JobVent and the Politics of Betrayal

Employers that burn and turn their staff: beware!

JobVent.com is just one website in the social media sphere that is changing our understanding of workplaces, employee engagement and the importance of employee relations. It is a review-powered site that allows consumers to rate their employers, and then tallies up all input to provide employers with an overall score.

The site – which has been featured on Good Morning America and msnbc.com – offers a clear indicator that human resources has entered the digital, networked age, and that HR leaders need to become increasingly social media savvy.

This from an Oct. 14 post -- titled "HR FYI: Your Employees Are Talking About You in Cyberspace" -- on Working World Cafe. It was the first I'd heard of JobVent. Naturally, I went right to the site to check out some employers. Here are a couple typical comments:

• "I hate my hours and I don't know how long it's been since I've spent time with my family."
• "[O]nly those who have given up on their dreams stay there."
  

How encouraging!

I was particularly interested in an employer I interviewed with a few months back. Hands down, it was the worst interview I've ever had (and I speak from experience -- I've been on dozens of interviews in the course of my career). On JobVent, the company had garnered a fair number of reviews (15). Of these, 13 hated the company and 2 loved it (what does that tell you?). The more acerbic comments included:

• "The management team lacks competent managerial skills and the CEO views any member of the ... organization as expendable.. It is known throughout the company to whistleblow or question a HR or management practice, to take any autonomous proactive initiative, means you are out the door within 6 months on generally trumped up 'charges'.... employees were regularly encouraged by management to 'rat' on each other... Job seekers beware. Turnover is high and this culture is definitely toxic."
• "What a hateful place. The atmosphere is poison.... they have no idea how to treat people at all. Every week people are getting fired. On average at least 3-5 people get fired every month....
• "I'm glad I got out of there when I did or I would probably be in an institution today. It's like being in a prisoner of war camp. Shameful."
• "Working... at this company for the 6 short months I spent there was the worst employment experience I have ever had.... Most people seemed to quit or be fired for calling in sick within 3 months to a year from starting. Sometimes people would even stand up in the middle of the day and just walk out from the stress. The company could seem to care less about employee retention... The pay was terrible and the lack of respect from management and HR was even worse. I would strongly discourage anyone from taking a job at this company."
• "Turnover is horribly high but doesn't seem to be an issue that management is at all concerned about.... I was denied a day off for a friend's wedding even though I had requested it months in advance. Since no one can get a day off to save their life, people end up calling in sick and then are put on probation or lose their jobs because of the company's ridiculously strict attendance policy."
• "I came into [this company] with a positive attitude and left almost broken. Towards the end I almost quit several times and I believe they almost wanted me to quit. Why? Because I was a whistle blower. I ended up confronting the issue and bringing it to management's attention about the unhealthy culture and poor managerial skills. I felt like once I said something about these concerns that I was targeted. Thankfully I was able to find another job. But while there it was horrible. Several of my co-workers have developed severe anxiety. One woman cried in her cube every day until she could not take it anymore and just quit, another woman was throwing up at work because of stress. My whole team was in the process of searching for a new job and they were all new."
• "I think I am still mentally scarred from my year and a half of working there. This company truly does not care about its employees. Employees are considered disposable and easily replaceable.... we were reprimanded if we were away from the phones for more than a minute and barely allowed to use the restroom. The CEO is touted as an 'expert' on employee burnout and job stress, which is ironic considering the horrible morale and miserable atmosphere. The highlight of my employment was when seven people quit the same week."
• "If you want to be micromanaged and treated like a kindergartner, apply there."
• "Since they pretty much hire anyone, your coworkers won't be the brightest bulbs. You will be lucky if they can use a computer and write client notes without using internet slang. You will develop some closeness with your coworkers since you are crammed in a cube farm and can hear everyone's conversation while you try to work."
• "Benefits are a joke. I received better health coverage at a cheaper rate when I was pandering day-old coffee to college kids. They partner with all these great... companies, but none of that actually trickles down to john & jane doe employees. It's sad when the most remarkable benefit is the chance for a free bagel on Friday -- you just have to be fortunate enough to have enough shmear available after the vultures pick through it to give it some flavor. I was fortunate enough to have a cubicle, but I've seen in some departments how they cram poor people into conference rooms like cattle due to lack of space."
• "Working at [this company] has to be similar to living in a concentration camp. The management uses intimidation tactics to bully you into doing things that you don't want to do (i.e., come in early or on weekends for 'optional' training). I saw numerous people get fired without warning (one guy got fired because he asked to take an entire week off of work when his mother died rather than the 3 bereavement days that the company says is 'standard'). They won't even tell you that you are fired . . . they wait for you to leave for lunch and then they call security and tell them to deny entry to the building. They don't even let you clean your desk out . . . they ship your belongings back to you via UPS!! This company treats their employees like disposable cameras. They use them up until there is nothing left, then they just kick you to the curb. I would never work here again... even if I was starving and homeless."
• "I worked at [this company] for 1.5 years, and was considered an old timer as the turnover rate is upwards around 85%. It is the worst place I have ever worked. There is absolutely no respect for [employees]. During my new employee orientation, the CEO was asked about the high turnover rate and answered that [employees like the commenter] were "a dime a dozen" in Chicago and if we didn't like it, we shouldn't "let the door hit you on the ass on the way out." That is a direct quote. Bathroom breaks were monitored. A co-worker had to threaten to quit before they allowed her to take off 2 days to attend her grandmother's funeral. On September 11, 2001, clinical staff was locked in while the upper management was allowed to leave in order to be safe. None of the complaints on this site are exaggerated -- other than the good reviews."

