What do you think?

hell yeah!

The recruitment profession reminds me of the slave trade (in that their commodity is people..  they are trading people), some are a bit like a pimp.


Hubbys former profession was in recruitment...   but he treated each of his candidates as individuals..     I used to call him Angel, the Recruiter with a soul.

When he got made redundant, he had to go through the system as a candidate...  he was shocked at how badly all of the agencies & recruiters he dealt with, treated him.     there was something quite satisfying about him getting the job he is in now via an advert in the paper...  robbing the soul suckers from making a profit out of him.

The thing to remember is that they are there to serve their own interests first, then the companies they place people with, and the workers are at the bottom of the heap. I do think that most of them will do anything for comission.
Before I became too ill to work I used to temp with an agency, taking any job they sent me to. The last placement I had they were paying me about 7 quid an hour - and they were only giving me that as I told them that I couldn't work for less. They also said that as I was getting that much I'd have to waive my rights to paid holiday! I was at the company for over 4 months; the company tried constantly to get me to take the job full time as they were so pleased with me but I didn't really like the job so I turned them down. One of the women I'd got friendly with in accounts said to me one day " I'm not surprised you don't want to take the job here, which was paying about 8-9 quid an hour as you can earn so much more temping! Turned out the agency were billing them 19 quid an hour for me!! Profiteering bar stewards. I worked another two weeks and then told the agency to stuff it and why.

19 quid an hour!   FFS.  I thought they got like a tenner an hour and gave the temp about seven.  Seems mad that companies actually pay this to the agencies..surely it'd make more sense to take someone on permanently for seven quid an hour.  I used to temp in the late 80s/early 90s, and I actually loved it, but with financial commitments and a family, it's a bit difficult to do it, because we need a certain income each week to survive and if the agency couldnt provide the work, we would struggle.  Thats why eventually I got a permanent job.  I liked it at the time though.  No idea what its like now however.

When I left work they wanted me to go back on contract. My working days are over but I had a bit of fun with them trying to negotiate my own deal.

yeah Veggie...   I used to temp too...    and more than once the company wanted to take me on permanently...   every time the agency nearly lost me the job by demanding ridiculous amounts of money to buy me off them.


Hubby recruited at the upper end of the market (management consultants, and then Legal staff)..  and one of the worst things I saw going on (not by hubby, but by the others) was them not putting the ideal candidate in the ideal job...  they'd aim to make an "ok" match between candidate & client...  hoping that the candidate would want to move on after a couple of years, and come back to that recruiter to be placed again.    So wrong.

I was shocked Sparkles, I don't think that is the norm but this company was a huge Japanese tech company and if you've ever worked for a Japanese company or in that industry then you'll know that they pay big salaries but have rigorous standards and once they find someone they think fits the profile then they will pay to keep them. I thnk the agency were hinting that I was looking to be placed elsewhere and saying that they had to pay me more to keep me in situ! I liked the company but I was looking to work in housing not tech or I would have taken the job full time.

hahahaha Joe!

yeah I've seen that happen too Ditty. They make a lot of money that's for sure

It was a great bit of brinkmanship, and a very pleasant way of wasting their time after all the shit they'd put my way in the previous five years.  They wanted me to be employed by an agency. They said that was the only way they could employ me. I said that I was employed by Mrs Joe, and that they could pay her agency fees. I wouldn't have got away with it in the old days, but my firm had gone from a 14,000 workforce to 300 and they had all sorts of unqualified crap doing HR.
(In answer to the original question, HR people are the real scum btw.)

mmmmmmm   *quietly agrees*

What's wrong with HR people?

In my experience, not wishing to generalise of course but over my working life they turned from a department whose main purpose was to look after the employees, to a department who were mainly interested in backing up the management, assisting them to get rid of people, hold secret meetings with HR people from other firms to compare notes, and introduce tomfoolery such as Quality systems, and Investors in People shite.

That's very true - the writing was on the wall when they changed the name from 'Personnel' to 'Human Resources' - the workforce went from being faces to a commodity!

I am employed by an agency for 13 weeks then the company will hopefully take us on. They had me running around trying to send them stuff, chasing up references, saying that they would not let me start until they could verify i worked somewhere, even though i supplied payslips.
they take £27.00 off us each week for MY holiday pay if i take any.
Didnt pay us last week until we all (30 of us) pestered them into doing chaps payments.
3 of us still not been paid after 3 weeks...They ARE evil scum, I agree

My daughter has just started work for a recruitment agency,,,

She is really excited about it because she loves working with people and hope to help them...


*leaves thread*

Up there with traffic wombles and wheel clampers.

Get out clause: You do find the odd good one though 

Issy, hope she keeps her enthusiasm & doesnt get dragged into the crap

In all seriousness I am worried..
Still see how she goes.
This is a specialist agency for engineers and IT folk so maybe it is different?

Dunno really Issy, they all work on the same principle I think. But maybe if the agency is a specialised one then it may be more about matching the right person to the right position rather than just chucking as many unsuitables at a vacancy as possible and hope that one gets taken on

Very fly people in certain sectors though.

Issy...    its still target driven work.   Its sales at its most cut throat, and the pressure to meet target every month is enormous..  

that said.. some just take to it and those that do earn serious bucks.


Anyways... I have just had a blazing row with Mr Ditty over the loading & unloading of the dishwasher...   and we are now sulking with each other...   I remembered I had said nice things about him in here, and I want to take them back - he is a git!  

I think it depends what level of staff within the industry they are recruiting.

"Rec to Rec" are the worst ones..   yep there is a whole sector dedicated to recruiting recruiters!!!

Issy if she's a compassionate sort of person she probably won't want to stay there for long,if she has a ruthless streak I guess she'll fit right in.

Lol

No she has no ruthlessness in her at all
She would cry at the opening of an envelope.
Ah well - it is all experience I suppose.
I may well feed back to you all.

You're probably right Ditty, I don't know enough about the workings of it just how it is to be at the bottom of the pile in agency speak!
Re Mr Ditty - see, you requested a multi tasker from the agency who could load and unload the dishwasher and they sent you the one that didn't have that in their cv and hoped you wouldn't notice

he is totally capable of doing it the right way, and rinsing or at least scraping plates before loading them...   its a little thing, that has the ability to really pish me off, and make me unhappy.  
But it was his reply "well if I can't do it right best I don't do it then" that really pushed me over the edge.   Cos I knew this was where this was going!

I still have the hump!

Ooh they are all like that Ditty, the male of the species. I swear to God they deliberately do housework badly to get out of doing it in the future. Funnily enough, my two were like that as teenagers. The one still at home (28) is still like that, the married one (26) is brilliant now around his own home. My DIL thinks I trained him right

he's already got out of vacuuming cos I won't let him near my dyson, cos he trashed the last one.

& he's often excused from cooking cos of the stress of cleaning the ceramic hob


I think I am gonna switch tactics...  start to play him at his own game