Job ad question

[klmno]

There's an ad on cra***list for a great job that I'd like to send a response with a resume for. But my boss uses that website for everything and he is the type that would put an ad on there just to see if I'd respond so he'd know if I was looking for something else. Any ideas on how I can find out a real email address for them or a company name without using my real email address? (They just have the anonymous email listed for responses to be sent.)

 

[DammitJanet]

Reply using a gmail address or if that is your real email address, make a new gmail address. I would think you could make a general response without using your name at first to see if you get an actual person or company to reply back.

I know there are some scam businesses out there too. Cory just got taken badly on Monday. Company "hired" him and a friend of his to move furniture. What it turned out to be was this scam where they would only get paid if they could haul furniture around to places and get people to buy it from them. Yeah right! Like that is gonna happen. He was told he was going to be arranging furniture in storerooms.

 

[LittleDudesMom]

I was going to suggest what Janet said - get another email addy. However, you would then have to let them know that you what a company name and address to mail the resume to or a company name before sending. On the other hand, so what if your boss knows you are looking? He can't fire you for that. If the job is an advancement from what you have now, you are not doing anything that thousands of others do - it's called keeping your options open.

Do you honestly think your boss has that much time on his hands and "has it out for you" that bad that he would resort to posting an ad to see if you respond?

Sharon

 

[klmno]

Yes, this boss would. He really is weird, childish, and clueless when it comes to good management. And in today's market, the last thing any employee should do is let a boss find out that they are looking for another job- especially when this is a contract job for one year only but the contract is out there right now to try to make an arrangement for a 3 year contract to start when this one is up.

And he has PLENTY of time on his hands.

 

[mstang67chic]

What I've done before with job ads on that sight is to send a reply email (make a new account if you want) but I did NOT send my resume. I expressed interest in the ad, gave a brief rundown of my experience/skills (without naming names....just was a CSR, ran and office...etc.) and then asked for more information on the company. The response you get will tell you if it's legitimate or not.

 

[klmno]

Ok- I'll do that with a new email address since my flakey boss knows the one I have been using. I like this job I have- well, it's more accurate to say there are aspects about it I like and the client's rep that I also work for wants to expand my responsibillities and have me work directly for him (still thru the new contract) assuming this company will get the next contract which will be for 3 years. That would be great and I wouldn't have to travel much and although I'd still make less than what I used to, I would get a little raise from what I get paid now.

But check this out- this supervisor I have now is so easily threatened and whacko that he got mad when my issued computer happened to be brand new and demanded they exchange his for a brand new one. LOL! Any time someone else with this company (and all of us have a little bit different roles and are assigned to work with different client's reps even though this boss is supervisor for all of us- it's our job to keep the client's reps happy), needs access to a software or file or something, he gets mad and makes issue until he gets the same access. He doesn't need it and it has nothing to do with his role. His role as a supervisor is to check timesheets and train on basics, etc. If there's a conference call and he has to get off the phone, he tells everyone that the people working for him have to get off the phone when he hangs up. He tells people when he's out of town, to email him with any questions or necessary communication, then he NEVER responds- to ANYONE! I could go on and on but the short of it is, this guy is whacky. The people that are most educated, he treats the worse- especially if the client's rep they are working for wants to take advantage of that person's expertise and skills. But as we were all (me, 2 other employees of this company, this boss, and the client's rep boss and I work directly with) were discussing the upcoming contract, client's rep ask education level of each of us. This supervisor/boss is the ONLY one that doesn't have more than a HS diploma. Maybe he's that insecure about that or something. Plus he gets complained about a lot so I guess he's just that way to make sure if anyone is going to look good, he better look better and if anyone gets fired, it won't be him. And part of it all is to cover his own rear for not keeping up with what he was supposed to have been keeping up with the past few years and not knowing some things he's claimed to know.

He relayed a story to us that he hit a car while driving down the road and when they both got out of their vehicles, the other guy seemed mad about it so boss kept trying to deliberately agitate him more just to make him madder and try to provoke him because it ticked boss off that the guy didn't get out of his vehicle and act friendly to him. He claims what makes him madder than anything with employees is when they don't ask questions and keep him informed, then he turns around and says he himself reacts first and asks questions later.

Jerk with major entitlement and anxiety and insecurity issues. And let's not forget apparent drug user.

