Futile reference checks

Reference checks are widely used by companies. How does it work? A prospective candidate submits 2-3 references to the employer. The employer contacts those references and makes sure the candidate is hireable. Can someone explain to me why this makes sense? The candidate obviously provides references that he is on very good terms with. It is unlikely that the references will say anything bad about the candidate.

I understand that background testing is important. It is important to verify someone's employment history, and so on. But, reference checks? It is an exercise in futility. Only if employers woke up and recognized this, they would be saving a lot of money and time for themselves!

Company vs. Employee

The unwritten contract between a Company and its employee is almost always in favor of the company.

Let us say a company is going through a bad patch. It requests its employees to work harder, take a pay cut, and more often that not the latter oblige.

Now, switch roles. An employee has a problem in his family, is going through a rough patch. Will the company allow the employee to work less, take it easy? Probably, no.

Accountability

Companies talk really big about accountability, internally. Employees need to be accountable for their actions, Managers need to be accountable for the performance of their divisions, and so on.

Now, let us talk about accountability of a company towards an external entity. How about customers, they would constitute a pretty important external entity, right? Look at all the ads floating around on TV and in print. All of them make tall claims about the respective companies.

Recently, I interacted with one such company. Their TV ad bragged about their exceptional customer service. In fact, that was the central theme of their ad. I went on their website, and sent them an email enquiring about something really basic. You will think, "And pat came the reply?".

Actually, quite the opposite. It took them twelve (yes, a dozen) business days to get back to me. Now, is that being accountable for your ads? I am sure this is not an isolated incident. Companies create advertisements to coax customers, and in an attempt to make the ads attractive, they forget the facts, sometimes.

The Micro Manager

I am sure all of us heard about bosses who micro manage. This essentially means that the boss is peeping ove your your shoulder almost all the time.

One might argue that micro managers are good since they get the work done. But, if you look at the other side of the equation, employees will quickly find ways to give the impression that they are working hard, when the Micro Manager is around. The moment such a manager steps away, or goes on a vacation, the employees will breathe a sigh of relief and stop working.

This is because if one's boss is a Micro Manager, he expects his boss to push and prod to get every simple task done. The moment the pushing and prodding stops, the employee thinks that there is no work to be done. In other words, the proactive employee ceases to exist.

Why lay off?

Lay off is something that I cannot comprehend. I think it is as bad as a criminal offence. Imagine a company hiring an employee, the employee relocates, builds a dream based on his relationship with that company, and one fine morning, he is laid off for no fault of his. Isn't that cruel?

Lay offs are primarily due to poor human resource planning at a company. Companies sometimes go crazy hiring people thinking that they will need all of them, and then realize that they do not need that many.

I understand that one should keep business and emotions separate, but laying off for anything other than a performance-related reason should be deemed illegal.