Kind of a mini side rant here, and by the way is this thing on? Mic Check, Check 1, Check 1, Check 1, 2. Check baby, check baby 1,2,3, 4, Check baby check baby 1... all I wanna do is a zoom zoom zoom and a boom boom? No? Okay.
So anyway, I kind of hesitate to write this because no doubt I'll use or at least try to use and maybe even need Craigslist's services at some point. I will also say what many others have. Craigslist as a concept was and is great. Obviously they have been very successful. At the same time, and kind of going back to my "too big to fail" post, when a business or a person has a good taste of success and it goes to their head(s) the results can be ugly.
What has me a bit riled up is the "ghosting" of ads and just the overall inconsistency that Craigslist seems to operate by in terms of enforcing their own terms of service. I'll admit it's been a little while since I've read them, but just based on what I've personally experienced and what others have written about in their own blogs, such as this little dandy paint a sordid tale. That link by the way has many different topics to the blog, all Craigslist related. I just happened to be reading on the ghosting subject since some of my posts there lately have been ghosted.
Whenever things such as these come up the old freedom of speech and censorship arguments are thrown out. It's a mixed bag, because to a certain extent a forum, an online community or site, even a place of employment to some extent can censor or punish you for things you say. That being said, these types of entities should always be held accountable to enforce standards and protocol fairly across the board, with little to no inconsistency, discrimination/favoritism, and in as considerate and respectful a way as possible. In reading another blog on Craigslist and their indiscretions, someone reported that their posts were flagged by competitors who did not like the fact that they titled their post "Cheapest prices in town!!" Did Craigslist investigate the issue or take the response that most reasonable people would in saying, "So what?" No, they allowed the flagging to take place and I take it removed the posts. When the author of those posts presented his case to the Craigslist staff they brushed him off. That story is in the same blog I linked above, under Craigslist Community.
Personally, I had problems with Craigslist when I was trying to use it on a regular basis several months back for business purposes. I would post ads that would never actually post or would disappear. When I inquired about this I received absolutely no response. It's not as if I was getting paid for posting these ads. I needed ads to appear so that hopefully people would see them, call me, be interested, and allow me to make some money. It wasn't an MLM or pyramid scam either. It was actually recruiting of truck drivers.
What gets me about all that is I tried to follow their terms of service and posting procedure to the letter. I was told beforehand too that had titles had to be different and ad bodies had to have some differences in them or your ad would get ghosted. This may have been part of the problem as perhaps Craigslist's programming felt some of the ads were too similar. At the same time, it goes back to a point of consistency. Even today I can see people who spam post in multiple categories all at one time in categories that have little to nothing to do with say the job they posted, for an example. It's the exact same ad too, copied and pasted. Maybe they've figured out how to game the Craigslist system. But again one person trying to promote their business should not be at the mercy of a program or even people who for whatever the reason have no consistency. Try to play by the rules and have your posts get ghosted. Flagrantly abuse the system and have your posts remain. Something is off there.
I just don't like the idea, which from personal experience I believe is very true, that Craigslist is just "picking" on certain people that for whatever the reason they don't like. People can scam and spam the heck out of that site and be okay. I understand there are disclaimers to the rants and raves section. But I can skim through that and find it loaded with posts titles and posts that are racist, vulgar, and posted by people who would probably get smoked on a show titled "Are You Smarter Than My Pet Rock?" Yet, make a post speaking your mind in an intelligent and fairly level headed manner and that post may not ever appear. What's even worse is the allegations and not even just allegations but apparent documentation that posts from hookers, drug peddlers, and the like have at times passed the Craigslist test, whatever that is.
I'm not saying policing or monitoring a thing like Craigslist is simple. But they either need to work hard to be what they were designed to be... i.e. an online "free classified" site and forum for people to conduct business freely and speak their mind in a fairly respectful manner, with all due diligence to monitoring and moderating in a responsible manner. Or, they need to die the death of a business/entity that gets too big for its britches and gets spanked either by competition or by the consumer or public just saying "enough is enough". Quite frankly, it's the American way.
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
You Might Be a Scammer If...
In the tradition of the great Jeff Foxworthy, you might be a scammer if....
If you claim to be a legitimate business and inform one of your "candidates" that they are one of your top five or final five selected applicants for the job but that you're actually wanting to interview seven people.... you might be a scammer. I mean seriously, do these people really think that this pretty obvious discrepancy won't be noticed? Still, I'm sure that unfortunately in these times they do draw people in who say, "Oh it's probably just a typo or I'm sure there's a reason for it."
