No matter how long one has been in the recruitment business, one can still come across a few surprises every now and then.

Just this year, for example, I have recruited over a dozen managers and executives. Here are some personal tales of recruitment woes and lows.

One of my more unforgettable experiences this year involved a middle manager that I had chosen for the marketing department. A friend, who assured me he was a good performer, referred this guy to me.

After having him go through a series of interviews, everyone concerned was satisfied with him and decided to make him a job offer. I then prepared the job offer sheet and called the manager to my office.

After giving the manager the job offer sheet, I explained to him the compensation package, which would allow him to earn as much as 16 months’ worth of salary in a year.

He read the offer sheet and pointed out that only 13 months were guaranteed and that there was no mention of the bonus. I told him that it was not the company’s practice to put everything in the offer sheet, because some things were deemed confidential. The arrangement, therefore, would have to be based on trust. I also told him that the average was about 15 months pay per year, depending on performance. When he asked me if I could write it down in the offer sheet, I said no.

Too Sorry
As we went through the offer sheet item by item, he insisted on going into the minutest details of each, no matter how trivial. I have never seen any applicant as finicky as he.

Finally, we came to the vacation leave. Our practice is that on the first year, the employee should first earn his vacation leave. It is only in the second year when the employee could avail himself of his earned leave credits. He complained that it was too long to wait. Thereupon we got into a long discussion. To appease him, I told him that the company does allow some managers to go on leave in advance on a case-by-case basis. He asked me if I could also include such exceptions in the offer sheet.

On hearing this, I got so fed up that I took the offer sheet and tore it in front of him. I then told him that our relationship should be based on trust and if he could not trust our company, then he should not work for us. End of discussion.

A couple of months later, I met the friend who recommended him to me. He told me that the applicant was very sorry to have lost the opportunity of working for us. It turned out that he had moved to another company for a much lesser package than what we had offered him.

Two-faced
Sometimes being too cunning could also work against you.

During the middle of the year, I was searching for a high-level executive for our controllership division. Finally, we settled on a very good candidate. However, since it was a senior management position, the candidate had to be interviewed by the company president before we could make him a job offer. The president was out of the country at the time and would not be back until after a couple of weeks. Since the candidate was in a hurry to move, I called him up and explained to him the situation. I then asked him to wait.

When our president came back, we immediately called the candidate for an interview. The president was likewise impressed with him after the interview. He then instructed me to make him a job offer, which the candidate accepted. A couple of days later, I received a call from a friend, who was also an HR executive in another company. Imagine my surprise when he told me that the same candidate had already accepted their job offer the previous week and had, in fact, signed an employment contract. Only he came back and said he wanted to withdraw it because he would be joining our company. My friend asked me if that was true. I told him yes but that I didn’t know the guy had already signed up with his company.

We then thought of a plan to teach the guy a lesson. My friend sent me a copy of the contract signed by the candidate, and I did the same. My friend then called the candidate for a meeting and pretended to ask him to reconsider his withdrawal. But the candidate stood fast on his decision. So my friend asked him to put his withdrawal in writing, which the candidate did.

A day later, I met with the candidate and asked him if there was anything he would like to disclose to me. When he asked me what it was about, I told him about his having accepted an offer in another company before he did ours. The candidate denied it until I showed him the signed contract. He became very apologetic. I then told him that our company was withdrawing its job offer. If he could afford to be dishonest with us this early in our relationship, I said, then we had no assurance that he would not do the same once he was employed with us. He asked for reconsideration, but I was firm with my decision.

That applicant should have learned several lessons from this experience. First, he should have learned that haste makes waste. If he had only waited a bit longer for our offer before making a decision, then things would have turned out differently. Second, he should have fulfilled his commitment instead of reneging on it when a better offer came along. Third, he should have learned that one couldn’t always get away with everything all the time. If only he had been honest with me about his having accepted the other company’s offer, I would have told him to first talk to my friend and ask that he be allowed to withdraw his commitment. In that way, I would have withheld the offer until he had properly informed the other company. I’m sure my friend would have understood and allowed him to go without a fuss.

These stories impart some important lessons for jobseekers like you, specifically on ethical issues pertaining to job offers. Imbibe them and you will not suffer the same fate that befell these individuals.