Recruiter/reader responds to recent, “If it looks like a rat” advice

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Dear Joan,

I read your recent column giving advice to the person seeking a job in a "specialized field" with a company that he or she had heard terrible things about.  Joan, respectfully, I thought your advice was a bit dangerous and let me explain why I feel this way.

I am currently a recruiter, and formerly managed a staff of 75 employees in a fabulous company.  I found that the employee's tend to fall into three categories-the cheerleaders, the water cooler tribe and the in-betweens.  The Cheerleaders are typically the most successful employees and will probably never leave.  You won’t hear their opinion spoken outside the office too often, as they are too busy in the day-to-day best practices to be expounding on their good fortune.

The water cooler tribe is an extremely tight knit group and when there is a noodle of negative information to be chewed on, these people will spend most of their time getting the word out to anyone who will listen.  Ninety-nine percent of this "chatter" is negative.  If management could take that energy and get it directed into the day-to-day best practices of the Cheerleaders, chances are the water cooler tribe would break up and the company would be better off.

The in-betweens are happy that they have a job and are at their desks at 7:55 am and leave at 4:30 pm.  They tend to laugh at the Cheerleaders and avoid the water cooler crowd like the plague.

So, given this assessment, an outside candidate hearing the misgivings of former employees, are most likely getting the sentiments of the water cooler crowd.  They may be hearing the "woe is me" trials and tribulations of how management was so unfair and eventually they let me go...or I had to get out of there. The company most likely wanted them to leave.

In your article you wrote that the repetitive job posting was a sign that the company is a revolving door.  My clients are consistently hiring the same type of candidate on a monthly basis to keep up with their steady growth. I'd hate to have an assessment of their continuous posting of the same position taken as a sign of turnover.

Chances are that former employees are former employees for a reason...and if that is the source of your conclusion that if a company "looks like a rat, smells like a rat it is a rat"--then I feel badly for strong organizations that do a good job of turning out their water cooler crowd.

My advice is to interview with the company (as you so back-handedly recommend). Yet, interview with them with your strongest and best foot forward. Analyze the duration and tenure of the best employees and sit with them for a day to see what best practices have caused them to be so successful at this company....and avoid the water cooler crowd. 

The Cheerleaders are the one's making all the money and advancing their careers---they just aren't the ones that you are going to hear scuttle butt from because they are way too busy being winners.

Give the company a chance and hold their high standards for employee achievement as a GOOD thing, not as a BAD thing as so many of those water cooler junkies will tell you.

Lastly, I'd be willing to bet you that the folks that used to work at that company and are saying such bad things about it are similarly as unhappy in their new jobs...but quite pleased with the ears and mouths of their new friends at the new water cooler.  Boy do they have something to say about their old company...just DONT listen.

Answer:

I appreciate your letter and think you offer an excellent perspective. The one word of caution I will offer is that your experience and perspective is from someone who has worked at an “excellent company.” In my experience working with excellent companies, they do purge the water cooler crowd—who are unhappy, no matter where they work. After trying to coach them and redirect them to no avail, the company is justified in pushing them out of the organization.

However, I also have much experience with companies whose employees leave them like rats off a ship—and with good reason. Often, those companies are poorly managed and the leaders don’t confront the water cooler crowd and they ignore the Cheerleaders. In these companies, it’s the good employees who leave.

The profile of a poorly run company is typical of the one this reader described. He would make a serious mistake if he went after that job without being highly skeptical-- and talking with everyone he can before he jumps in. I agree that he needs to talk with people who are the Cheerleaders, but from his description, he was going to have to look hard to find any.

He was in a secure job, in a specialty that he describes as hard to find. I’d hate to have him leave his job, only to feel miserable or unemployed later. While my advice to be ultra cautious may seem “dangerous” to you, I feel it would be irresponsible not to warn him in advance.  

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