Evil Confused Part 3

One week from today, Suzie started her fit.

Frank told Suzie to do her job, and not rely on gossip as a source for references.

Like the Tasmanian devil on Saturday morning, Suzie started to spin. Her thin skin couldn't take it. She was the HR person! This was her domain! How dare Frank tell her what to do!

Using her power, she behaved badly. Her target was Frank. Her reach was far greater. She spun and spun and spun until she drew attention to herself. Frank looks like someone who was trying to do his job.

Suzie looks like a failure. She failed to deliver. Not only did she fail to do her job, she destroyed her employer's chance to hire John.

John took another job. It is over. No discussion.

Late yesterday, the VP was still trying to hire John. John would have started work had Suzie not botched this. He wanted the job, he was thrilled. Suzie got in the way.

I feel sorry for her in a way. She doesn't 'get it'. I don't think that she understands one big rule at work: It's about the employer, not your feelings. She is full of anger, and she lost her focus, and her cool. She didn't realize that the focus was to hire the person that her company wanted. Her emotional response will stall her in her career, or perhaps end it.

We have another candidate for this position. We also have an interview scheduled with an outstanding person for another position. Before we can go further, I am going to meet with the executives involved and outline a hiring process that will include forbidding Suzie to speak to any candidates. I don't trust her. In my experience, her spinning isn't over. It's not my responsibility to monitor her, so we will have to pull the candidates today if they can't agree to the process.

I know they won't want to pull these people. Suzie is not going to like this. She did it to herself. And, she doesn't even know it.

Comment by Derdiver on August 2, 2013 at 12:05pm: Oh she knows it. She knows full well. She cannot however except the blame. Her ego is to big. Frankly, NO pun intended, I would bring a few resumes of HER replacement with me...

Comment by Barbara Goldman on August 2, 2013 at 12:47pm: LOL good plan

Comment by Sandra McCartt on August 2, 2013 at 9:12pm: This is a power play by suzie the dozie. Tread lightly, she is an evil bitch who is playing both sides of the street and talking out of both sides of her mouth. She has convinced the VP that she is acting in the best interest of the company by being on the call with he and the candidate. She checked the other references hoping she could find some little glitch and was looking for some reason to be able to question the candidate again. She is setting up a situation where the VP will have to decide if he is going to support his HR person or an outside third party. When you fall in the trap, demand that she be hands off she will march in and tell the VP ,"see I told you they were difficult to work with, if we lose a candidate because we checked his references, we probably dodged a bullet". "there is something wrong with this recruiting group that they want us to ignore our policies and not do our own reference checking, am I not supposed to do my job, you know I have always made every effort to be an effective HR business partner."

I would ask for a meeting with the execs. Take the approach that somehow we have had some communication problems, I am mystified as to how or why my recruiter was told one thing and the candidate we lost was told another and it appears you got a different impression. I certainly don't want you to lose another one. How do you suggest we handle this moving forward, would it make any sense ,with the work load that suzie has ,if we work with you and the candidate, provide you with references then if you want to make an offer we can make a verbal offer, get a verbal acceptance and start date. Then all suzie has to do is prepare the written offer, send it to us, we will get it signed and return it to you. That might help Suzie since I am sure she is working with many candidates direct in her recruiting efforts.

I would give your execs an out and a story for what they can say to Suzie unless of course you want to just tell them that you can't work with a lying , game player ( I've done it and it felt really good). It has been my experience that anytime I put an ultimatum out there I have to ready to accept the answer. I think this one is setting you up to do just that. I wouldn't play the trump card until they have another one they want.

Comment by Barbara Goldman on August 3, 2013 at 8:49am: Sandra, you are right. This could end up bad, and most of the time it does. Yesterday, the VP interviewed another one of our candidates. The candidate told us that in the beginning, the VP was kind of weird, looking for a reason to reject her. At the end of the conversation, he told her that he has someone in a position that he might want her to fill. The person isn't doing the job he wants him to do. So, this is ANOTHER opening that we weren't aware of. Now, on Monday, he is going to have to decide what he wants to do. No Suzie, Or no candidates. They probably think we are evil. FYI, About 9 months ago, I wrote about a horrid HR Director (BIG company, every big job) who played a bunch of games. She is now gone, we found her in podunk, usa, staff recruiter. She was fired several months after we alerted the execs about her issues. They didn't believe us, but she was then on the radar. They watched her, and caught her in lie. This one, will also be on the radar. She won't last as long, because now we have another candidate in the pipeline, we are proving ourselves. It could still blow up for us. This time, we are sending all candidates that we submit to them to competitors. We have no loyalty, we don't care if they hire or not, but these candidates will be hired, by someone. They just better get their acts together and hurry. The market has turned, my prediction: Next year, when the economy is a little stronger, you are going to see a lot of heads rolling in HR. And, they have nobody to blame but themselves. We truly try to help. It's our job.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on August 3, 2013 at 10:35am: I have seen a lot of them take the bus. It is always interesting to watch. They seem to do very well until they lose their perspective and start thinking that although they to not have the authority to hire they have the power to sabotage a hire or get somebody fired.

The next step seems to be thinking that they are on the same level as the execs they support. That is where the rubber meets the road.

Got your note. Love it, for some reason my response will not send. Go get em' girl. I agree that the situation is changing in the economy. What I am seeing is that hiring authorities are losing patience with the little power mongers in HR. I work with some terrific HR people who know how to serve and sit down and let the stronger players play the point. I know when to do the same so we can drain the swamp instead of worrying about alligators.

People on all sides of the fence who have their ego in order get things done. People who don't can screw up a cast iron block and never understand what happened when they get sent down the road.