Whatever Happened to Professionalism in the Workplace?

As I write this I am staring at my email astounded at some of the responses I've gotten from simply posting my resume on Monster.com.

Hooters wants to hire me. (Now that's a whole new take on being a "Senior Communications Professional" don't you think?)

Several recruiters have emailed me with what they consider "... the perfect job for you!" which usually means one of three things:

1) They are trying to meet their month-end quota
2) They are trying to fill a job in telemarketing or claims processing

-or-

3) It's just one big scam.

Case-in-Point

Last week, I was emailed by a recuiter from Aflac (you know--the duck people...) telling me that they are very interested in what I have to offer their company and to please call them to set up an interview.

Ok, I thought to myself. What do I have to lose? So I did.

I called this recruiter (who, by the way, didn't have an Aflac email address but a Gmail one, hmm...I thought to myself...). She in turn wanted to set up an interview for 9:00 a.m. the next morning in Glen Burnie, MD (which is about an hour away from where I live). I was kind of taken a back that she wanted to set up the interview so quickly when in fact, she hadn't yet told me what the position entailed. I had absolutelty no information regarding a job title, job description and salary information. I wasn't even sure where the position would be located.

Sketchy at best, I thought to myself.

When I asked her point-blank which position I would be interviewing for, she replied with the fact that Aflac is a Fortune 200 Company and I should be for lack of a better term, "honored" that they were interested in my resume in the first place.

Ummm, ok? I thought.

She then continues to give me the sales pitch (yes, we've moved on to on red flag #2 now ...) and I was thinking to myself, "Why the hell not, I'll check it out..." and set up a time to interview. I had a persons name, but had no job title or knew what in fact they did for Aflac--I could've been meeting with "Big Foot" for all I know and, to top it off, the "only" time this mysterious person could see me was 6:00 p.m. on a Monday night (yes, we are now at red flag #3).

After we hung up, it bothered me that I still didn't have a job description (ok, maybe I'm not that fast on the uptake). I had no idea what position I was interviewing for, so I thought it would be a good idea to follow up and email her to ask for clarification of the job description. I stated that I was not in sales and that my background is in communications and marketing.

Rude Response #1

Her response: "They are a combination of big ticket marketing, account servicing and claims processing. Our marketing is directed at business owners only. This is probably the only chance you will have to work with a top fortune 200 company."

Ouch, I thought. (Not to nit-pick, but anyone else see the disparity in the voice? They/We...are we a little schizophrenic? Anyone?)

Still, I planned on going to the interview to check them out.

Rude Response #2

So Monday rolls around and it starts to snow in the afternoon. I email her and let her know, that due to the inclement weather, I'm not going to be able to make it to the interview. I emailed her in the afternoon, so she would have plenty of time to contact the appropriate people before 6:00 p.m. A cop-out on my part?

Sure, I'll call it that.

(Please note that I never cancel interviews. I think it does show poor taste and looking back, I should have never accepted the "interview" on the phone in the first place. After all, I've never even met this woman. I didn't go through a pre-screening process. I didn't have a one-on-one interview with her. All which are the usual mandatories when working with respectable recruiters.) Hindsight is 20/20 so they say and whoever "they" are...they're right!

That being said, here is her response:

"There is barely half an inch of snow falling. Would you like to reschedule, or is this your way of saying you are not interested?"

I'm laughing out loud now...

Now, if someone cancels an interview the employer might think that...but you don't email it in your response! I've had people cancel interviews on me directly (not even going through a recruiter) and all I've responded with is:

"If you'd like to reschedule a time, call me and we'll reschedule."

If you don't hear from them, obviosuly, they bailed. On to the next prospective applicant, right?

So at this point, I emailed her back a bitchy response:

"Excuse me? I don't want to reschedule now."

Rude Response #3

She instantly responds:

"I wasn't trying to be rude. I was asking your intentions. I am a professional who has been doing this for quite a long time. My question I asked was professional as I was trying to see what your intentions were as we have many, many, many applicants and I wanted to make sure that an applicant like yourself gets time with the boss. Due to the rude nature of your response, you will be removed from our direct marketing lists."

Damn!

Like I said, I've had job applicants just not show up for an interview. I gave her plenty of notification and at this point, am wondering, why is she so invested in her email responses? Really, time to let it go, right?

So I email her back, "Thank you. No further correspondence is required."

She instantly "corresponds" back to me: "I have already blocked you from all Aflac job-related corresponce."

At this point, I wanted to thank her for her time ... but I thought I'd better let it go! Part of me was afraid to see what she would say!

My Bad

Now, I did bail. My bad. But the reason I'm posting this is because I'm wondering whatever happened to professionalism in the workplace? Even if you have a difficult employee or co-worker that you have to deal with everyday, you would never antagonize them over email. Or would you? Is this standard protocal these days?

And to think I've never even met this woman. Nor do I ever want to...

By the way, a friend of mine sent me this website about working for Aflac:

http://www.indeed.com/forum/cmp/AFLAC/Aflac-is-SCAM-you-pay-them-work/t13238

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=21396

So much for profesionalism in the workplace.