Comments on: HR Horror Stories

By: boss guest chairs

boss guest chairs — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:04:38 +0000

This is an affecting point of view on this topic. I am glad you shared your thoughts and I find myself agreeing. I appreciate your coherent writing and the effort you have put into this piece. Thanks for the good work and good luck with the blog, I greatly look forward to more updates.

By: Ava

Ava — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:42:12 +0000

Thou shalt not confuse reply with forward…

A very funny horror story I heard recently was about an employee from a marketing company who received an email from a client, then forwarded it to a colleague with some extremely derogatory and offensive remarks aimed at the client. An email was promptly received from the client, asking them to cancel his account immediately and that all the networking groups he was involved in would receive a copy.
Sure enough, thousands of emails were despatched forwith as follows: “To all business people on my data base,
this is no joke, be wary of what marketing groups you align and trust to be supportive of your business.”
The employee was sacked.
The moral of the story – Thou shalt not confuse reply with forward
Ava – http://www.edgecommunication.com.au/services

By: gillian

gillian — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:39:44 +0000

my story relates to the actual recruiting stage. i had ten candidates apply for the one position – tradesperson’s assistant. while most of the applicants had obviously tried hard to present themselves in the best light, and were also at least a little nervous, there was one notable exception. this partiuclar young man arrived sporting a very noticeable black eye. no word of apology nor explanation was forthcoming, and so the interview was conducted and the candidate left. i did the usual reference checks, and one of the referees told me that this person had let him down before – he had used this referee’s good name to his own advantage, and subsequently turned out to be a dishonourable worker, thereby damaging this person’s reputation. basically he suggested that i should definitely not employ him! naturally given the candidate’s appearance, and non-explanation for the black eye [i mean, he could have walked into a door?]i had pretty much decided against him anyway! i think instinct is very important and should be adhered to!

By: HRwisdom » Blog Archive » How to predict future performance of job candidates

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 04:18:33 +0000

[...] you read some of HRwisdom member HR horror stories, you probably laughed and squirmed at the same [...]

By: HRwisdom » Blog Archive » Thanks from HRwisdom

HRwisdom » Blog Archive » Thanks from HRwisdom — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 10:46:30 +0000

[...] A quick thank you to the HRwisdom community members for their recent contribution to the HRwisdom blog on HR Horror Stories. [...]

By: maxpower

maxpower — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 16:30:57 +0000

I once worked in a bank. There were a lot of young people working there, and a strong after work socialising culture. For some reason the big night out tended to be Thursday rather than Friday night.
After a particularly big Thursday night, a colleague of mine turned up for work on Friday when he probably should have stayed home. After a couple of ‘cures’ at lunch time on the Friday, he proceeded to fall asleep in the office toilets with the cubicle door open and his trousers aroud his ankles.
He might have gotten away with it were it not for the snoring. Classic really. I still have the photos.

By: Cory Heuston-Richardson

Cory Heuston-Richardson — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:09:51 +0000

I work for an IT consulting firm whom delivers software testing services. When we don’t have the right skills or resources available, we tend to hit the contract market to obtain the necessary skills. As its highly competitive, there tends to be a high level of upselling being done to resumes to add that little bit of edge to secure the work.
We interviewed a guy the other day whom on paper looked pretty good and had the required skills we were looking for. During the interview, when we were just gualifying his capabilities we found that he didn’t have any of the skills (at the level he had indicated), but had sat next to a person whom did, so the skills must have brushed off. With his whole resume needing to be reconfirmed, I said to him ‘it’s better to have this in there, than not too”, and he agreed. Not only did this show that people will do anything to obtain work, but also an unethical element.

By: drdrdr

drdrdr — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:41:20 +0000

We were hiring operators for a site which was well away from public transport, so we did two things. We asked the candidates to come back multiple times (so that they got used to the distance and inconvenience) and we asked for their drivers licence number. One candidate left that field blank on the application, so when he turned up we asked for his licence and he said “Oh, I’ve left it at home.” When he came back for the next step, we asked again, and he said “Oh, I must have lost it.” After that, we decided we wouldn’t give him the benefit of the doubt. I rang and said “Listen mate, if you want this job, you come in now as a special trip and bring your licence.” To which he replied “I can’t because I lost it – it was taken away from me by the police, but I don’t need your job now anyway because I have landed another job driving for a truck for a cross-Melbourne courier company!”

By: HRwisdom » Blog Archive » Good Interview Questions To Avoid Hiring Duds

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 07:25:46 +0000

[...] a previous blog post, HRwisdom shared some HR horror stories about difficult employees, underperforming employees, and other staff management [...]

By: blackkat

blackkat — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:28:35 +0000

It seems there is a whole cadre of employees out there who go from job to job on the basis of a positive reference from the former employer. The problem is the former employer is only giving them the positive reference because they are desperate to get rid of them! I recently hired a lady to help me manage databases and websites. I did the right thing and telephoned her previous boss. “Oh, she’s great!” he tells me. “Really nice, really switched on person, very computer savvy…” Well, he was right. She was a lovely person. Completely computer illiterate of course (“What does ‘double click on the icon mean?’), had to be told everything twice and she would still get it wrong. I’d given her a six month contract and at the end of that time, after she’d deleted nearly every important file we had and destroyed the website a dozen times it was time for her to go. I was so happy to see the back of her and she was such a friendly person that I gave her a glowing reference too. When a prospective employer rings I will no doubt say “oh, she’s great, really switched on…”