The hiring process took almost an entire year. It seems they have a pipeline of candidates “just in case” there is work to be done. However, once joining the team and starting to do the work candidates are hired for, they are never told that it would be a stop and start type of situation. Frequently employees were given less than a day’s notice that there would be no work available the next day or for weeks after, no training available, and no other positions available to be filled while “contracts were in process with non-commitment commitments.” For all of our cohort, this meant that our full-time status and hourly pay went from 40 hours a week to zero without warning. As with most people who hire on at a full-time commitment with a company, in which there are no warnings about unexpected zero dollar paychecks in the hiring packet or onboarding process, no one has a second full time job waiting in the wings “just in case.” Essentially, the feeling was we were hired for positions that weren’t well thought out or planned and all of us were completely unprepared to go weeks, sometimes months, without being paid, given a chance to train elsewhere with the company, or given the opportunity to earn the salary/hourly wage that we were hired under. Even during all of this, we are constantly asked to refer people to the company that we think might be a good fit. It should be mentioned here that several times we were not only assured, but verbally and in writing promised that there was enough work to keep us busy and employed for long periods of time, and at some points even having overtime available to us. Rather than OT, it would have been much better to have had steady work than what actually happened, which was basically, “We have nothing for the team today or for the foreseeable future, but we hope to be back to work soon.” “Soon” literally being some undefined point in the future for which we were encouraged to keep our fingers crossed and wish for. Well, hope doesn’t pay the bills, and it certainly isn’t going to help this company grow in a way that seems positive.
