Who Hired You? – Guest Post

As most of you know by now, here at The Constant Complainer, in addition to my posts, I offer the opportunity for people to submit Guest Posts.  Below is one from a reader called Leo Nevoli.  It’s an interesting take on today’s work place.  Enjoy and remember to give him your feedback.

Thank you Mr. Constant Complainer for starting the topic of idiots you run in to.  I am curious if you have you ever taken the time to wonder how someone got the job they have.  I sure have.  You may think I am jealous of some people, but I am not.  I think some people lack common sense and an understanding of what they are responsible for in their jobs.  Sometimes the best person for a position is not given it because of who people know.  I spent five years at one employer after being told I was being hired to replace the Controller.  The Controller was the Owner’s Relative, who was planning on leaving when I was hired.  They did leave, a year and a half after I left the company.

For those reading this, I want you to take a look around where you work.  Is there someone that is just out of place?  How about your Supervisor?  Would they be able to do your job?  Did they ever do your job?  Where did they start in at your place of employment?  Were they brought in from another company?  I worked for one company, and the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) was the best friend of the Chief Operating Officer (COO).  The CFO had no clue about the business, no understanding of the financials, and he was hardly ever in the office.  After a few years, his friend had to sit him down and tell him he was fired, because he was not doing anything.

How about the President?  How did he get to be President?  No, not that President, I am talking about the President of the place you work.  Does he do anything now for the company, or is he just a figure head because he worked for so long.  Maybe he did have some knowledge of how to run a business, but now he is not.  My employer’s President does not seem to do anything.  Sure, he shows up for a few hours during the week, but he will be out on a golf course before the day has ended, or he will be flying to some exotic country.  The apparent heir to the company, his oldest son, was sent off to our main parent company in a foreign country to learn the business.  The company has a long history of being successful worldwide, based on the people running it knowing how the company started and how it works from the bottom on up.  The son was supposed to be there for five years.  After a week, of being in the lowest possible position, because the parent company wanted him to learn the business from the bottom up, the son called and complained to Dad.  The five-year plan was shortened to a three-year plan, and then it became a two year plan. The son showed up last week at the office, with Dad praising him for learning everything so quickly, and made sure everyone in the office knew about it.  The son does not need to go back to the Parent Company, but instead was given a management position within the company.  I think he was suppose to start this management position this week, but I have not seen or heard him, and the light remains off in his office, but he got a paycheck this week.

Is there another co-worker that you wonder how they got the job?  I had one co-worker, who supposedly graduated at the top of his class, ask me to clarify Debits and Credits, he wanted to make sure the “credits were the minus thingy.”  I might be a bit off here, but basic credit and debts are what they teach you in basic accounting.  This co-worker was on his fifth employer since graduating within the past year.  If it did not workout with the previous 4 employers, why was he hired?  I will tell you why he was hired to work here, because the guy that hired him admitted that he was not the best candidate he interviewed, but he was Asian, and “all Asians are smart.”  Makes you wonder how that Supervisor was hired, oh wait he is the Brother-In Law of the COO.

I am not done about co-workers past and present.  In one of my previous jobs, one new hirer in a management position, overstated revenue for the first month he was there by $1.5 million!  That is a lot of money, but someone found the error and made the corrections before the financials were issued to the banks.  In this guy’s second month of reporting, he overstated revenues again by $1.5 million.  It was caught early again this time, he was told about it, the change was made before the bank received the copy of the financials, and everyone had a good laugh.  First time, I can understand, new position, new company you may not be familiar with how things are reported or some of the reports, but for you to have the “experience” from another company, you should have maybe caught it, but I will let the first time slide by.  Second time around, you make the same mistake, you are an idiot.  Third time when you make the same mistake, oh yes there was a third time; I have to wonder how the hell did you get the job?  Photos of an upper manager with a dog are the only explanations I can come up with.  In the fourth month, it was not my job to do it, nor was the employee really part of my division, but I reminded him before the financials were due, not to make the mistake again.  He looked at me, and said “oh yeah, I forgot about that.”  I will only assume he made the mistake four times in a row, which made me think that he was taking his work and copying it from month to month, and not making any corrections.  Now there is no proof he did make the mistake, but he did go back to make corrections before handing his reports in to the CFO.

Again, I may sound jealous over the co-worker thing, but I am not.  I understand that people will be given jobs because of who they know, not so much what they know, and I have to try to live with it, because it did benefit me while I was in college, and the neighbor I worked for did not want me to leave his small company.  Maybe it is just me, but hiring a friend or family member can only do more harm to a company then good.  I’m Leo Nevoli, and that’s my ponderings.

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