Oops...I think I got off on a tangent. LOL!

 

[Marguerite]

Sounds like a sociopath. Nasty if you have to work with one. I agree with your caution.

Here, with our Dept of Ed, I have been working actively on staff selection panels. The RULE here is that an applicant for a Dept of Ed job MUST, if they are already DET employees, use their immediate supervisor or school principal as their first referee. The second referee should also be someone in the job who is senior to them, preferably someone at the same school. The third referee can be anyone but it is sensible for them to be in the job too.

When we interview the referees we do it over the phone and we MUST interview first and second referees for all applicants who we are going to interview. We have to decide whether to interview or not, AFTER we call the referees. And the first question we have to ask a first referee is, "Are you aware that the applicant has applied for a position at our school? Have you seen their application and do you consider it to be an accurate record of the applicant's experience and ability?"

There is no way a DET staff member can apply in secret for a DET job.

Your supervisor, on the other hand, has a lot of problems. You need to stay below his radar so his problems don't become your problems. If this person ever sacks you, can you fight it? Do you have Unfair Dismissal laws? We used to have, but a previous government pulled the teeth on the legislation and the new government has not yet made replacement dentures for the legislation...

If you are really good at your job and have an idiot supervisor, the other possibility (or hope) is that you could be headhunted.

Cover your rear in everything you do, keep detailed paper trails with back-up copies kept on a memory stick only, not on your computer at work. Never forget that a supervisor like yours can, and will, go through everything you have on your computer.

I had a boss once who went to my computer in my absence (I worked part-time) and moved my files around, buried them so deep I thought they had been erased. Vital stuff - for me. She changed the file name and created a new folder to put the file into. The file was my personal running sheet of who I had contacted and what their response had been. I relied on that to get my job done at all. The running sheet was of zero use to her (which is why at first I thought she might have deleted it) so her only motive in my case could have been mischief, and giving herself an excuse to sack me (she was working her way through all the staff - I was the last one left, I finally quit before I could be sacked).

Basically, what she did was the equivalent to a husband taking his wife's diary, painting it a different colour and then burying it in the garden.

Marg

 

[klmno]

I'm on board with all of that, Marg. I apologize for not getting back to this sooner- I actually typed up a response a couple of days ago but my internet service clicked off and I lost it all and am just now ready to try it again.

So the short version from this week at work- I heard two stories from boss. One about him hitting a car while driving and it was his fault and he was going to take responsibility but the other driver got out of his car and seemed mad about it so boss intentionally tried to provoke him to become physical because (according to boss) the guy should have been friendly.

The next one- he had gone on a business trip and went to a bar that had a cover charge. He paid with a large bill and the guy at the door who took his money didn't give him change. He got mad, went to the restroom and stuffed tiolet paper down the toilet until it caused a plumbing problem.

Yeah, I get why he'd be annoyed but this isn't the type of person I can tolerate for very long.

Third thing that happened- another woman who works for him but not in our specific work location has a high level college degree and it's well known that he can't stand her. So, he asked me to call her and ask a question about how far she has gotten with a certain assignment. I did, on speaker phone like he asked and of course, told her right away that she was on speaker and he was standing right there. (Now why didn't he just call?) Anyway, she very nicely asked what was the reason for the question so she could clarify better. He nicely responded then we all got off the phone. But once client's rep was back in the area where boss and I were, boss starts saying he called her and she gave him attitude and questioned why he'd called in the first place, "like it was a stupid question". She didn't do that but since client's rep took boss for face value, he started saying that boss shouldn't have to put up with stuff like that.

Boss has had it in for that poor woman as soon as she was hired and started taking initiative and people she works directly with wanted to tap into her knowledge and skills.

The client's rep we work directly with says he wants to do that with me on next contract- he wants me working directly for him helping him most all the time. I KNOW that wasn't in my boss's plan and I can only imagine what lengths he would go to in order to turn client's rep against me.

 

[klmno]

Oh- and while he manages by method of threatening to fire, he got mad b/'c one of his employees who was hired for a 1 year contract, just like me, put notice in that he was quitting. He called up the owner of his company, just like he always does when he gets mad and over-reacts, and said this wasn't right for this guy because it was supposed to be a 1 year commitment. Yeah- well why then doesn't boss ever act like company is giving a 1 year commitment? He only presents it that way before the person takes the job.