by I was at a party recently and managed to get cornered by “that guy.” You know the one…you are just nice enough too and now he won’t stop talking to you. So there I was cornered, trying to be polite but also scanning the room for an escape hatch. The conversation took an interesting turn when he found out I worked in HR.
Not sure about the rest of you but when I tell people I work in HR, I typically get asked every question under the sun about company policies, benefits, is something legal, etc; Maybe it’s just me but I have spent time at a gathering explaining FMLA…ugh
Anyway, “that guy”, lets call him Peter, asked me what I thought of hiring people who were unemployed. I responded that it was a non-factor if they could do the job, pass a background check, blah, blah, blah. Peter then explained to me why he wasn’t comfortable hiring someone unemployed… Yes, folks I got to meet the “I don’t want to hire the unemployed” guy. I’ve heard about these creatures but never met one.
His reasoning was fairly typical: if someone gets laid off it’s because they were a bad performer or lackluster. A company wouldn’t lay off a superstar.
As loyal readers, you know I was recently laid off. Listening to Peter I had quite a few responses I was contemplating, some polite, some not so polite. I choose the middle road and pointed out to him that in his profession (IT) it wasn’t uncommon for people to get laid off as IT (like HR) tends to get outsourced, downsized, offshored first. He did the smile and nod thing, then discovered he was hungry and wanted an appetizer…
What struck me was his complete lack of understanding of the frailty of his own situation. Where has this guy been living and working for the last four years? Trust me it wasn’t a superstar technology firm like Apple or Google. How does he not realize that more and more jobs in fields like HR, IT, and payroll are being outsourced?
This experience coincided with a conversation I had with a friend of mine who informed me they decided not to maintain their CPA. I was disappointed to hear that because I know how much work she put into getting and maintaining that. But I was also disappointed because it is a valuable designation. I know someone who maintained their CPA and was able to find valuable part time work doing taxes when they got laid off. Is this what she wanted to do for the rest of her career? No but at least it was good stream of income besides unemployment. My friend though doesn’t foresee a situation where she will ever need her CPA.
The moral of the story here? I’m really scared about the complacency I see in people. Both of the people I’ve mentioned are relatively young and nowhere near retirement. They are intelligent, well-informed and college educated but they are thinking “it won’t happen to me.”
I’m scared when I hear people talking about not hiring the unemployed when they could one day easily be on the other side. I’m scared that people are not maintaining critical skills in their field, much less obtaining new ones.
Maybe I’ve been scarred by personal and professional experience but I don’t think so. I think there are a lot of people who don’t realize the game has changed and changed dramatically.
Get off the couch, stop Facebooking and start thinking about what you are doing to learn new skills. STOP thinking it won’t happen to you…the world is changing at a pace we can’t begin to comprehend, how are you going to adapt if you refuse to see the changes already happening around you?
Related articles
- Data Point #1: Unemployment Rate vs. Layoff Data (chinagorman.com)
Funny how people think that joblessness will never happen to them. Most workers will be laid off or fired at some point in there life. It’s how you respond that’s important.
Rock.Onward.
Could not agree more. Thanks for the comment.
Your point is valid. I don’t consider someone’s current employment status when determining their suitability for a job. There was a time that may have been a factor, but that was years ago. I do however consider the situation of how they came to be unemployed. I am leery of people that quit their jobs without a new job to go to. Unless there was an unusual circumstance, I think it is a reckless thing to do and it makes me question their judgment. A very timely post.
Yes absolutely, big difference between losing a job through layoff as opposed to just up and quitting. Thanks for the comment!
People quit their jobs without another one to go to for many reasons. While it may be possible that the person was ‘reckless’ it is more likely they had a very good reason. Just one example: we are told by all the ‘experts’ to never, ever say anything negative about a previous employer; yet there are some very bad workplaces with unfettered harassment or safety issues etc. and sometimes quitting is the best choice-not a reckless one. Yet the person who quits for any of those reasons can not say so in an interview. There are plenty of other perfectly good reasons to quit a job without first having another one just as many excellent employees get laid off because for reasons beyond their control.
It never ceases to amaze me the way so many people use inadequate rational in why/why not they would consider someone for a job. It is not more okay to apply a label of reckless to a person who quit a job without one to go to than it is okay to apply a label to one who was laid off. It really is not okay.
Excellent points Karin! I think half the battle is acknowledging that we are all biased in different ways. Its human nature. Once you recognize and acknowledge your own biases, it\’s much easier to see how frequently we act on them.
Ah, the ongoing challenge of first recognizing, then catching ourselves inappropriately using our bias is what keeps HR practitioners on their toes. Or at least I hope it keeps them there 🙂 I catch myself often enough and then wonder how many times I might not have caught it.
The persception that someone is less talented or skilled or enthusiastic because they are unemployed if beyond flawed. It used to be said that finding a job was always easier from a job, not something I ever believed in personally. Those with that level of compacency in their life could have a very rude awakening, there are no jobs for life anymore haven’t been for decades, to more it says more about why someone wouldn’t want to work for them. Inevitably their reality check will find them and bring home how reckless that way of thinking can be.
Yes the days of a job for life are over…people need to always be thinking of their next steps. Thanks for the comment!