A Report From The Trenches

Just received this correspondence from a friend of mine; she lost her job a couple of weeks ago...

I attended a scary/eye-opening event today. It was one of those Meet the Recruiters gigs and it took place at one of the outplacement service's sites. This one was my first and it took place in Plymouth Meeting, PA.

I responded to the email invitation the same day it arrived and received a response saying the first two sessions (a workshop and presentation) were fully booked. The invitation said I could still bring my resume and meet the recruiters for a brief interview. I showed up at 11:00 (the time indicated on the invitation) and the workshop/presentation was still in full swing. The door to the meeting room was wide open because the place was packed to the rafters. Looked like the room could comfortably accommodate 65 and there were well over 100 people in there. It was standing room only; many of the attendees (dressed in business attire - men in suits and women in heels) had been standing since 9:00. And, because the room was so full, most were sweating profusely. So much for making a good first impression.

We who weren't allowed to attend the workshop were told to go into a conference room and put our John Hancocks on sign-up sheets so we could to speak with specific recruiters. People were elbowing each other out of the way and things were getting a bit nasty. Suddenly the workshop let out and attendees who hadn't previously signed up to see recruiters were then also trying to cram into that room. It was frightening and a few people had to leave because they were having panic attacks or experiencing claustrophobia.

After the sign-up sheet fiasco, there had to be 150 people crammed into a narrow hallway while they waited to see the recruiters. Had someone from the Whitpain Twp. Fire Dept. been there, I'm sure he or she would have shut down the event. Someone from the outplacement service managed to shimmy through the throng of people and post the sign-up sheets outside of individual offices. Each job seeker was allowed exactly three minutes to meet with a recruiter. Self-appointed time monitors stood outside the doors and banged loudly when it was time for the next person to go in. When it was the monitor's time to meet the recruiter, he or she passed the timing task on to someone else in "line." After the employees from the outsourcing agency posted the sign-up sheets, they avoided the hallway where the rest of us were standing. Can't say I blame them because crowd mentality was kicking in. Of course people were saying "excuse me" as they attempted to push their way through the crowd to see a recruiter but there was no place to move since we were standing shoulder-to-shoulder in that cattle chute. Again, more people started trying to get out because they were having anxiety attacks.

When you're having a tough day at work, I hope this story helps you get through it. If this is indicative of the job situation throughout the country, me thinks we Americans are in for a long, rough time.

I promise that I’m not posting this to intentionally scare anyone, but merely to tell you what you aren’t going to hear in our corporate media.

God bless us every one – we need it.