Life on the bench: in my dressing gown

[cailin maith]

Telephone just rang for the 2nd time today ... I seem to be in demand.

[FiveTimes]

Just had a telephone interview for a permie job.

Seemed to go quite well - need to chase the agency

[Diver]

Just had a telephone interview for a permie job.

Seemed to go quite well - need to chase the agency

Close to home?

Just asking in case you're going to be working away and that lovely missus of yours might need some company

Paranoid now?

[RichardCranium]

I've just been sent a form to fill in for a contract gig. It is a Competency Based Assessment - eight pages with 32 boxes to be filled detailing my experience.

I hate filling in these forms for permie roles, for a 3 month contract it is just stupid.

[RichardCranium]

It is a Word document with fixed cell heights & column widths, rows that split across pages, the empty text boxes are in bold, the headings are only on the first page, the row headings (yes, row headings) are double-line spaced, the whole thing is in Arial 12 and there are 3" header and footer margins.

Why do we have to jump through furkin stupid hoops for organisations that employ useless technically incompetent fukwits as permies?

[FiveTimes]

Close to home?

Just asking in case you're going to be working away and that lovely missus of yours might need some company

Paranoid now?

Working away.

She's fully serviced and enjoys a bit of time on her own

[RichardCranium]

Just had a call about a permie role I applied for yesterday:

Agent: "About this role you applied for. You had an interview with them in 2002 and turned them down. Why are you applying again?"

Me: "I didn't know it was the same client. It is a different, more senior, role. I turned them down last time over the money."

Agent: "My records say you did not like them."

I dig out my records. (I keep a spreadsheet of my gig-searching and start it afresh after each gig. It goes back over 10 years. Sometimes it is useful.)

Me: "According to my record I said I liked them but the role was advertised as £35k + package + car and what they offered was £32k and nothing else. I could not afford to take it at the time and they would not budge."

Agent: "My records don't say that."

Me: "That's because their MD phoned me at home on a Saturday to say he did not like me, that the chairman had over-ruled him and told him to take me on, and that £32k was all he would offer. When I turned that down the MD was relieved."

Agent: "I don't believe you. They would not do that. The client would not go behind my back."

Me: "It is what my records say and it matches my memory of the event."

The agent then went into one: "I've known them ten years", "they would never go behind my back", "what is it with you contractors?", "upsetting my client" and "so why did you apply again?"

Basically, he had rung me up just to have a go at me for applying for a job at a company I had previously turned down.

Perhaps the in-laws have come over for Christmas and he needs to take it out on someone.

[cailin maith]

Just had a call about a permie role I applied for yesterday:

Agent: "About this role you applied for. You had an interview with them in 2002 and turned them down. Why are you applying again?"

Me: "I didn't know it was the same client. It is a different, more senior, role. I turned them down last time over the money."

Agent: "My records say you did not like them."

I dig out my records. (I keep a spreadsheet of my gig-searching and start it afresh after each gig. It goes back over 10 years. Sometimes it is useful.)

Me: "According to my record I said I liked them but the role was advertised as £35k + package + car and what they offered was £32k and nothing else. I could not afford to take it at the time and they would not budge."

Agent: "My records don't say that."

Me: "That's because their MD phoned me at home on a Saturday to say he did not like me, that the chairman had over-ruled him and told him to take me on, and that £32k was all he would offer. When I turned that down the MD was relieved."

Agent: "I don't believe you. They would not do that. The client would not go behind my back."

Me: "It is what my records say and it matches my memory of the event."

The agent then went into one: "I've known them ten years", "they would never go behind my back", "what is it with you contractors?", "upsetting my client" and "so why did you apply again?"

Basically, he had rung me up just to have a go at me for applying for a job at a company I had previously turned down.

Perhaps the in-laws have come over for Christmas and he needs to take it out on someone.

Bloody hell... the cheek of him. Did you tell him to **** off?

[Sysman]

Bloody hell... the cheek of him. Did you tell him to **** off?

He would have had a real roasting from me!

[RichardCranium]

Bloody hell... the cheek of him. Did you tell him to **** off?

No.

He would have had a real roasting from me!

I wanted to.

Instead I was just humble and took it.

He then gave me a hard time about being a contractor applying for permie gigs and I gave him my standard flannel about being grateful for the opportunity.

He then said he'd put me forward.

I take this tulip because I do not feel I am in any position not to take it.