Now you have it, now you don't

As you know, I've been out of work for quite some time and have been working with several employment agencies who are out there looking for opportunities for me.

Yesterday I had a phone interview that was set up through one of these staffing agencies with a software company here in town. The interview took place at 16:30 and lasted for approximately half an hour. When the interview was finished, I was asked to call my contact back at the agency to let her know how I thought the interview went and thus let her know if the job was something that appealed to me so she could relay my interest.

Being mightily short on cash, I told her that the job did interest me and maxing $x per hour, while not as much as I need, was better than making nothing at all. She told me that, since it was late in the day, she didn't expect to get any feedback back from the company until sometime on Wednesday.

Quarter to six, the phone rings and it's the woman from the staffing agency. She excitedly asks me what I'm doing at 09:00 on Wednesday. I reply quickly that I hadn't planned on doing anything (anything productive, that is). She then tells me that I'll be working at my new job!! Congrats follow and she then proceeds to lay out the details: what time to get there, what the dress code is, etc. and that she'll meet me there in the morning because there are a few pieces of paperwork that I need to fill out (hello W-4) again.

Obviously, I'm real excited to get back to work and I happily relay the story to every member of my family.

Today I get there fifteen minutes early (a robust 15 minute non-highway commute with traffic) and am told by the receptionist to have a seat in the lobby lounge. Right at nine the staffing people come and I fill out the necessary forms. The manager lady I spoke with last night comes down to escort me, with visitor badge/door key in hand up to the third floor.

The day goes by uneventfully and I perform the tasks required of me, being shown what to do and how to do it by another woman I'd be working with. The job is not rocket science and I pick it up quickly. During the course of the morning, the IT guy sets me up with a computer, email, etc. The whole shebang.

Aside from asking appropriate questions when necessary to do the work, I say little. The only things I asked were what time lunch was, how long it lasts and what time is the workday done? All important questions and necessary for me to know. At 16:00 when I was allowed to leave, I turned in my visitor badge to the manager lady, figuring they'd have a permanent one for me in the morning, said good night - see you tomorrow, yada, yada, yada and headed for the elevator with my lunch bag and book bag in hand.

After a grueling 20 minute commute (with more traffic than in the morning) I get back home. Half an hour later the phone rings and it's the staffing lady. She's calling, not to ask me how the day went, but to tell me that the company decided that I would not be a good fit for them long-term and thanked me for my time.

I asked staffing lady what the reasons were for my abrupt dismissal and the only reason I got (that she was given) was that I was not whom they were looking for. I inquired with her again later, pressing for a better answer. None was provided.

Now, I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed sometimes, but I can't figure out why or how a company would be so gung-ho about me on Tuesday afternoon and decide on Wednesday, after one day's work that I'm not a good fit?

How does that work, exactly?

So it's back to the drawing board for me.

Good thing I have another interview scheduled for Tuesday morning. An interview with a company that, while a bit farther away, holds much more promise than this one day experience did.

Truth be told, I couldn't really see myself as a long term fit at that position with the software company anyway. However I kept that thought a-rattlin' around in my head. I figured that I'd be able to finish out the week before any judgment was rendered on my "fit."

Stuff happens for a reason, this I know.

It doesn't make it any less frustrating though.

This also bothers me, in general about "workplace etiquette": Why is it that courtesy calls for an employee to give notice, usually two weeks, before leaving a job, to not leave them hanging. But they can say to an employee, with no notice, that they're firing you? Don't let the door hit you on the way out type stuff. How does that not inconvenience me and leave me hanging? Who in the heck invented that rule? Can someone give me a logical explanation that makes sense?

That is why, generally at the jobs I've had, I don't give notice. Why should I be loyal to a company who won't show me the same courtesy in return?

It would be one thing if your boss came up to you and said, "Hey, we're going to fire your butt in two weeks, so you better start looking for another job."

If that happened then I can see giving notice.

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Happy 63rd Birthday, Dad.