Missed off the manners

I hope you are not wondering where I have been for the past three weeks. If you are, I presume that you have not attended the Jobs Fairs Workshops and Roadshow across Sydney during September, and either sat in on one of my talks, or had a heart-to-heart with me at my table. For you, I am sorry. It was a great experience and I definitely recommend that you go next year. Met some wonderful people.

Today's entry is inspired by a sales consultant who called me this morning and made a rude hairy mistake. He wanted to know if I'd received the information he sent last week (no) after speaking with his colleague in customer service (who?) and did we want his service or not (no...). When he was sure that I was totally unsure of what he was talking about, he hung up in my ear.

As far as this consultant was concerned, I was the one making life difficult - and he wasn't reluctant in letting me know it. The great advantage of electronic media and the telephone is that they allow the communicator to be rude and vent after the conversation has finished and disconnected, rather than handle the exchange in person.

Be careful who you choose to make your anger known to, especially when it comes to employment and recruitment. As infuriating as some people in the industry can be, you never know who knows who, or when you might incidentally contact that person yourself again the future.

The average employment tenure of a recruitment consultant with any given company is quoted by several sources as being 6-11 months. If this is accurate, you can imagine that the typical six degrees of separation is therefore reduced to about 3 in this industry as consultants move around to different firms. Without a doubt, candidates and clients become known from individual consultants' experience.

So don't always think of your consultant in terms of the one person - think about their network, their closest contacts and clients at their fingertips. Consider the positives that can result from such a web of associations.

And if someone really has treated you appallingly, there are appropriate industry authorities to speak to, plus your family and friends. Be professional even if others can't.