You’ve got two days to file your taxes, so right now you’re probably not feeling all that warm and fuzzy about the IRS. I know I’m not. And this is part of the problem. When you ask a teenager what they want to be when they grow up, they might say, “an accountant!” but the chances of saying, “I want to work for the IRS!” is pretty slim.
This is becoming a real problem for the IRS, who wants to recruit Millennials to work for it, and is finding out that Millennials don’t want to work for them. Why? Because the IRS not only does work that makes you extremely unpopular at dinner parties (“What do you do?” “I work for the IRS, seizing people’s homes for unpaid taxes”),their systems are outdated, according to an article at Bloomberg.
So, basically, they aren’t on the top of most people’s lists of dream jobs. Your business shouldn’t have as bad of a reputation as the IRS, and (we hope) that your new start up isn’t using 1980s technology, but what if you’re not hip and happening? What if there are huge problems? What if your funding is shaky and you don’t know how to manage and your co-founder is no better? Then, how do you hire? Here are some tips.
To read the 5 tips, click here: How to Hire When Your Company Stinks
I enjoyed the term golden handcuffs. It’s getting far enough from 2008 now, but for a very long time the response to almost any complaint about work was “at least I/you/we HAVE a job”!
My previous employer furnished me with enough horror stories to write a book. For them, I’d suggest hiring direct from the pool of underemployed Communications or English graduates from the local university. They at least may have a shot at a book deal later in life to earn enough to buy back the one human soul they’d relinquished upon signing their offer letter.
I really wish bad companies would clean out the top ranks – low company morale is hard to come back from.
Ha, ha. Yes, if you really stink, hire good writers who can get a book out of the experience!
Cleaning out the top ranks is the most important thing in salvaging a crappy company, but very few people want to do that.
I am looking for a job and interviewed at a place this week with a 1.5 out of 5 rating on glassdoor. I knew someone who worked there and he quit without another job lined up during the recession, so I knew I needed to be cautious interviewing there.
The director was one of the most negative people I’ve ever met, all he asked about was stress, tolerance, difficult situations, why did you leave past jobs, etc. The way he worded the questions didn’t make it easy to respond with anything positive, it was clear he enjoyed digging for dirt. Worse, he only let me answer for 15 or so seconds before cutting me off each time.
The worst part was that the HR person came back and confirmed my salary requirements by stating the absolute low end of the large range I had given, even though I earned $13K more at my last job. They all seemed in denial that they were a bad place to work. If they had exceeded my last salary and acknowledged their horrible reputation, I may have felt better about them…..but to ignore their reputation and then offer such a low $$$…..I think not……….they need to read this article
Thanks for mentioning Glassdoor. The company I worked for was purchased by another firm, and it’s been downhill ever since. Miserable is the word I’d describe. Previously, there were no Glassdoor comments, neither good nor bad, but now there are 11 reviews, and none of them are positive. Basically, you can’t expect people to take on more work, year after year, with no merit increases or COLA, higher insurance rates resulting in lower take home pay, reduced paid holidays, and reduced PTO without workers becoming discouraged. I’d never recommend anyone work for this company unless they were in imminent danger of being homeless.