There has been more than one study come out that proves many, if not the majority, of people find jobs because of who they know and not what – not necessarily big, important jobs, either, but managers just seem to trust their employees recommendations over hiring a stranger.
This guy was happy with his job, despite the pay not being the best, because other benefits made it worthwhile.
This happened a couple of years ago. I was working on a part time basis in a small firm owned by friends.
Pay was not very good, but the atmosphere was and I was allowed to set my own timings. So life was good overall.
So worthwhile, in fact, that when his friend’s company first approached him with an offer that included more money, he turned it down.
Then a friend whom I knew only through social media approached me for a job in her company.
Even though they were offering good money I turned down the offer as I knew I could not get the benefits I was getting in my current job.
Plus the commute to the new office was very long. I would have to travel 2 hrs one way and change 3 trains just to reach office.
When the HR department for the same firm came to him a bit later with an offer he couldn’t refuse, though, he…didn’t refuse.
A month later the HR of the new firm approached me again. They offered me almost four times the money I was making and I could set my own work hours.
There was also extra pay for working overtime and on weekends. This was important.
I joined the new company.
The friend liked to gloat that she had gotten them the job, and eventually OP couldn’t help but correct her. They had negotiated their own, much more favorable terms, on their own.
Now, I’m not sure how smart or necessary that correction was, given that the friend was their boss, but there you go.
My friend did not know the terms of the new agreement I had with HR. She used to act like I owed her big time for the opportunity I got. So one day I corrected her. I told her that I had turned down the offer she had been part of and one month later I had had my own negotiations and I got much more favorable terms. So I was here because her company really needed me and not because of her.
Once the friend realized this meant OP was making more than her, she wanted them gone.
I didn’t share the details of my agreement with her, but we both realized that she was making significantly lesser than me. This totally changed her attitude towards me.
Now she wanted me out and I was determined to stick through for at least a year. So she decided that she would make it very difficult for me to work so that I quit on my own.
There are a lot of stories I have about how she tried every trick in the book to make me quit. I’m sharing some of them here.
She was my manager and was in charge of allocating work.
First, she tried assigning them more work, or asking them to come in on the weekends, not realizing that OP was getting paid more for overtime and weekend work.
Ka-CHING.
Malicious Compliance – 1
She started piling on more work on me than any other member of the team. I was happy to comply – she did not know that as part of my contract I would be paid 1.5 times the hourly rate for every hour I worked OT and 2 times the hourly rate if any work was allocated to me over weekends or holidays.
Every time she tried to ruin my weekend by calling me to office unnecessarily, I happily complied. This continued till the time I left the organization and told her how much extra money she had helped me make.
Then, she made a ridiculous rule about not having beverages in the office (what even), but too late realized that meant she would have to go out for her coffee.
Since OP set their own hours, they could enjoy their fruit juice and just start their day a bit later.
Malicious Compliance – 2
After the long commute to work, I used to be hungry so I developed the habit of stopping at the food court to pick up a glass of fresh fruit juice and carry it with me to work.
My manager thought that this way she could harass me without actually seeming to do so. So she sent a notice that bringing liquids to office was a hazard.
Ironically she used to have coffee delivered to get desk 3 times a day. Well, I pointed out that the rule applied to her as well and if I couldn’t have my juice, she couldn’t have her coffee. She had to literally spend an extra unpaid hour at work every time she wanted her special coffee.
Meanwhile I was happy to leisurely sit in the food court – have my glass of fresh fruit juice with some snacks and then begin my work day half hour later than usual.
I’m not sure what OP really got out of this except their own satisfaction, but honestly, sometimes that’s really enough.
Would you have called your friend out or just kept your head down and your working environment sound? Tell us how you would have handled this in the comments!