If you claim to be a legitimate business and inform one of your "candidates" that they are one of your top five or final five selected applicants for the job but that you're actually wanting to interview seven people.... you might be a scammer. I mean seriously, do these people really think that this pretty obvious discrepancy won't be noticed? Still, I'm sure that unfortunately in these times they do draw people in who say, "Oh it's probably just a typo or I'm sure there's a reason for it."
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Why Too Big to Fail is a Deadly Misnomer
Well, I started this blog and I haven't kept up with it. Shame on me. I've got a couple of stories to tell, believe me. I really want to promote this thing as well. I also really want to help other people stay out of bad situations if at all possible. If nothing else, if anyone can learn from my mistakes, then I will have accomplished something. That's the case if even I personally am a little slow in learning from them myself. :)
I just wanted to make a quick post today. You know how we have the phrase "too big to fail"? Go ahead and chuckle to yourself over that because it seems we really only use it after a company or someone else has failed that thought they were "too big to fail". It's kind of like today how whenever we talk about the Titanic it's almost always mentioned that it was deemed an unsinkable ship. I in no way mean to diminish, mock, or be insensitive in any way regarding that tragedy. But it's like the line from the Joe Nichols song The Impossible. "Unsinkable ships sink, unbreakable walls break". In this life we basically have a limited or set number of guarantees. You'll be born, you'll live an indeterminate amount of time, you'll at least be expected to pay your taxes (most of us anyway) and you'll die. Anything else is a crap shoot.
The problem I've noticed today is when companies start to think and act big and forget that they started small. I suppose with companies that have been around forever it's a fairly easy trap to fall into when the founder of the company is either well on in years or long since departed this life. But think about it. A person starts a company and works hard to establish their company as a trustworthy one. They meet a lot of people, shake a lot of hands. They work off of some type of a personal code or an established code regarding good ethical business. The employees they do hire, they stand behind and treat as actual human beings. I'm not naive enough to say or think that it was a perfect world and no one was ever fired or mistreated. But I have to believe that the companies that truly grew and became successful in the long term started off with that mindset. They had to. Even back then, it was a competitive marketplace at least to some degree. I'm sure there were some creative cheats who found a way to game the system at least for a little while. But overall if you wanted to succeed and grow and prosper, you had to be competent sure. But you also had to be honorable. If you weren't, people would take their business elsewhere.
I think companies today need to get back to having at least a bit more compassion, and not only for the feel good soft gooey in the middle reasons. The dynamics of the world and of the workplace are changing, and the companies , managers, and CEO's who stick to the mindset of it being all about the financial capital and budgetary bottom line may be left behind. I agree with Darren Hardy of Success magazine. The competitors for talent and market shares today are not just fellow members of the local chamber of commerce. It's the guy launching his business from his bedroom or his basement, not his board room. It's the woman with a talent and a brain who has a product or service that is in demand that she can produce and market on her time, not doing it for someone else while punching a time clock. Companies used to compete for the best and the brightest people. However, I think today the more they devalue their employees and look at them as numbers and disposable resources, the more they will lose out in the end. I'm not saying that a boy with a dream is going to start a company that puts say Microsoft out of business. But then again, to quote another part of that same Joe Nichols song, "I've learned to never underestimate the impossible".
The moral of the story is this. Managers and leaders of today and tomorrow, as again Darren Hardy mentions, are going to need to be experts in human capital, not just financial capital. They will need to learn how and know how to best utilize their people, to get the most out of them, to be empathetic toward them at times, and to create and instill leadership in others. I'm not a big network marketing fan or guru but the concept is a noble one. Bring people into your organization or group, teach them the business, invest in their personal success so you can help them grow. In so doing, you help your business or company grow and succeed. Companies that follow not that precise model but that general idea will flourish. Companies that have managers, executives, and CEO's holding on to their spot like grim death because they've "earned it" will lag behind at some point.
Success and growth is great. It's a product of our capitalist system, it's the American dream and American way. However, arrogance, rigidness, and even cockiness is deadly. The companies that grow big and let it go to their head are in a precarious position in the future marketplace. The ones who adopt a model of "we're doing it this way because we've also done it this way", it's a 50/50 proposition as to whether or not that will work today. As the saying goes, pride goeth before the fall. Companies that believe and become convinced that they are too big to fail generally are the ones who almost inevitably do.
