The Wacky, Maddening Employment System
Presented by George Crosby, President of Human Resource Network, Human Resource Network
About the Speaker
George Crosby has worked for over 30 years in the HR field. He left traditional corporate employment after 25 years and noticed that a lot had changed since then, especially in the decline in character in the corporate business world.
About the Event
Meeting
This Secretary would like to extend heartfelt thanks to FA members James Kulig and Amanda Narvaes for their collaborative work in recording and drafting the superbly done last meeting minutes (#165). Due to circumstances beyond my control, my attendance was suddenly precluded that day, allowing for no advance notice to FA. Their stepping up to the plate and able efforts in pinch-hitting is much appreciated. Enough with the baseball metaphors—you’d think I was S.J. Gould!
Our Annual Freethought Picnic was July 10. A good time was had. Thanks to all who contributed to its success. As picnic coordinator, I have already lined up next years’ venue. The ‘05 Freethought Picnic is reserved at the remarkable, expansive and activity- filled (boating, water park, beach area, climbing areas, trails, etc.) Millennium Park at Open Shelter A. It will be on Saturday, July 9 (one day shy of an exact year from our just-passed picnic) from 12PM- 6PM.
You’re invited to Freethought on the Lake, July 24. The Van Oosterhouts will be hosting this social get together and potluck at their cottage in Mears on Lake Michigan. Come anytime after 12 noon. Bring a dish to pass, beverage, etc. for the meal to be had around 5PM that day. “Nibblies” will be available before. They have a rubber raft, a couple of bicycles, a kayak, sailboat, croquet set and you are welcome to bring your own recreational items. Weather permitting, there will be a bonfire on the beach. Their Mears cottage is only about an hour and a half from downtown GR. RSVP to FA Board member Jan Van Oosterhout at to help her get a head count and if you need directions or other information.
We have a special guest speaker for our July 28th meeting. American Atheists President, Ellen Johnson will speak to us on the topic: Civil Rights for Atheists and the Challenges Ahead. You won’t want to miss this meeting.
Those of us who wish to, gather at Vitale’s Restaurant after the regular meetings for drinks, eats and socializing. We have an on-going arrangement with this establishment for a reserved section there. It is located at 834 Leonard, NE; west on Leonard from our Yankee Clipper Library meeting place.
Presentation
Our topic for this meeting was The Wacky, Maddening Employment System (How it works, who the players are, and the games they play.) It was presented by FA member George Crosby, president of Human Resource Network, which has placed about 4,000 top level executives. Crosby, who has worked for over 30 years in the HR field, began with a qualifier. He said that his presentation was based on opinion from his experiences, rather than data generated and gathered into hard statistics. Noting that there were no overarching expectations for him in life and that he had no burning ambitions as a youth, there was no place for disappointment to take hold and his success came a surprise.
He left traditional corporate employment after 25 years and noticed that a lot had changed since then, especially in the decline in character in the corporate business world. Crosby said that the front page of the Wall Street Journal reads like a white collar crime sheet with the heads of companies showing, too often, no real regard for the public. They need us but hold us- the public- in disdain and project a disrespectful arrogance.
The business that he presides over now was started in 1986 by a group who gathered in Chicago, running employment searches and working leads. It grew into what it is today from this humble beginning. The stories from those who became involved in his HR company were ones of turmoil and struggle faced by employees who were callously discarded without a second thought—all at the whim of the CEO who could not countenance any ripple in their comfort. Time constraints pressure the CEOs into moving fast and hard. What he heard helped shape Crosby’s vision of HR as representing the unrepresented and to serve as spokespersons and advocates for their clients.
He has seen enormous unhappiness in the workplace, with employees plagued by insecurity and worries for the future. He called today’s job market the “bizarre bazaar.” Crosby noted that the employee and employer have conflicting interests. The employee wants the most pay right away and the employer wants a workforce to be had at the lowest cost. There is little meshing of objectives for the two parties and in the interview process there is protocol governing what can be gleaned from the prospective employee as well as what is expected to be yielded up. If the company is a public one, the interviewer cannot be seen to be discriminating based on age, sex, race, ethnicity or religious affiliation. They are not entitled to pry into the personal business of the candidate for employment. During the Q&A portion of the presentation, one member contended that it was not illegal to ask such questions but rather on what the employer does with the information. Of course, it is hard to prove how the extracted information impacted the interviewer’s decision and difficult to defend against charges that the responses negatively influenced the candidate’s likelihood of being hired. It is therefore extremely unwise to engage in this practice, regardless of the legality issue. Another member talked about how she was specifically asked in job interviews in the Grand Rapids area, about her religious affiliation and even denomination.
The job seeker must keep in mind that the employment market is not there to hold the seeker’s hand, to solve their personal problems or heal them. It’s not social work, as Crosby said.
He spoke of an executive who wanted a search done for a Black woman under 40 to match for a specific plant location. The executive saw nothing wrong in his overtly expressed search criteria.
While he acknowledged that the world is more complex than this when dealing with specifics, he can break down companies, generally, into two categories with two different modes of operation and styles: the smaller and the larger company. Typically, the smaller companies are more nimble and flexible, more likely to take risk and seize fleeting opportunities than their larger counterparts. These large companies, by contrast, are more conservative in their approach, less likely to do things to rock the boat or change the course swiftly. They believe they must adhere more rigidly to policy and have a strong sense of order and set system of reprisals for those who step out of line. The lower level executives serve the higher level ones, rather than the public, and they are there to make the “big guy” look good.
