Three times during my career I recommended people to help get them fixed up with a job at the place where I worked. The first was a bloke called Paul who wasn’t really a friend, he’d ingratiated himself with some of my mates at the pub. He had lost his job at a supermarket and was moaning about having no money. I asked for him at my place of work and they gave him a job in the loading bay. He lasted about two weeks, he was fired after they found him asleep in the back of a wagon. Didn’t make me look good.
At another company my manager told me they were going to need to take on around a dozen women in a hurry, to do packing work and asked if I knew anyone. I said yes, the girlfriend of a mate had been unemployed for some time. Can’t remember her name. He said see if you can bring her in. I went to her house and told her about the job, and she said yes immediately. She lasted a couple of months, then gave it up and went back to being unemployed. When I saw her I asked her why she’d quit. She said she just didn’t like it and gave silly excuses. What’s liking it got to do with anything? It was a job, she was earning money.
The third time, I was working in an office and my manageress told me they knew I had more work than one person could handle and they were going to employ a junior to help me. i was dubious about this – if the junior wasn’t any good, I’d have to tell them, then they’d get another one who might be no better. If the chosen junior turned out to be good, how long would they stay, working for such a low salary? About three months earlier, they’d hired a woman called Elaine to do a temporary job which had come to an end. I had got along extremely well with Elaine, she was a good worker and I’d been sorry to see her go. I asked my manageress if they’d consider taking Elaine on full time as my assistant. They did, and agreed to pay her twice as much as the junior was going to get.
I didn’t know what I’d let myself in for. She started back and it was like working with a completely different person, it was as though her twin sister had turned up instead. She was less than friendly, awkward, uncooperative, even argumentative. She tried to divide the work up into ‘hers’ and ‘mine’ and moaned about her wage because she knew I was getting more. A number of times I thought about talking to the manageress about the situation, but it was me who recommended her and I would’ve felt foolish. The atmosphere between us became almost hostile and then, hearing that the company was relocating to another town, she gave in her notice, which came as a relief. I vowed never to recommend anyone for a job again, and I didn’t.
The Daily Star
Nominated by Allan.
