In the recruitment process, employers take time to analyse the behaviours of the prospective employees before looking into their academic and professional qualifications.
Behaviours such as patience, irritability, and alertness are always at the cog of their recruitment.
“They always watch you on CCTV and discuss how to engage you,” this is one of the theories used to back such claims.
Anyways. Three men were put in a room with windows open and lights on. One put off the light to save energy. A staff passed by and asked for a hand in loading goods, he needed three people. Only one volunteered.
I have never understood the pragmatic nature of this analogy, but inferences pointed at job seekers being kept waiting for hours for different reasons.
Before we deduce this further, let us scrutinize a debate that was ignited online by one Twitter user by the name Xiao Lee on Tuesday, March 8, when she lamented how a potential employer kept her waiting for long.
“Imagine even job seekers deserve a little respect! Keeping someone waiting for hours for an interview that you set the time for ain't it!” Lee made a fuss about her situation.
“Anyway I got the job,” she added and accompanied her tweet with two emojis, the first a sad and crying face and the second smiling one.
Her tweet enkindled mixed reactions as expected in a country where the unemployment rate is at a record high.
One Laura Prixy narrated her ordeal, claiming that she was offered a job she interviewed for and was asked to report on the next day. Her employment was confirmed via a phone call.
However, 30 minutes later, according to Laura, they called her and rescinded the offer.
“They claimed that the director changed his mind. Mind you, I had already told everyone,” she explained. It ‘ended in tears’ for her.
One tweep, with a pseudonym Anonymus, lamented that a company books a prospective employer for a 10am interview but meets him at 3:30pm, 5 hours and 30 minutes later, only to have a ten minutes discussion with the human resource manager.
What irked him was that HR asks for the salary quotation. “Just tell me what you are paying and let me decide if I’ll take it or not,” he added, with some words that necessitated censoring.
“Sorry. I know the feeling. I once went for an 11am interview. I saw the director at 3:30pm for only 15 minutes. The job turned out to be so pathetic,” Chi Kaunda replied.
Rose Muturi lamented that asking the interviewee to repeat what is on the CV means the interviewer did not read nor prepare for the interview.
A Twitter user calling themself 2T came up with quite an intriguing observation. The tweep claimed that (s)he once asked the interviewing panel why (s)he should work for the company.
“They were not prepared for the question,” he alleged.
For one HawiO, his story was quite different.
“I once waited for 4hrs for a managing director as he had personally asked to see me. I politely told the receptionist I couldn’t wait anymore. I was rushing to be with my wife and newborn in the hospital. He called me apologising the next day and asked me to come in and gave me the job,” HawiO narrated.
Other users argued that patience is a virtue and that when in a point of need you cannot dictate the process.
“Patience is very paramount when you are in need. It is part of the interview. Imagine you post such lamentations online and your boss meets you a few days after employment,” AlbertO Elijah responded.
Mike Sanchez concurred, stating that being kept for long is part of the job-hunting process and asked job seekers to embrace it, as much as they would accept rejection (in love affairs).
“Patience is paramount but so is courtesy. If they will take more time than expected to interview you, they should let you know. You are all professionals in a formal setting, professionalism matters,” one Oichuk, however, differed with Elijah and Sanchez.
Others argued that these issues stemmed out with the Gen Z and that the prior ones acknowledged that one had to seek jobs at all costs.
“This generation has very high expectations. I pray they are all fulfilled,” Mimi Ndimi wrote.
What are your thoughts on being kept waiting for long hours while job-hunting?
