Unreasonable Job expectations/requests

[Cameramonkey]

I listen to Spanish language radio while driving to help me improve my language skills and there's a *lot* of job openings advertised there. Family Dollar is having interviews in English and Spanish, as are several others. There's a lot of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs advertised in the $16-$25/hr range. I don't know what you're paying, but if I get fired tomorrow I'm going to go spread mulch.

Wait, is that another euphemism?

 

[d.kaufman]

I listen to Spanish language radio while driving to help me improve my language skills and there's a *lot* of job openings advertised there. Family Dollar is having interviews in English and Spanish, as are several others. There's a lot of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs advertised in the $16-$25/hr range. I don't know what you're paying, but if I get fired tomorrow I'm going to go spread mulch.

Pay will depend on experience. Lower end is $20 per hour (1-2 years experience) but if someone has 5 years or more experience it could be upwards of $28-30 per hour. It's a physical job but laid back setting. 40 hour work week and no weekends.

Had a guy come in this morning that seen my ad. Zero experience other than he pulled a trans out of a 70s camero 20 years ago and has no tools. No quite what I'm looking for. I have no time to babysit and go back and fix screw ups

 

[Expat]

Here, go from 3 people with 35 years experience to two trainees and be happy about it...

 

[snapping turtle]

To the second original question:

When pressured to give an answer I do not have the answer to or the answer is most likely no what the receiving party wants to hear I:
One :Take a few seconds (the guy I learned from would take the dip out of back pocket flip wrist twice and insert dip in lip) I don’t wait that long but the silence is needed.

Two: I always state: “That is a good question.” Giving the person who asked a little pat on the back.

Three: then I ask “who should I call when I have the answer? “ Puts the power into my control as to when I call and keeps the unnecessary from calling me back or multiple people calling me back. This also lets me get with the powers that be above me to find out what the heck to do about it. I often know answer alreadly.

When in these meetings I used to believe I had to answer everything instantly. Have an answer to everything that was asked of me. That’s good for sales. Not for service or project manager situations.

 

[radar8756]

...
Two: I always state: “That is a good question.” Giving the person who asked a little pat on the back.
...

This must be taught in Idiot class ---
Of course its a good question - that's why they asked
People want the Answer - not a participation trophy

 

[spencer rifle]

Being in a low-pressure profession, the usual worst I get are things like "I have a bird in my yard and it's brown what is it" and crappy photos that people want ID on.
It helps that my boss doesn't understand my job at all so I rarely get requests of any kind, unreasonable or otherwise.

 

[WebSnyper]

This must be taught in Idiot class ---
Of course its a good question - that's why they asked
People want the Answer - not a participation trophy

yep, well known deflection to buy time, etc.

That said, the rest of his post seemed like good tactics to me.

 

[snapping turtle]

This must be taught in Idiot class ---
Of course its a good question - that's why they asked
People want the Answer - not a participation trophy

The answer is the trophy and we always hand out donuts for participation. We are talking about unreasonable expectations here not normal. Example

“Why is the break room tv not yet installed?”
Answer “Because the break room wall has no drywall installed on it yet?”

That is an easy answer but throws the dry wall company under the bus. The dry wall company who has let you use the boom lift in the stairwell saving you a few days of equipment rental. So you answer “That a good question let me find out and call you”

a quick text to the drywall company who then has his guys hang the drywall and start tapping and finishing immediately. The next day you call them. “The tv is not yet hung because the wall is not ready to hand the TV”.” By the time the they find out what’s up the drywall is finished and the painters get the blame. (Painter always get the shaft).

You score points the the drywall guy to keep the lift access, the tv gets hung on the wall eventually. The painters get to work OT on Saturday. If I had answered. “Because there’s no drywall on the wall” I would be ordering a lift from the rental company

 

[WebSnyper]

My job is fantastic and I have very few of these types of issues, but it's due to my own caution with things like a blind phone call. I'm not available for those, ever, unless it's my direct manager or CISO. Everyone else gets to go to voicemail. Even meetings and calls that aren't blind will sometimes go like that.

I work with vendors as part of my job and will never accept a meeting request from them unless I know exactly what the meeting is about. I do risk assessments for solutions vendors are trying to bring into the hospital. Often, they'll try to get a meeting where I go through all ~200 questions with them over the phone, which is not ever going to happen. Now I just tell them, if you have questions about specific questions, we can meet to go over them so that you know what's being asked, but I need to receive the questionnaire back with all of your responses for archive purposes. It's an attestation based process so verbal responses are frowned upon because there's always a layer of interpretation, which could skew results. Much better to be spelled out in writing.

