The twilight zone?

Just when I thought things couldn’t get much weirder at work, the bosses begin discussing something I expect out of news of the weird, not something an actual company would consider.So, the background. November and December are the slowest months of the year for travel companies that specialize in vacation packages. This is because all Christmas and Thanksgiving packages are sold out by mid-October. But January and February are the busiest months. So, since it takes at least one month for a new agent to get used to selling vacation packages, it’s best to hire people now and train them so they are ready for the rush. On Tuesday the bosses went to a Denver wide career fair to do an initial interview with some potential agents. Today they started discussing having an open house this Friday to do a hiring frenzy.

Okay, so far so good. Nothing too odd yet. But here is where it takes a turn for the weird. They want the place to look like its nearly full of agents already, and bustling with business. Now, we have two offices in Denver, and if we were to take the four people in the second office and put them in the first office, then we would have one office that looks nearly full, and then lock the other one. But that would look like we are small, I guess or something, so instead they were discussing calling a temp agency to get a half dozen people to come in an populate the two offices for one day. Yes, they want to effectively hire actors for a day to make the place look busier than it is. Now, if I came and saw that there were very few spots open for agents, only to get hired and have a good quarter of the agents I saw that day not be there when I show up the next week, wouldn’t I think something strange was going on?

8 Responses to “The twilight zone?”

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That is distinctly weird… I could see it resulting in some anger over being misled.

Why does your company want to look bigger than it is? Why not say “We’re small, but we’re growing– this is your chance to get in on the ground floor and be one of the decision makers.”

Paradoxdruid - October 27th, 2005 at 8:13 am

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Seems odd to me too, but maybe there is such a great fear of joining a company that hasn’t “made it” yet. A lot of people would much rather have a secure job than enter something risky, but possibly with more input in the decision-making process…

Teisha - October 27th, 2005 at 2:45 pm

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That is really bizarre, I’m not sure what to make of it. I actually have my own unexplained behavior that I was thinking of posting about that seems to fit under this heading as well.

We’re trying to find a new roommate for our house and have gotten several people tell us they’re sending a check with the security deposit, and then we never hear from them again. One was probably a scam, since she said she was expecting a check and would have it sent to us. We were then supposed to send her the difference. But the others just seemed to have not sent anything. What is the purpose of telling someone you’ll rent a room, and then not actually doing so? We thought maybe some people might be trying to rent some place themselves, since the emails seemed more interested in telling us to take the ad off Craig’s list than actually getting information about the house, but still seems pretty bizzare to me.

mcmillan - October 28th, 2005 at 11:30 am

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Okay, I’m sure this thread wasn’t started with the intention of complaining about the work place…but I’m hijacking it! 😛

Who thought muzak in the workplaces was a good idea? They got rid of it last year…and brought it back for the holiday season? I had better not hear the mariacha version of Silent Night again…

And why does my entire building smell of industrial strength orange cleaner? Is that really better than the asbestoes that they’re trying to cover up?

Mallorn - November 2nd, 2005 at 5:25 am

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Ooh! Complaining about the workplace! What have I got to offer…
* Our Hallway is only half-lit, apparently to save power– so I get to live in a dark dungeon.
* We have pieces of equipment from the late 60s strewn randomly throughout our work area, and enough inertia to never clean it.
* I have no windows to the outside, even though I’m on ground-floor, in a beautiful area.
* We listen to radio DJ talk shows for 2 hours every morning… thank god for my iPod. 🙂

Muzak is horrible. I suggest an iPod for you as well.

Paradoxdruid - November 2nd, 2005 at 11:06 am

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I don’t know..I’m a bit disappointed. Where’s the contact information for the webmaster? *evil grin*

Mallorn - November 5th, 2005 at 6:22 pm

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(Speaking of your work, that’s a real nice webpage you recently created for them! )

Teisha - November 5th, 2005 at 4:50 pm

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If we’re going to mention the group website (which I need to update with some of the recent pictures and such!), I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that we registered ReichLab.com for our group website, and made actually cool group t-shirts– I’ll have to link to them when pictures of them go online.

Paradoxdruid - November 7th, 2005 at 4:29 am

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