Oh where to begin:
Day 1: Staffing firm sends me in on assignment for SalesMakers (then Retail Business Development). After an hour chat with my new boss, I was given a laptop, a script and told to hit the phones. That is when I realized that this was more telemarketing than recruiting. Daily calls were logged and tracked. If you did not hit at least 50 calls a day, you were scolded. The job basically comprised of telemarketing sales positions to applicants, and cold calls as well. Its what you did ALL day. On the phone, trying to convince people struggling to find work to take a $9.00 an hour job. Part time hours, standing all day inside a Walmart, NO benefits and extremely low to no chances of advancement for the poor souls that took the job.
2) This process was non-stop and tedious. There was NO strategy behind the recruitment, no rhyme or reason behind their tactics and the turnover for candidates was so huge, we were constantly refilling positions.
3) I had accepted that this was a TEMP position, and had been searching for better work since day 1. What I didn't realize is how "management" did not really care. It was all numbers to them. Huge shows were made to gather us all for "pep" talks and tell us how much they valued us. Then, back to the grind with no raise, no bonus, no commission...NOTHING. We were paid $12hr for this work, and the benefits, when offered, were too expensive to purchase. How does one get $250 bucks a month for benefits out of $12 an hour??? Not many of us could.
3) Speaking of management, they thought nothing of planning holiday potlucks for us. Thats nice right? What they didnt tell us is the day before Thanksgiving, they fired more than half of the companies staff, including people who had been there for years. We were told to give thanks for having a job, and go eat! The morale that day was TERRIBLE. We were all afraid for our jobs. Then, right before Christmas, they did it again! A big potluck, and "Oh we were so sad to do it, but we had to layoff some more people." RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. Classy.
4) The company "re-branded" itself around January 2015. They changed their name from Retail Business Development to "SalesMakers". We were all curious, but chalked it up to the company trying to escape from the HORRIBLE reputation the company had. Search Retail Business Development...you will see the lovely reviews there.
5) The HR violations were rampant in the office. As I recruiter for over 14 years, I know the law when it comes to recruitment and what you can and cant say. Repeatedly, I was asked to ask candidates if they had a car. That is ILLEGAL. Concerned, I looked up the laws, and sent them to my managers for their review. Did not make an iota of difference. They still continued to push us to ask the question. I refused. On top of that, comments made about candidates, their appearance and etc were rampant. I had a supervisor who would not even give some candidates the benefit of the doubt; she would take one look and say no. Also concerning were the "social" politics of the office. There was fraternizing at every level. Management turned a blind eye to all of it.
6) Speaking of supervisors, my first supervisor was great. Then they put someone else in his place. Said person was quite young, little to no management experience, and it was OBVIOUS. Her management style was so poor, she couldn't even look you in the eye while talking to you. She had private conversations with us in front of the office, leading to embarrassment and rumors. She also had a very bad habit of playing favorites, and would give these people priority on time, interviews, hires, etc. One employee in particular seemed to reap the most benefits out of this, much to the dismay of others, who worked just as hard.
7) A supervisor/subordinate relationship developed between these two people, and it bled heavily into day to day office work. Passive aggressive comments abounded, the favoritism became unbearable for us in the office. Morale was so low, we were all looking to leave. I left shortly after this. Said Supervisor got "promoted" (title only really), and her subordinate got promoted to supervisor a week or so after I left. I thanked God a million times I had been lucky enough to escape.
