture, I would imagine.
I thought the strangest thing about it was the fact that it was a well known bank. I see lots of skeleton crews in branches these days. You would think they could let the person off for an afternoon to go to a court date. Not like he had to go wash his car or something.