She'll Definitely Start - One of These Days...

You may think that, by the time you offer someone a job and they accept, that they will begin to get their affairs in order, so they can start on time.When you manage a smaller company,  everybody counts and to have someone not show up as agreed can leave you scrambling.

This happened to me a few years ago. I had offered the job of Project Coordinator to someone we'll call Cathy. Cathy had seemed.very enthusiastic about the job during the interview - but, then again, so does just about everyone. We had agreed she would start on the first of the month following.

Three days before Cathy's start date, she phoned up and asked if she could start one day later, so she could finish up a project for her current employer.  Naturally, I felt quite put out about this but wasn't sure, legally, what my position should be. Could I simply withdraw the job offer? Could I tell her, either she started as agreed or she would forfeit the position? As I wasn't sure - and it was only one day - with some reluctance, I agreed.

While Cathy did show up on the second of month, I was right to have heard a lot warning bells ringing. For one thing, she had trouble meeting deadlines (no wonder she didn't have the project done on time at her former position).  For another, her concept of productivity was way out of line with what we needed in our environment. Not surprisingly, after about six weeks, I had to let her go. We were falling too far behind on too many client commitments.

To complicate matters, Cathy had been referred to the company by one of our existing staff, Ann. Although Ann had made no guarantees about Cathy's potential, she felt somewhat responsible for having made the suggestion. I told Ann not to bother herself about it.  She also had the uncomfortable experience of having to regularly meet with Cathy at yoga class. However, Ann later told me that Cathy seemd more embarrassed about the experience than Ann herself did.

What this suggests to other smaller employers or new entrepreneurs is that you need to know the law in terms of both offering jobs AND withdrawing them. Plus, sometimes, a small environment may not be the best environment for people to refer friends and relatives. In a large company, there will be a lot of distance between the person making the referral and the new hire, but in a smaller company, where everyone is on top of one another, it may be better to steer clear of referrals for key positions at your firm. 

Copyright Deborah C. Sawyer