I know I normally shy away from ultra-personal things on the internet, but there is something I feel like I have to get out. In April my dad lost his job. Since then he has gone on many job interviews trying to find a new job that will make as much money as his old one. My parents are not in a financial place to retire just yet, and it’s pretty important that my dad finds steady work quickly. He’s got a contracting gig right now, and we’re hoping that holds out until they offer him a full time gig, but he has been actively seeking jobs elsewhere since his boss says he can’t promise anything just yet.

Dad had a line on a job with a company called Luck Stone. They ended up giving the Richmond-area job (my dad lives in Richmond) to an internal candidate from Fredricksburg. They called him back because THAT job was open (yeah, I know, logic?) and had him interview for that one.

Back up, though. For that first job? The HR recruiter was horribly unresponsive and told him she’d call and then didn’t, and really made him sweat it out, only to find out that he didn’t get the job. He complained to his friend at the company, because that’s just not right. It’s fine to not hire him, but don’t string him along and be unresponsive and make somebody sweat it out like that.

So this time around, he goes through the five hour interview, and this time she calls him when she said she would, and this is how she starts the phone call: “Well, I have good news and bad news.”

Then she proceeded to say “The good news is that we had four very qualified candidates. The bad news is that you weren’t chosen for the position.”

Take a moment. Put yourself in my dad’s shoes. Someone knows that you’re really in need of a job. And they start a phone call like THAT? That was cruel, and mean, and heartless and I feel so impotent. I can’t do anything to make my dad feel better that he still doesn’t have a full time permanent job, and I can’t do anything to make it so that that HR person doesn’t ever treat anyone like she treated my dad. Because apparently she’s allowed to act however she wants. Dad said she was practically singsong in her delivery.

I guess I could write an open letter to the owner of the company, but given that for a short time I intercepted open letters to the CEO of MY company…actually…

You know what? When someone writes a letter to the CEO of my company we respond. I mean, the CEO doesn’t always respond, but we route the letter to the appropriate person and action is taken. That’s what I’m going to do. I doubt a lot that this Luck Stone company has the integrity and morals that the company I work for does, but they have to at least have some guidelines in place for their treatment of people. Yeah. I’ll let you know what happens. In the meantime. If you pray, pray for my family. If you don’t, then keep your fingers crossed, because we need all the luck we can get.