I just wanted to make a quick post today. You know how we have the phrase "too big to fail"? Go ahead and chuckle to yourself over that because it seems we really only use it after a company or someone else has failed that thought they were "too big to fail". It's kind of like today how whenever we talk about the Titanic it's almost always mentioned that it was deemed an unsinkable ship. I in no way mean to diminish, mock, or be insensitive in any way regarding that tragedy. But it's like the line from the Joe Nichols song The Impossible. "Unsinkable ships sink, unbreakable walls break". In this life we basically have a limited or set number of guarantees. You'll be born, you'll live an indeterminate amount of time, you'll at least be expected to pay your taxes (most of us anyway) and you'll die. Anything else is a crap shoot.
The problem I've noticed today is when companies start to think and act big and forget that they started small. I suppose with companies that have been around forever it's a fairly easy trap to fall into when the founder of the company is either well on in years or long since departed this life. But think about it. A person starts a company and works hard to establish their company as a trustworthy one. They meet a lot of people, shake a lot of hands. They work off of some type of a personal code or an established code regarding good ethical business. The employees they do hire, they stand behind and treat as actual human beings. I'm not naive enough to say or think that it was a perfect world and no one was ever fired or mistreated. But I have to believe that the companies that truly grew and became successful in the long term started off with that mindset. They had to. Even back then, it was a competitive marketplace at least to some degree. I'm sure there were some creative cheats who found a way to game the system at least for a little while. But overall if you wanted to succeed and grow and prosper, you had to be competent sure. But you also had to be honorable. If you weren't, people would take their business elsewhere.
I think companies today need to get back to having at least a bit more compassion, and not only for the feel good soft gooey in the middle reasons. The dynamics of the world and of the workplace are changing, and the companies , managers, and CEO's who stick to the mindset of it being all about the financial capital and budgetary bottom line may be left behind. I agree with Darren Hardy of Success magazine. The competitors for talent and market shares today are not just fellow members of the local chamber of commerce. It's the guy launching his business from his bedroom or his basement, not his board room. It's the woman with a talent and a brain who has a product or service that is in demand that she can produce and market on her time, not doing it for someone else while punching a time clock. Companies used to compete for the best and the brightest people. However, I think today the more they devalue their employees and look at them as numbers and disposable resources, the more they will lose out in the end. I'm not saying that a boy with a dream is going to start a company that puts say Microsoft out of business. But then again, to quote another part of that same Joe Nichols song, "I've learned to never underestimate the impossible".
The moral of the story is this. Managers and leaders of today and tomorrow, as again Darren Hardy mentions, are going to need to be experts in human capital, not just financial capital. They will need to learn how and know how to best utilize their people, to get the most out of them, to be empathetic toward them at times, and to create and instill leadership in others. I'm not a big network marketing fan or guru but the concept is a noble one. Bring people into your organization or group, teach them the business, invest in their personal success so you can help them grow. In so doing, you help your business or company grow and succeed. Companies that follow not that precise model but that general idea will flourish. Companies that have managers, executives, and CEO's holding on to their spot like grim death because they've "earned it" will lag behind at some point.
Success and growth is great. It's a product of our capitalist system, it's the American dream and American way. However, arrogance, rigidness, and even cockiness is deadly. The companies that grow big and let it go to their head are in a precarious position in the future marketplace. The ones who adopt a model of "we're doing it this way because we've also done it this way", it's a 50/50 proposition as to whether or not that will work today. As the saying goes, pride goeth before the fall. Companies that believe and become convinced that they are too big to fail generally are the ones who almost inevitably do.
Friday, June 24, 2011
Welcome to everyone who's not a bad business or scammer
Welcome everyone to my first foray if you will into the blogosphere. As this is the first of what could be several blogs by me, I'm not counting on it to be anything amazing. I know I'm not going to get a lot of readers overnight. No doubt it will be a trial and error process with a lot of things involved. Things like making my blog look prettier and increasing traffic to my site. At the same time, it's not anything where my goal is to have the best blog or be the best blogger on the internet. It will perhaps at times be a few rants by me that may or may not make a whole lot of sense or be that relevant. It will hopefully at times be a community of sorts where we can support one another and give a heads up to both innocent job seekers and innocent consumers. Above all, if it helps anyone or informs them at all or even provides some laughs and a sense of community to some, then I suppose I will have accomplished something.
