A View From Middle England - Conservative with a slight libertarian touch - For Christian charity and traditional belief - Free Enterprise NOT Covert Corporatism

Monday, August 29, 2005

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Business World!

Manpower is a recruitment firm in the UK that has done some interesting research. It seems that in today's job market employers are getting more desperate to find the right recruits! Candidates at interview are increasingly being asked to go that extra mile. One job seeker was told to talk to a teddy bear, while another was asked if he knew how it felt to kill a man! So are companies becoming more wacky in their selection process, or are people so desperate to get a job that they will do whatever it takes? "The labour market is getting tighter," said Mat Jackson of Manpower. "While the average job interview probably retains the same format it did two decades ago, there are strange stories. There are lots of reasons for interviewers to ask a weird question - to see how fast a candidate can think on their feet, to gain insight into their personality, or to gain an idea of their thought processes."

Has anybody considered asking why some bosses can't think on their feet, have poor personalities, or give away little idea of their thought processes?

Another "research" company has been asking employees what they think of their co-workers. An Investors in People survey found 75% of bosses and 80% of staff thought some colleagues were "dead wood" - and the main reason was thought to be laziness. Nearly half of employees added they worked closely with someone who they thought was lazy and not up to the job.

And guess what? Yet another survey, by Sirota Survey Intelligence, came up with problems at the workface! They questioned 3.5 million staff over three years at firms including global giants Shell, Tesco, Microsoft and Dell. The belief that managers hamper staff is deeply ingrained, the report showed. Instead, workers want to know what is expected of them, have competent bosses and better cooperation across the firm.

Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" has a group of young aspirants who seem to think that getting on is a simple case of bad-mouthing the others! Most of them seem to have little understanding of co-operation, loyalty, honesty, or camaraderie! Trump is many times dumbfounded by their actions!

What does all this tell us? Well, I think that quite a lot of companies have bosses that are there by good networking rather than competency and a lot of employees just get by! Doesn't say much for the wellbeing of the country!

What a sad world some people in some businesses exist in!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/tv/apprentice/apprentice.shtml
http://www.sirota.com/pressrelease/1-Obstacles_606_Final.pdf


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