Don't get me wrong, I'm customer focused and make sure the vendors don't have any questions and are clear on what's being asked, but I can't afford to be roped into calls that aren't productive.

Agreed, and as a vendor/support/service provider, I try and always provide at least a draft agenda, and like you try and get questions in advance, etc. If I receive a request from a customer for a meeting with no agenda, context, I usually push back a bit to get that info, in order to be prepared, bring along proper resources, etc.

It is kind if amazing how many folks have no idea how to at least attempt to make a call productive and hopefully have the right folks attend. Also, letting someone know if they are optional or really a required participant is a good thing as well.

It goes both ways, and makes things a lot more productive.

 

[wtburnette]

Agreed, and as a vendor/support/service provider, I try and always provide at least a draft agenda, and like you try and get questions in advance, etc. If I receive a request from a customer for a meeting with no agenda, context, I usually push back a bit to get that info, in order to be prepared, bring along proper resources, etc.

It is kind if amazing how many folks have no idea how to at least attempt to make a call productive and hopefully have the right folks attend. Also, letting someone know if they are optional or really a required participant is a good thing as well.

It goes both ways, and makes things a lot more productive.

It's amazing how many vendors react to my email with the risk assessment with a request for a meeting. I have a template for a response that saves me a lot of time and headaches.

 

[radar8756]

yep, well known deflection to buy time, etc.

That said, the rest of his post seemed like good tactics to me.

I do agree with Point 3 - let me call you back

The biggest offender of Point 2 seems to be Politicians - which makes me even madder ... probably because they also change the subject and never answer the original question

 

[Tactically Fat]

Well, my job takes me to Gary, East Chicago, and Hammond semi-regularly...

I'm in Hammond right now, actually.

 

[actaeon277]

I’m a professional cat herder and amateur project manager, I could go on for hours.......

you have us all beat

 

[two70]

This must be taught in Idiot class ---
Of course its a good question - that's why they asked
People want the Answer - not a participation trophy

You must either be lucky enough to only deal with exceptional people or be lucky enough not to have to deal with people often if you can conclude than any question asked was a good question or any question to which the answer is not immediately known is a good one.

 

[Ark]

This week I learned that, apparently, expecting prospective employers to keep an interview appointment without ghosting you is an unreasonable expectation.

3 scheduled this week, 2 ghosted, hoping tomorrows doesn't literally hang a sign on the office door and take the day off.

 

[HoughMade]

Well, my job takes me to Gary, East Chicago, and Hammond semi-regularly...

I'm in Hammond right now, actually.

Hey, me too...and every day.

 

[wtburnette]

This week I learned that, apparently, expecting prospective employers to keep an interview appointment without ghosting you is an unreasonable expectation.

3 scheduled this week, 2 ghosted, hoping tomorrows doesn't literally hang a sign on the office door and take the day off.

Sorry to hear that. Good luck with the interview tomorrow.

 

[target64]

I guess I have unreasonable expectations of my workers .

One guy today could not figure it out why he got sent home after being at work for only one hour. He was confused as to why I expected him to work during work hours and do personal stuff during his personal time.

 

[Hatin Since 87]

Holding +/-.0001 on a diameter on a lathe, .0002 concentricity, and .0005 on the length to the shoulder. We have a Zeiss cmm to check it, and can email the customer the inspection report straight from the cmm. Today, the inspector said it was .0001 over the high limit. Checking with micrometers, I got it -.0001 from mean dimension, so on the low limit, which will allow for plating. He kept telling me to drop it because his cmm showed it’s over, regardless what mics check it at. I had 3 people check it with micrometers, set up gage blocks to roll it under an indicator, and probed it in the mill with the probe to see what it said.

All micrometer checks and rolling under indicator showed .0001 under mean. Probing on the mill showed it exactly on the mean. The inspector is mad (baby) because I had other people check to see what they got, and they disagreed with him. The entire day he wouldn’t check anything else I did or talk to me, so at the time clock I asked him if I brought him a lollipop tomorrow if we could play on the swing set together again.

He ignored me and clocked out :/

 

[yote hunter]

Sounds like your smarter then those on the other end of them calls so if they don’t like your answers just tell them to pound sand & move on.