Angry job seekers
I got a call today from a job seeker (aka disgruntled former employee) of a company who posted an ad on one of my boards. It was for a sales rep position. The ad itself is fine and describes the job and related commissions you would earn.
The job seeker asked me to take the ad down because;
1. she worked for them and they defaulted on paychecks and were late with many
2. she said the commissions stated on the job posting are "lies"
3. the business owner also has defaulted on payments to a number of other vendors
She goes on to say that she doesn't want this business to "ruin" other peoples lives should they decide to apply.
I explained that I have no legal obligation to remove the ad. I cannot prove these accusations and that she should complain to the state department of labor (which she already did). Since then I have also gotten a fax and a phone call from another person with similar complaints.
I think I'm in the right here. I mean my site is just the "messenger" and there's no point in shooting the messenger right? Anyone else ever get complaints like this? and how did you handle them?
The job seeker asked me to take the ad down because;
1. she worked for them and they defaulted on paychecks and were late with many
2. she said the commissions stated on the job posting are "lies"
3. the business owner also has defaulted on payments to a number of other vendors
She goes on to say that she doesn't want this business to "ruin" other peoples lives should they decide to apply.
I explained that I have no legal obligation to remove the ad. I cannot prove these accusations and that she should complain to the state department of labor (which she already did). Since then I have also gotten a fax and a phone call from another person with similar complaints.
I think I'm in the right here. I mean my site is just the "messenger" and there's no point in shooting the messenger right? Anyone else ever get complaints like this? and how did you handle them?
Tags: complaints
10 Comments
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Comment by Eric Shannon on June 12, 2008 at 8:51pm - that's a very uncomfortable situation. we just wrote about the topic of turning away business to maintain quality. this one is more of a gray area than what we commonly deal with but I would lean towards refunding the money also.
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Comment by Chris Russell on June 12, 2008 at 9:20pm - the job itself is with a legit company in connecticut, it just sounds as if the owner isnt running it too well
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Comment by Willy Franzen on June 13, 2008 at 10:00am
- That makes the situation a little more uncomfortable. If it was a company like The Landers Group, it'd make it much easier to just ban them from posting jobs - even if they constantly keep changing names. It's not your place to tell other people how to run their businesses, but I think it still reflects poorly on your job board to have a company that is alleged to be defrauding its employees posting new jobs. Have you considered calling the owner of the company and sharing your concerns?
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Comment by Chris Russell on June 13, 2008 at 10:02am
- I have thought about it, but how do I know these allegations are true? He's innocent til proven guilty in my eyes...
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Comment by Kari Quaas on June 13, 2008 at 11:25am - I wouldn't say it is often, but we do sometimes receive emails from job seekers who were "wronged" by an employer and can't believe that we would let them post jobs on our site. Collectively we believe that, although uncomfortable, it is best to contact the employer and let them know what we heard. We don't reveal the who, but do say that we received a message from a concerned party and then let the employer either ease our mind or not. If there are multiple complaints we tend to lean in the favor of the job seeker and pull the recruiter. I agree with Willy that, as much as we can, our job is to provide a service to our job seekers, and as feasible protect them from bad employers.
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Comment by Matthew Sitelman on June 13, 2008 at 1:44pm - Willy hit it on the head with his response. I would offer only a slight amendment - since the issue has crossed your radar, you WOULD be in the wrong to willfully ignore it and offer the no mea culpa. Seems to me that the first step would be to check that company out with the State DOL. If there are multiple complaints about that company, then you would be doing your audience a service to remove those positions. Based on your findings at the DOL, you may or may not decide that there is enough concern to warrant a removal of the posts.
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Comment by Todd Goldstein on June 13, 2008 at 7:41pm - This is a tough one and given multiple complaints about this company I would say some further action is needed. As a recruiter and job board operator this for me falls into the category of getting similar complaints from candiates I place at a company. Just yesterday I got a complaint from a candidate we placed about the CFO being verbally abusive and I will not continue to place candidates with him. I think we have an obligation especially if someone and more than one person has taken the time to complain about it.
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Comment by careerbard on June 17, 2008 at 4:36pm
- I ran into this in the bad old days of the early 90's. One "respectable" company posted a series of jobs on my site and I started getting notes from writers that they weren't being paid, etc. I check BBB and there were no complaints. I called the company and they talked about "cash flow problems." It was only after they stiffed me for an ad bill that I dropped them. I tend to listen to writers who aren't being paid for work they've done. One writer wrote me her horror story with a company who convinced her to quit a good job, hop a plane and work for them in Prague only to be jerked around and finally stranded in Prague without a job. That was a judgment call because the job obviously came with risks but I decided to pull the ad because my loyalties are more with job seekers than with job posters. I won't listen to a personal vent against a company but something that appears an authentic complaint, esp. fraud I listen to very closely. And then there was the infamous case of a person who said she was the editor of a magazine looking for certain articles to publish. She simply gathered the articles herself and tried to get them published under her own name! So, you have to have some gut feeling for what is happening imho.
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Comment by Brendan Delaney on June 19, 2008 at 12:58am -
It seems to me that if you have no evidence of wrongdoing, other than what the women are saying, you have no obligation to pull the ad. Her claim is probably legit, but even if that's true, you have no way of knowing that that they haven't learned their lesson and turned over a new leaf, or that they will treat the next person that way. Without any specific evidence, I would give them the benefit of the doubt. You're in the business of selling job postings, not policing companies for bad behavior. That's how I would handle it. Admittedly, this means looking at the sitution through rose-colored glasses.
That being said, the best way to decide is to just do the thing that will help you sleep easy at night. We're not talking about a lot of money here, I assume. If your gut tells you the ad is disingenuous, yank it, refund the money, and sleep easy.
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© 2009 Created by Chris Russell
You may not be in the wrong by allowing the posting to stay, but you may be in the right by removing it. There's a big problem with spam and scams on job boards, and it's only going to get worse unless job boards take action to keep them off.
Google is just the messenger, but they have very high quality standards for what they allow in their index. They're more liberal with their PPC ads, but they still have pretty strict guidelines.
This is a really tough judgment call, but if you're absolutely sure that the information that you got is true, I'd say remove the job posting and refund the money to the company and tell them why.
When it comes down to it, the job seekers are just as much your customers (if not more so) as employers are. Just because they aren't paying, doesn't mean you shouldn't look out for their interests too.