Getting stuck in the rules, or being too inflexible in its marriage to the rulebook can cause the large company to seek out only those employees who fall within narrowly confined jobs that are dictated by the immutable system. While this produces order and predictability, it can also allow potential creativity to be lost and more efficient methods to be dismissed when they fall outside the system’s strictures. A person who can do more operations effectively may be lost to a company that looks for people who fill tightly defined jobs and job descriptions, like cogs in a machine.
There are a couple main types of approaches in lining up employees for employers. One works on a contingency basis where they guarantee that someone they produce will be satisfactory to the employer. If they do not come up with this match, they do not get paid. The other way is to not offer guarantees that who they find will work out for the employer but whose reputation is more on the line. If their results are unsatisfactory, their services (that are paid for unconditionally) will not be as desirable for future searches.
The Human Resources Network president referred to interviewing as the playpen of the employment process. While it is a natural response to be anxious and nervous during a job interview, the HR goal is to put the prospective employee at ease and sell them on the company. An interviewer is also able to learn more from a relaxed candidate. There is a sort of dance that goes on between the interviewer and interviewee. Neither wants to show all his cards before the other does. One seemingly innocuous question that may be asked is what the last or current earning level was of the job applicant. The employer can then ascertain what the applicant is willing to accept in compensation. A good response is that his or her boss frowns on talking about this. The interviewee should make the interviewer aware that s/he expects that pay ranges are already established for the various levels of employment within the company. One has to go in armed with knowledge about the way the world works and what questions to ask, rather than being passive and doing all the answering of interviewer queries. The more attractive the job relative to the skill level possessed by the applicant, the more potential for getting burned as an applicant. He advised that the person seeking employment invest some time in learning about the company and realize that there is almost always room for negotiation. Most situations are not as rigid as they appear at first. One has to be able to self monitor and be aware of how one is coming across and modify, as necessary, one’s approach. Crosby stressed that negotiation is an art and skill that is important in all aspects of life, not just in the employment arena.
George Crosby next turned to the subject of outsourcing that is talked about a great deal these days. He gave several specific examples of the fallout of this practice as he has seen it manifested in people’s lives. People he has encountered who had held high level, responsible jobs were reduced to giving guitar lessons to survive or doctorate level individuals who were happy just to get work typing up documents at 20% of their previous rate of pay for eighty hour weeks. When jobs are outsourced cheaply, Americans have to work harder for less pay to stay employed. Where he grew up in Boston, Crosby saw the loss of some industries go to North Carolina and they resented the North Carolinians for this. It is the same thing now, only writ larger, on the national and international scale. He sees people conditioned to the idea that their lot in life will not improve, without a sense of justified hope for the future.
Crosby referenced the Boeing ethical problems at the top level. When a new CEO took the helm, he sought changes in the company code of conduct. Being a large corporation, it was in the slow to change mode. When he was told that the new policies would be laid out and implemented in a few months, he replied: “You’re looking at your calendar—- but I’m looking at my watch!” The policies were changed in a considerably shorter time frame.
During the Question and Answer period, Crosby was asked to contrast and compare the public and private sectors of employment and to talk about how well, if at all, educators in higher education were shielded from the harsh cuts and dismissals. The bottom line prevails, he contended, and funding issues still dictate employment outcomes.
He said that the jobs employers most want to ditch or find ways to cut costs on are service ones. This is an area where outsourcing is particularly attractive for them. A problem arises when the people you are in contact with as a consumer are far removed from you, culturally and geographically, for getting satisfactory results. Money as well as employment does not flow into the area as it would with a local company hiring the local population who spend and invest their earnings in their community. He commented that many large businesses love the head but hate the body. Unions are in decline too, negating employee advocacy. Often CEOs objectify the employees as fixed, costly things to be eliminated whenever possible.
He was asked about Temp Services and responded that it is a legitimate alternative employment route but quipped that it was sort of like an employer saying they want to date but not marry you.
Regarding the big corporate scandals of recent times, he said that too many CEOs had lost sight of the fact that their feet touch the ground the same as everyone else’s. They come to believe they are gods and that the company money is purely for their own excesses. Some governing laws to curtail excessive abuses of corporate power may as well not even be written down due to lack of enforcement.
Crosby bemoaned the current Administration’s “Faith Based Initiatives” where organizations and companies run by religious denominations can skirt the laws of the State, being disentangled by government oversight, while feasting at the trough of public monies. They can discriminate based on religion or any arbitrary consideration that their faith permits while taking funds from a source that disallows this practice. We also discussed the misnamed Patriot Act. Crosby said humorously that when he spoke on the phone, opining in a controversial manner on some subject, he will often say: “Did you catch that, John?” referring to Ashcroft.
He spoke on Affirmative Action as well. He notes more diversity and sees that as a positive sign of continually changing times but also perceives the great amount of work to be done. He mentioned the complaint by minority racial groups when they feel they are used only as window dressing. Sometimes it is said that they are loved when they are needed for some temporary use (to show how progressive a company, or other entity is)but discarded afterwards.
Crosby mentioned how pay disparities between CEOs and employees are at an all time high and referred to the skyrocketing salaries at the top as a runaway train. He cited economic publications both foreign and domestic that are known to be more conservative and right leaning that view this behavior as out of control and obscene. This isn’t just a concern of liberals.
He ended the evening’s presentation by speaking of the importance of networking. Crosby illustrated this point with a personal story that demonstrated how small, seemingly insignificant events can impact on one’s life serendipitously to create great outcomes. I will not recount the story here, but will say that a simple game of checkers one day in his youth, after a hard scholastic setback, ended up changing his entire life. It struck this Secretary as being sort of like the social version of the Butterfly Effect.
Secretary: Charles LaRue.
