Gee, We Wonder Why That Employee Quit?

I work in human resource consulting, but focus myself in regional towns and small rural cities. Essentially, I help businesses in these areas update their recruitment and retention processes, as smaller communities often struggle to find staff. As part of my pitch, I will often help businesses re-write their job advertisements. Usually, this results in them getting more applicants and the clients hire me to help alter their processes.

Other clients take this as a sign I work for free.

I pitched for a very well-known organisation and met with one of their higher-ups. We re-wrote their job advertisements, and they said they would get their contracts and compliance team to review my standard contract and get back to me. 

Two months pass, I think nothing of not hearing from them because I’m busy and life is good. Then I get this:

Client: “Hey, [My Name], we have a quick question: which sounds better to you?”

They attach two selection criteria. I say the first, give a sentence explaining why, and that’s it. I ask whether they had any questions about my contract, but no response.

One month after that, I get another question asking my opinion about an applicant tracking system. I give a quick two-sentence response and say that I can provide more detail if they want, but they will need to get back to me about my contract.

Today, I get another email. We are now five months post-meeting and two months since they last reached out:

Client: “Hey, [My Name], we have just had [Employee] quit and serve us with a notice that they are intending to sue. They’re citing issues such as a heavy workload causing psychological damage, and us rushing them and causing compliance issues to be skipped. What do you think? Do they have a case?”

I reply saying I could help, but we would need a contract in place for me to come on board as an expert and do a consultation. I can’t guarantee any particular outcome, but I say that I can advise their legal team as to what I found. The response:

Client: “For f***s sake, a contract? F****** seriously? All this f****** legal s*** just costs money and sucks off our profits and my end-of-year bonus. What happened to helping folks out because you’re not an a**hole? F*** it, we’ll figure it out ourselves. It’s a shame; I have your contract ready for approval too. I’ll s*** on it and then set it on the floor while I f*** my wife. Don’t worry; I’ll send you the video, you f***.”

Those emails have been saved in a special folder I have called “Future legal evidence.”