Today I was supposed to be training a new girl who is taking over from Steve one of much loved team members who is off to greener pastures. Its such a shame that Steve has decided to leave but the pep talk that I had with him I told him that he had to do what he had to do. There is no point in staying in a workplace if its boring you, not challenging you, or if you aren’t satisfied anymore.
Secretly I’m sort of envious that he had the guts to go. Like I have said I don’t love my job I just do it to pay the bills. His new job sounds like a dream job and I’m left feeling a tad suspicious as I find it hard to believe that your dream job is out there. I always think that’s a far away fantasy that doesn’t exist. Shit I’m sounding cynical.
As I was saying, I received a resume from a lady by the name of Lauren who is a 24 year old single mother who had two children aged 9 & 10. Yes stop reading and start counting on your fingers. Do your maths, she was pregnant at 13!!! Each to his own I say and for this reason I really wanted to give this girl a go. I thought to myself lets give this girl a chance, lets just interview her and give the youth of today a go. It appeared to me that this girl had a hard tough life and I couldn’t imagine being 13 and pregnant and now in the prime of her youth when she should be out partying and sleeping around and having a blast she is instead left raising two children on her own.
I put the resume under my immediate boss Claudia’s nose. Her initial response was a no as she didn’t really have much experience and thought that having a mum of two would cause this girl taking time off during school holidays, and calling in sick if one of her children were to be sick and all that stupid stigma that is involved with hiring single parents.
I spent hours trying to convince Claudia otherwise and threw all my arguments out. I sat at Claudia’s desk and exclaimed “Give the girl a break” only to have Claudia respond with “She hasn’t enough experience” then I said “Lets just interview her, if she is shit and unpresentable then we say no, its just an interview, a simple little interview, what’s 10 minutes out of schedule to chat to her one on one?” Claudia’s response was “ok an interview we will grant but if this turns to shit its on your head”.
I was chuffed that Claudia had agreed to give the girl a break. Claudia rang her and asked her a million questions over the phone and within 2 hours we had Lauren sitting in front of us, nervous as hell and being drilled by two sergeants. The sergeants being Claudia and myself.
After the interview Claudia wasn’t really impressed for whatever reason and I sat in Claudia’s office pleading with her to just give this kid a break and if it didn’t work out then I would carry the extra workload and not complain about it. With that we shook on it.
I rang Lauren with the good news a day later and she was stoked to finally have a job and was so thankful that we had given her, a single mother, a chance. She promised me that she would never let me down and kept thanking me over and over again. We agreed that she would start working with us as from Tuesday, today, and I asked her to come in at 9am and we would show her around and start training her up on the telephones.
Last night I gave my work colleagues the pep talk and told them to just give this girl a chance, to be patient with her, to show her the ropes and so forth. I had convinced the work crew that this was a great decision and we would be helping a single mother of two and we were all doing a great thing for the community and for a human being!
Well why did I even bother to going to so much trouble and so much effort for nothing? You see I got to work nice and early and set up Lauren’s desk and got our policy manual out and ready for her and then I sat and waited, and waited, and waited and waited some more and some more and some more. By 9.30am I walked in front of the office building thinking maybe she got lost, maybe she cant find a car space. Basically I was giving the kid the benefit of the doubt and really wanted her to prove the others wrong and I wanted her to succeed and have a great paying job and to finally get her off the dole, and make her realise her self-worth.
By 10am I got the “I told you so” looks from everyone around me and then the verbal ridicule followed especially the line “what else did you expect from a no-hoper”. Lauren was a no show. What has me fuming is that she didn’t even have the common courtesy to call my direct number and say she wasn’t coming in. I think I could have coped with her telling me a downright lie and have said something like “I got another job” anything! Anything would have been better than not showing up.
I swear that this is the last time in my professional life that I ever, and I mean ever, give someone a go, a chance, the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully this happened for a reason and the right candidate is just around the corner.
Lesson learned!
DH
xoxo
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