I will try to be as brief as possible, but you'll have to excuse me as I do ramble sometimes. If I do and I lose you at some point, feel free to cyber slap me in the face or leave the blog. I promise I won't be offended.
I do want to lay down though a few things here though. Those things are.
1. The idea and motivation behind the blog title and subject.
2. What is and what is not the purpose here.... i.e. what I want to be discussed and what I would rather
not have discussed.
3. A little bit about me, of course.
So, as I am prone to do, I'm going to discuss those things in no apparent order and be massively confusing and leave all of you to wonder where you're at and what the hell is going on.
Okay, hopefully that won't be the case. But I always leave open that possibility.
First of all, about me. My name is Jason and I live in Ohio. I started this blog for a couple of reasons. Number one, I simply wanted to get into blogging in one form or another. Number two is a little more involved and even a little more personal. I'm not going to name names, business or individuals, just yet because this may be something in which if I have a case and commit to pursuing it, it may go to court. So I don't want to do too much that may weaken my case by trashing a company by name and individuals by name all over the place online. However, this is America. So, last I checked we still had freedom of speech. With that said, if I have no case, I personally reserve the right to trash away. At least I reserve that right as long as I'm telling the truth from my side, and that's all I ever plan on doing either way regardless of whether it's to an attorney, in a court room, or on this blog and elsewhere online.
For now all that needs to be said is that I spent nearly 12 years of my life working for a rather large company here in Ohio. When they brought in a lousy manager who not only couldn't do his job but more importantly treated people horribly, I brought that to upper management's attention. When the way they tried to "fix" the problem didn't work, perhaps partly due to me but mostly due to the nature of this manager, they suspended both of us and investigated. After investigating, they basically found a reason to get rid of me that, and I'm pretty sure I can quote unemployment on this, a reasonable person would not find to be just.
So, I had that happen in February. Since then, I'm not going to lie. It's been mostly a struggle. This is the toughest economy and job market that I've ever lived through. Even to get a job at some place like Wal-Mart is a lot different. The advancement of technology and the lousy economy have slowed down and muddied up the process. Back in the mid to late 90's when I worked at Wal-Mart of a couple of years, it was basically, come in, fill out an application, more or less get hired, probably after an interview, and start working. Now, it's sit down at a kiosk hiring center in the store or fill out something online from home. Do that, basically talk to no one, and wait to see if they have an opening and if they want to call you. From there, it's go in, interview, have them tell you that if the computer passes you on to the next phase you might get a call. I know because I did that back in March or April. It's a waiting game, and in this economy especially it's tough for anyone to play the waiting game.
Let me say what this is not. This is not meant to be a blog or forum that bashes business. Business, whether it's big business, small business, medium size business, business is of course what makes the economy hum. I have my political views and you have yours. We may agree or we may disagree, but it's not really what this is about. As a matter of fact, if I ever happen to get a representative or employee of a business that is mentioned on here, you will be allowed to defend yourself or state your case. I also would like to reward businesses who do things right by giving them credit on here. I just know though that there are a lot of frustrated job seekers out there who have been in the same boat as me. I know it because I know I'm not alone in what I've experienced. I also know it because when I made a post on Craigslist called The Craigslist Bad Business Bureau, I received several e-mails supporting me. Ultimately, that post was flagged and removed. So, until this is taken away, I will take my fight here.
What I want this to be is a place for myself and others to not bash businesses per say. But, as consumers or as job seekers we are all in the same boat. So, we are in this fight together. For my part I'm going to try to stay away from isolated personal rants and incidents where a business did me wrong. Those things happen, and we don't need to waste people's time with them. I'm looking for a pattern of bad behavior or missteps. Or, one really big one that is so egregious that it almost defies belief. Because, while we're all human, we all make mistakes, and businesses have their rights too, I believe in one thing. I believe you treat people with respect and that you get back what you give out. In other words, you reap what you sow. If you reap good things, you're rewarded. If you reap bad things, then you're going to at some point have it all dumped back on you.
For those businesses that severely misstep, you can always get back in our good graces. But until then, it's "Bad Business, No Dollars For You." It's a combination of a couple of semi famous pop culture phrases of "Bad Cop No Donut" and the Soup Nazi's "No Soup For You!" So these bad businesses do not deserve our dollars or our time until they clean up their act. This will go for individual scammers too. You're harder to catch but your schemes are not, and they will be brought up and put in the same category.
