I've been looking for work for a long time now, a fact that has not escaped my notice. My phone has remained stubbornly silent on the call front, so when it does ring, I panic. I literally panic and replay all my latest endeavours to pinpoint the origin of the call. I look at the caller ID and freak out further when I don't recognise it. Such a call happened today and I am still mortified by it.
My job applications clearly have been failing me lately and my CV is on so many websites I can barely keep track of them all. This afternoon I got a call from a chap in an office firm, offering me six hours of work tomorrow at an exceptionally decent wage. From the moment I picked up the call things spiralled out of my control, the ball entirely in his court. My reaction was dumbfounded, definitely dumbfounded.
See, he started off with "are you so and so" and "can you work tomorrow" and all sorts of questions that I answered as they came. However, I gave my answers without the context, without the full details that he had, so that by the time I did have the full picture I had made a commitment to something I was unable to give my commitment to, all because the caller never set the groundwork for our conversation.
This led to some awkward, embarrassing dismissals down the line. The gist of the call was that he worked at an office a great distance from where I live, needed a temp cleaner to come in for a shift tomorrow and had seen my CV on one of my many website profiles. He'd called my number and gotten me to agree without actually giving me time to make an informed decision, such is the power of his position.
There are plenty of people like me out there in the world, people desperately in need of money and work, willing to drop everything to take the offer. He doesn't need to be frank with me. He will take yes or no and move on, whereas I need time to consider yes and no, then make my decision. He doesn't need to give me that time, so I was in a bind.
Taking the shift would cause a lot of problems for me. A lot. It was more hassle than it was worth. If it had been a part-time or full-time work offer, if it had been an invite to an interview, I would have agreed since it would give me time to suss them out, figure if I wanted to work for them and sort out of the minor details, like travel. Plus, I would have time to gather the things he needed from me, credentials and references. He put me on the spot and I panicked.
Of course, he is looking for a quick, temp hire who will come in when summoned, work and leave. He doesn't care that I need to clear my schedule, contact my references, figure out how I'm getting there. He doesn't care that his call is an inconvenience to me. He doesn't care that it's short notice. If I say no, there are plenty others to take my place. By the time I figured out I wasn't in a position to say yes, it was too late.
This led to the most embarrassing conclusion to a phone conversation I have ever had. My cheeks are still burning. To turn him down, to back-track after I had answered his stand-alone, misleading questions I had to flounder. I had to come up with an excuse that was plausible, yet assertive and said with absolute certainty that I could not work for them tomorrow, even temporarily. I couldn't just say "no, that's not what I'm looking to do" or anything, because that is too simple, too straightforward. I had to over complicate things.
So I made up flimsy excuses that he shot through easily and effortlessly. I began to stammer as I realised I wasn't going to get off easily. We batted around a few problems/solutions (hey, my Dad always accused me of making problems where there are none). Eventually, he knew I was reluctant to do the shift and told me bluntly that he'd find someone else and hung up.
I've been feeling the chagrin ever since, my cheeks aflame with the horror of it all. I often forget that, at the end of the day, it is my choice to work somewhere, as much as it is the company's choice to hire me. We both need to figure out if we'd be good for our interests. Being summoned out of the blue to do work is not in my interest, no matter how good the pay.
I think I need to work on executing conversations and deals better. Sheesh.
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