Last Recruiter Standing 2010

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the DFWTRN and everyone at the Last Recruiter Standing 2010 luncheon yesterday who voted for my story! (Yes, it really is a true story, I have witnesses.) There were so many great recruiting stories; funny, embarrassing, and almost unbelievable. This just confirms that there are no "typical" days in the life of a recruiter. Here is my most unbelievable recruiting story... I would love to hear your comments.

While working for a clerical temporary staffing agency back in the early 90’s, we had a very high profile client in the Crescent Court Office Park. At that time, the Crescent was the most upscale office building in town. This client needed a temporary receptionist to answer the phones and greet visitors; “meet and greet” as we called it. It was made extremely clear that this temp needed to be the best we had; front desk appearance, well spoken, immaculate demeanor… the whole package.

We placed a stunning lady on the assignment… She looked like she had just walked out of the Ralph Lauren store in Highland Park Village and had incredible office skills as well. The first day the client was so pleased they called and thanked me profusely for finding this “gem” of a receptionist, saying she was absolutely perfect and better than they could have imagined. A few days later, the client called and asked that she be replaced. I was stunned! When I asked why she wasn’t working out, they only replied that I needed to come down to their office and see for myself.

Prepared for the worst, I arrived to find what looked like a scene from the Mel Gibson movie, Signs. My temp had aluminum foil wrapped around her head which resembled a giant Hershey’s Kiss. This was to prevent aliens from reading her thoughts. Her shoes were wrapped in bubble wrap which popped as she walked up to greet me… to hide her tracks of course, so no one could follow her.

She had come in that morning saying that she dreamed she had been abducted by aliens the night before. She then preceded to “alien proof” her desk and work space. This consisted of surrounding her desk with sugar packets (evidently these aliens couldn’t tolerate sugar) and constructing a barrier around her chair by taking coffee stir sticks, making an aluminum foil paddle on one end and inserting the other end into the seat of the chair. This was done with multiple sticks, side by side around the entire chair seat and back. (Isn’t the power of aluminum foil to deter aliens amazing? I should have bought stock in Alcoa.)

Needless to say, she was escorted out of the building and her file was flagged “Do Not Use”. Looking back, it would have been more appropriate to file her application in The X-Files.

Comment by Cindy J. Biter on July 9, 2010 at 10:35am: May be the same temp I had placed back in the 90's that came in and asked not to return to a client because one of their employees had psychically harrassed her.

Comment by Sandra McCartt on July 9, 2010 at 12:54pm: I know this lady. She stood up in the middle of the executive suite on the third day and screamed, "I've got Leprosy". HR called an ambulance that removed her to the closest psych facility. After a miraculous three week cure she wanted to know if she should return to work. Uh, no, they had to replace due to work load.