Jason
I will try to be as brief as possible, but you'll have to excuse me as I do ramble sometimes. If I do and I lose you at some point, feel free to cyber slap me in the face or leave the blog. I promise I won't be offended.
I do want to lay down though a few things here though. Those things are.
1. The idea and motivation behind the blog title and subject.
2. What is and what is not the purpose here.... i.e. what I want to be discussed and what I would rather
not have discussed.
3. A little bit about me, of course.
So, as I am prone to do, I'm going to discuss those things in no apparent order and be massively confusing and leave all of you to wonder where you're at and what the hell is going on.
Okay, hopefully that won't be the case. But I always leave open that possibility.
First of all, about me. My name is Jason and I live in Ohio. I started this blog for a couple of reasons. Number one, I simply wanted to get into blogging in one form or another. Number two is a little more involved and even a little more personal. I'm not going to name names, business or individuals, just yet because this may be something in which if I have a case and commit to pursuing it, it may go to court. So I don't want to do too much that may weaken my case by trashing a company by name and individuals by name all over the place online. However, this is America. So, last I checked we still had freedom of speech. With that said, if I have no case, I personally reserve the right to trash away. At least I reserve that right as long as I'm telling the truth from my side, and that's all I ever plan on doing either way regardless of whether it's to an attorney, in a court room, or on this blog and elsewhere online.
For now all that needs to be said is that I spent nearly 12 years of my life working for a rather large company here in Ohio. When they brought in a lousy manager who not only couldn't do his job but more importantly treated people horribly, I brought that to upper management's attention. When the way they tried to "fix" the problem didn't work, perhaps partly due to me but mostly due to the nature of this manager, they suspended both of us and investigated. After investigating, they basically found a reason to get rid of me that, and I'm pretty sure I can quote unemployment on this, a reasonable person would not find to be just.
So, I had that happen in February. Since then, I'm not going to lie. It's been mostly a struggle. This is the toughest economy and job market that I've ever lived through. Even to get a job at some place like Wal-Mart is a lot different. The advancement of technology and the lousy economy have slowed down and muddied up the process. Back in the mid to late 90's when I worked at Wal-Mart of a couple of years, it was basically, come in, fill out an application, more or less get hired, probably after an interview, and start working. Now, it's sit down at a kiosk hiring center in the store or fill out something online from home. Do that, basically talk to no one, and wait to see if they have an opening and if they want to call you. From there, it's go in, interview, have them tell you that if the computer passes you on to the next phase you might get a call. I know because I did that back in March or April. It's a waiting game, and in this economy especially it's tough for anyone to play the waiting game.
Let me say what this is not. This is not meant to be a blog or forum that bashes business. Business, whether it's big business, small business, medium size business, business is of course what makes the economy hum. I have my political views and you have yours. We may agree or we may disagree, but it's not really what this is about. As a matter of fact, if I ever happen to get a representative or employee of a business that is mentioned on here, you will be allowed to defend yourself or state your case. I also would like to reward businesses who do things right by giving them credit on here. I just know though that there are a lot of frustrated job seekers out there who have been in the same boat as me. I know it because I know I'm not alone in what I've experienced. I also know it because when I made a post on Craigslist called The Craigslist Bad Business Bureau, I received several e-mails supporting me. Ultimately, that post was flagged and removed. So, until this is taken away, I will take my fight here.
What I want this to be is a place for myself and others to not bash businesses per say. But, as consumers or as job seekers we are all in the same boat. So, we are in this fight together. For my part I'm going to try to stay away from isolated personal rants and incidents where a business did me wrong. Those things happen, and we don't need to waste people's time with them. I'm looking for a pattern of bad behavior or missteps. Or, one really big one that is so egregious that it almost defies belief. Because, while we're all human, we all make mistakes, and businesses have their rights too, I believe in one thing. I believe you treat people with respect and that you get back what you give out. In other words, you reap what you sow. If you reap good things, you're rewarded. If you reap bad things, then you're going to at some point have it all dumped back on you.
For those businesses that severely misstep, you can always get back in our good graces. But until then, it's "Bad Business, No Dollars For You." It's a combination of a couple of semi famous pop culture phrases of "Bad Cop No Donut" and the Soup Nazi's "No Soup For You!" So these bad businesses do not deserve our dollars or our time until they clean up their act. This will go for individual scammers too. You're harder to catch but your schemes are not, and they will be brought up and put in the same category.
Jason
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