Slippery agent behaviour.

[TheDude]

In the last few days I have pulled out of two time consuming applications after receiving offers - one because the the rate magically dropped by 10% and one because the contract magically flipped from outside to inside.

This is pretty par for the course but what is the worst behaviour you have experienced from an agent? For me it was an agent arranging an interview before even approaching me for the role and then getting *extremely* belligerent when told I wasn't interested.

[quackhandle]

Yup, had this. Even when I met the client for an "informal chat".

They wanted to proceed, oh what a shock suddenly it is now inside IR35 (when explicitly advertised as outside on the ad on Jobserve).

Said no, pimp was almost begging me to take it.

qh

[PCTNN]

what is the worst behaviour you have experienced from an agent?

I applied for a permanent role for a company in Finance via a recruitment agent. Everything went smoothly and I got an offer. Before accepting I asked the recruitment agent to get in touch with the company HR person and give me confirmation of a few things, among which:

1) entitlement of bonus straightaway (I was to start in January so I wanted to check if there was an X months of service clause) - Got confirmed "yep, HR said you're getting the bonus in April, pro rata, regardless of when you start"
2) annual pay increase due to inflation (as I had in every permie role at any banks) - Got confirmed "yep, HR said you're getting that"
3) getting a mac and all the software I needed - again got confirmed I'd be getting everything from day 1

All lies.

1) no bonus as not enough months of service
2) no annual pay increase due to rising inflation
3) didn't get anything I asked for. It took 2 months to get my hardware and software sorted

I raised the issue to HR and they said the recruitment agent never even asked the questions. I think they stopped working with that agency altogether. Since I was lied to by the agent, HR basically said "tough luck, you'll get your bonus next year" so I got myself another job offer and strong-armed the company to a higher salary a few months later.

[ladymuck]

I applied for a permanent role for a company in Finance via a recruitment agent. Everything went smoothly and I got an offer. Before accepting I asked the recruitment agent to get in touch with the company HR person and give me confirmation of a few things, among which:

1) entitlement of bonus straightaway (I was to start in January so I wanted to check if there was an X months of service clause) - Got confirmed "yep, HR said you're getting the bonus in April, pro rata, regardless of when you start"
2) annual pay increase due to inflation (as I had in every permie role at any banks) - Got confirmed "yep, HR said you're getting that"
3) getting a mac and all the software I needed - again got confirmed I'd be getting everything from day 1

All lies.

1) no bonus as not enough months of service
2) no annual pay increase due to rising inflation
3) didn't get anything I asked for. It took 2 months to get my hardware and software sorted

I raised the issue to HR and they said the recruitment agent never even asked the questions. I think they stopped working with that agency altogether. Since I was lied to by the agent, HR basically said "tough luck, you'll get your bonus next year" so I got myself another job offer and strong-armed the company to a higher salary a few months later.

Top tip from that one is to require the agency to provide written agreement from the HR team

[WTFH]

what is the worst behaviour you have experienced from an agent?

14 months of not paying an invoice and lying about me to clients... but they backed down 2 weeks before the date of the court case when they took advice from an external solicitor who told them they had no chance.

[PCTNN]

Top tip from that one is to require the agency to provide written agreement from the HR team

Yes, I won't make the same mistake again.

Silly me to trust the agent. Up until then everything had been great and the agent had been a pleasure to deal with, that's why I did trust him

[TheDude]

I was placed in a permanent role by an agent and 6 months later the same agent contacted me, told me the firm I worked for were poor payers and tried to move me on somewhere else.

[SueEllen]

I raised the issue to HR and they said the recruitment agent never even asked the questions. I think they stopped working with that agency altogether. Since I was lied to by the agent, HR basically said "tough luck, you'll get your bonus next year" so I got myself another job offer and strong-armed the company to a higher salary a few months later.

Most companies are now so worried you will run away they will give you a direct line to someone in the company you can contact other than the agent. if they don't give you that find such a person and ask them questions.

[PerfectStorm]

An agent (from Spring) who used to regularly send me for interviews, give no feedback (fair enough, but it burns a bridge) but then schedule further interviews

My first one who gave me all the usual (old) terrible advice about IR35 and the 24 month rule being the same thing

[SussexSeagull]

Last couple of times I was looking for a contract the problem has more been with the end client than the agent. Some clients need to realise they shouldn't start interviewing and sounding like it is a done deal until they have sign off and if they go off for a month before making an offer they are probably going to be disappointed.