As you can see: an unremitting drumbeat of misery and disdain. In this morass of negative reviews, what stand out -- like the proverbial sore thumb -- are the rare glowing comments (which one suspects, by their paucity and pep, are company "plants"). For example, we hear:

• "I've worked at [this company] for 6 years -- I think the "vents" on this site are coming from a couple of particular departments that have the most stress (lots of front-line phone work with other stressed people who are calling for help) and who may serve the most masters. My experience has been positive -- good pay, very reasonable hours -- I think even those who are unhappy would have to admit that they don't work long hours -- and my work is challenging but I have good support and interesting people to work with. Every company has its problems, but I think overall the employees at [this company are committed to helping people and are motivated by the challenge of it."
• "Having the opportunity to directly impact the lives of [this company's customers] has been both rewarding and professionally enriching. I get to work directly with experienced... staff and receive regular feedback from professionals who in some cases have over a decade of experience with the company. The organization is growing and if you pay close attention to your work quality and productivity there is the opportunity to take on added responsibility and get recognized for it."

Sure.

Amazingly, the person who wrote the post in Working World Cafe observes that

Human resources specialists need to understand that, good or bad, employees are talking about you. What they say can influence your ability to attract best-in-class talent, investors and even customers. And, it empowers you to fight for better workplace initiatives – because the C-suite cares about its public reputation.

The social media revolution has impacted human resources by creating increased accountability, transparency and opportunity. Heed the buzz: creating a great workplace now has impact on your brand.

For the company cited above, there is a catalog of atrocities, an unbroken string of caustic comments -- people have been complaining about them for years (comments go back to 2007). You'd think the company (and the comments) would have improved if such a chorus of laments and accusations had had any impact on corporate policy or practices. But, no, employees are still being treated horribly (as affirmed by the most recent post, submitted yesterday).

So, if review sites like JobVent are meant to serve as a corrective, they aren't working. (Ironically, a company's unwillingness to recognize/respond to the gripes on these sites merely serves to validate those complaints.) At least in this case -- and possibly at many "toxic companies" -- the offender is indifferent or impervious to scrutiny.

Which leads to the "politics of betrayal." As Timothy Egan notes in his Nov. 11 opinion piece in the New York Times:

It takes quite a bit for Americans to say that the social contract is broken, or look upon concentrated wealth as anything except a virtue. But we may have reached that breach....

The continuous drip of perceived unfairness continues. One day it’s news that Goldman Sachs seems to have stepped ahead of the line of those waiting to receive H1N1 vaccines, prompting questions about why investment bankers were getting doses rather than children or pregnant women. This week, Gallup found one in five parents saying they were unable to get swine flu vaccine for their children.

Another day brings a report that the top banks are raising credit card interest rates – some as high as 29 percent, which would shame a Mob extortionist — even against people who have always paid on time. This is the thanks we get?

If Congress steers through the Great Recession without responding to the thousand points of pain among average Americans, people will see them for what they are in bottom-line terms: an insulated club. Proof, just recently, came from a Center for Responsive Politics report that 237 members of Congress — 44 percent — are millionaires, compared to just 1 percent for the country as whole....

Two things will define which way the rage goes next year: health care, and the fate of the feeble economic recovery.

In an atmosphere growing ever more stifling and fetid, with captains of industry striding the stage callous and unrepentant, with a swelling contagion of affronts and abuses -- what do we do?

One thing I'll do: religiously visit JobVent whenever I'm researching an organization.