Shitlist – part 1

As a preface to what is to come I feel I should add that over all October had been a good month. Some very nice things happened, and as fellow blogger Happy Frog and I, noted: it is easier to list the bad things (paraphrasing there). However there some things that try as one might, I cannot let them wash over me.

First off: recruitment consultants.

They exist for the sole purpose of finding others work be it permanent, contract or temporary/freelance. They do not do it out of the goodness of their hearts, they get paid for their efforts. Say, for arguments sake they charge the end client £30 per hour for an individual's services, they take FROM £5 an hour of that for themselves. Multiply that by the number of freelancers on their books and it is sure to be a tidy sum.

Now I don't begrudge them earning a living, especially as their contacts enable me to earn one too. The bit I have a problem with is their attitude when it comes to returning calls and emails.

A bit of back story is required here: I work freelance - not through choice, I was made redundant last August and since then I have been mostly gainfully employed save the odd hiatus. I am also looking for a permanent position should the right one present itself. It is this bit of the recruitment agencies 'behaviour' that I have particular issue with. In the first instance, if an agency suggests and puts a candidate forward for a role, I feel they are entitled to feedback just as if they had attended an interview. Yet more and more, I find myself chasing these people for an answer and in effect doing their job for them.

On one occasion I attended an interview at which the client admitted they had cast the net wide as they were not sure what kind of person they needed. Fast forward 2 months and after numerous emails to the agency, I contacted the client direct to ask what the outcome was (I could guess I hadn't been successful given the time that had elapsed, but I wanted an answer) I was told that none of the initial batch of interviewees had been what they were looking for and she would have thought that after all this time I would have taken it to be a no. How rude!

In another case, I regularly contacted the agency to be repeatedly told that the client had not contacted them in ages, and then they tell me that the position has been filled. Sometimes I wonder what if anything these people do all day. It certainly isn't what one would expect them to do. Had they bothered to contact the client rather than waiting for them to get in touch maybe I wouldn't be writing this.

Stop having 'meetings' and leave facebook alone and do your job. I there are expectations on both sides. I am expected to be on time polite etc (nothing surprising there) also as I get paid by the hour, I am expected to keep busy. Permanant staff can goof off when work is slow. If it slows too much I get sent home (without pay I might add). This has happened on a couple of occasions when work has dried up or not come in. Full timers get to play on the internet, but I get to go home. On a few occasions this has even led to bookings being cut short or cancelled. Now I know that sometimes that can't be helped, but surely if you book someone for a week then after 2 days the work has dried up then someone needs to think about how they manage their resources. You might say that they were being kind in how they dispensed with my services as I was not what they wanted. Why then would they extend an initial 2 day booking to over a month? I think I have found the answer and that is that people are (mostly) human and the grim reality is that some are not good at their jobs and some hate theirs.


I have to be careful here not to segue into another rant entirely, but this problem is one that affects all customer facing roles. How many times have you been into a shop to be faced with a surly assistant? If you don't want to deal with the public get another job.




Right then, that's installment one, at an end. I could go on, but I'll save that for the next one... who will be caught in my cross-hairs next?

Shitlist – preface

When i get mad
And i get pissed
I grab my pen
And i write out a list
Of all the people
That won't be missed
You've made my shitlist

For all the ones
Who bum me out
For all the ones
Who fill my head with doubt
For all the squares who get me pissed
You've made my shitlist

When i get mad
And i get pissed
I grab my pen
And write out a list
Of all you assholes
Who won't be missed
You've made my shitlist



Now, I think that has set the scene... sometimes you just need to vent your spleen...

As one blogger told me: "It's good to remember the positive and it is often so much easier to focus on the negative".
However, sometime a bit of ranting and railing can be cathartic, and hopefully amusing and informative at the same time...

Living in London and enduring the daily commute means that this list will have a never ending supply of candidates...

Oh and being ejected from a blog for apparently being: ignorant, inaccurate, witless, bickering and patriarchy promoting doesn't even register a blip on my radar - especially as I am right in that instance. No more details - no free adverts here - not unless I decide to give them. I don't have any fixed rules for this site and as Groucho Marx once said: I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.

Make of that lot what you will and prepare for the onslaught.