Hyper, Semi-Independent Clerical Worker w/ Psychometric Performance Bonuses

http://madison.craigslist.org/csr/2874400434.html

"Job Title: We are URGENTLY needing to fill 2 ft/pt positions in our Reedsburg location.

The position is part time but we would make it fulltime after 30 days.

The job is paid hourly with incentives on attendance, productivity and attitude.

We are looking for a high energy positive person. Able to take direction and work semi independently for short periods of time.

Hours for the position would be 5:00p.m.-8:30p.m. Mon-Fri & Sat 9a.m.-1p.m.

Experienced persons will be considered first as will resumes.

Job duties will include but aren't limited to: faxing, computer work, order inputting, inbound/outbound calls."

The “urgent” need to fill two untitled positions begs the question as to why those vacancies occurred unexpectedly. This urgency spills over into the syntax of certain sentences such as, “Experienced persons will be considered first, as will resumes.” Perhaps the job poster has been exchanging notes with whoever wrote the “warehouse assistant” job vacancy analyzed in Post 037. Irrespective of proper distinction of resumes as an attribute of qualified applicants rather than legal entities in themselves, this great sense of urgency gives pause to the analytical job seeker.

Did an employee and his or her friend both go rogue and quit without giving adequate notice? Did the company discover two of its employees stealing supplies? Whatever the reason, company desperation usually gives job seekers greater leverage in securing both a position and a higher wage. However, the clerical nature of the work and the lack of prior job experience as a requirement substantially negate that leverage due to the large quantity of applicants who self-certify as tolerating someone else watching their work except for when they are permitted to “work semi-independently for short periods of time.”

At least the job poster is candid about the company practice of explicitly scoring one’s “attitude” as a component of performance evaluations. This factor consciously and unconsciously influences managerial opinions of direct reports anyway, and at the extreme this results in favoritism such as permitting one or two employees to regularly violate certain work rules while everyone else is held to a gold standard. Hence, acknowledging this influence is beneficial to everyone by raising awareness about a sometimes overlooked issue.

While some might be concerned about pay increases being contingent upon attitude assessments, an excellent score on the attitude metric can be used to compensate for merely satisfactory productivity and attendance. This advantage is all the more critical when pay increases are given only to above-average performers but almost everyone is a highly productive. Showing that you are glad to help not only customers but also fellow employees can bump you into the “eligible for pay raise” category when coworkers are also on their “A+ Game” but do not express a love for their job or company.

"Best Western Inn" Desk Clerk in City of Beaver Dam, WI

http://madison.craigslist.org/csr/2873750724.html

"Job Title: Front Desk Clerk

Accepting applications for part time front desk clerk having smart personality with excellent customer care skills. Candidate must be able to work flexible shifts including weekends and most holidays.

Apply in person at:

Best Western Campus Inn

815 Park Avenue

Beaver Dam,WI

Compensation: part-time"

Considering how many job seekers inquire at hotel desks in a given week, it speaks volumes about management’s distaste for existing applicants. I suppose the Beaver Dam manager tired of the same chronically unemployed applicants month after month and hence decided to advertise as far away as Madison (about 40 miles away), a city which has plenty more hotels to hire front-desk workers before they contemplate an hour commute to Beaver Dam.

I understand the requirement of a top-shelf attitude towards helping the customer because when did admitting to having only “great customer service skills” ever suffice, outside of pizza places having a minimum wait time of 20 minutes? However, the job poster asks for not only the typical “excellent customer care skills” but also for a “smart personality.” There are clearer phrases to communicate the intent of the job poster such as “intuitive sense of decorum” or “readily notices customers before they try to get your attention.”

As worded, the job vacancy might be interpreted as being intended for “smarty pants” or otherwise sarcastic individuals. I believe this is what most people think of when hearing or reading the phrase “smart personality.” A requirement of above-average intelligence would be a waste of human capital because there isn’t much for a desk worker to learn once he or she has memorized hotel policies, which should nonetheless be written in an easily accessible manual and tend to change anyway. I hence believe that “common sense” is the meaning intended by use of the phrase “smart personality.”

Irrespective of descriptive semantics, the job poster and many other human resources staff believe they can accurately assess applicant adequacy (alliteration aside) via a snap judgment or once-over of an in-person applicant. (It’s a good thing those HR folks aren’t court judges!) The requirement to apply in person is supposed to be a behavioral interview in itself. The hiring manager would do well to act like an angry customer when someone requests a job application because how someone responds to people who act like jerks is a fairly accurate measure of how the applicant will act behind your back when hired.

To truly test for whether the applicant embodies savoir faire, esprit de corps, and a bunch of other personality concepts clichéd into French terms to sound more sophisticated than they are, it would be wise for the manager to act out some scenarios in real time to see the responses and composure of the applicant. While typically only luxury hotel managers actually use the aforementioned French terms, I apply them to this job vacancy because many hiring managers of economy chains such as Best Western Inn hold the same cavalier attitude, as evinced by including the obnoxious term “smart personality” in the job description for a doormat position such as desk clerk.

I know that hotel maids are technically below desk clerk in terms of authority, but those workers have the privilege of requesting the room occupant to leave for a room cleaning or to skip a room until the occupants leave. Hence, the desk clerk is least sheltered from customer demands and hence should not have a “smart” or skeptical attitude but instead believe the customer and kowtow to whatever extent necessary.