I’m in the market for a new job, and my resume was submitted to a firm that had a long-term, temp-to-perm slot open. As well as a better hourly rate than I’m currently getting, and no obvious psychos among the partnership. Turns out, I got my resume in just a little too late, and the job went to someone else. Which was a shame, because they really liked my resume and the woman who got the job doesn’t have my qualifications.
Well, turns out she’s crashing and burning. Is it horrible of me to wish for a swift end to her employment there so I can get an interview?
It’s certainly not horrible to think she might be better off not having a job she’s doing poorly enough at that they’re telling outsiders about it.
Well, to be fair, they didn’t tell me directly; I heard it from my agency, since they’d sent over the original person and had been told it wasn’t working out.
I’m generally not a fan of Schadenfreude, but I don’t think what you’re feeling applies here. It’s not like you want this woman to suffer, not have any job at all, or that you think she’s receiving just punishment for being in the wrong job. It’s more like, “well, she gave it a try, it doesn’t seem to be working, now I’d like a try.”
Granted, that’s still an uncomfortable feeling, because the necessary condition for you to get an interview is for the other woman to fail. But what else can you do?
The only reason I’d be wary is that there is a possibility she’s not failing because of a lack of qualifications. There may be some hidden psychos that you won’t know about until you’re there. I say this as someone whose ex-boss didn’t reveal his true psycho-ness until I was hired on as permanent. Then the mask came off.
Let me put it this way: I ended up quitting because he called me an idiot for being too slow stapling some papers for a meeting on a morning when I was the only admin person in the office.
(Karma’s a bitch, though — he ended up being fired a few months later after the guy who was doing all the work jumped ship for a better job. Heh.)
Not horrible at all. If someone is failing, the sooner it’s dealt with the better for all concerned.
Giving yourself a guilt trip is unnecessary. You don’t know her so it isn’t personal. Wanting her to suffer would definitely be bad, though!
Well, offhand, if this little time was enough to have them get back to her reps about her being a bad fit, they must feel that she’s a pretty bad fit.
That doesn’t mean she’s a terrible person, or incompetent, or wouldn’t be the perfect fit for another job. Apparently your agency thinks well enough of her to rep her and send her for good jobs.
You can certainly ask them what they think of the company, and if they’ve had any negative feedback, but this level of unhappiness this quickly kinda says bad fit to me.
I think you are not so much wishing her to fail as you are hoping for her own sake that she realize her specific skill set is better suited to different opportunities and that she should move on to bright horizons…
… thus leaving the position open for you, an obviously better choice for the job
As one of the already-damned I volunteer to wish for her to be fired so you don’t have to.
Short answer: No. Long answer: No.
Is her failure your fault? Hellz no. So why should that bother you? Should you worry about karma? Only if you’re superstitious.
And its not as if you are in there erasing her hard drive or spilling coffee on her new suit before she meets with a client… you are a passive from-afar observer.
Zu…chuckling a bit here…and reading between the lines.
It is a shame that the desire to see that everyone “succeeds” translates into “chick weakness.”
We’re not even talking about the fact that not everyone gets the first place ribbon. It is “chick weakness” to care that one’s success comes at the expense of others.
Sucks to be a decent human being, huh?
I resolved my issues by going into business for myself in my late thirties. Pushing 50, and I’m just shy of cracking 38K annually after paying 2 full-time employees and a revolving door of part-time young un’s.
(NO mortgage makes this much less painful.)
Seriously, do what ya gotta do. There may well come a time when you can truly indulge your humanity, but between now and then, feed and shelter your family and your critters.
No. Wishing for something doesn’t make it happen (or else I would have won the lottery tears ago). So, go ahead and wish all you want that she’ll crash and burn.
Lawyers don’t work out for two reasons: either they are a bad fit, or they are no damned good. Maybe she’s a bad fit because her skills don’t match the job or her personality doesn’t match the workmates … then she should move on to the next assignment. Maybe she lacks intelligence or motivation or her skill set has such fundamental holes that she’s not really a good fit in most areas of practice … no damned good. Either way, if that’s how it stays they’re better off without her and with you.
From what I’m hearing, she’s got experience mostly with document reviews rather than substantive work, and they really need someone to do substantive stuff. So she’s pretty well in over her head.
I also really want this job because they have a First Amendment practice, and I’ve always wanted a chance to work on that.
Oh, trust me, I’m familiar with that. In fact, that’s why I’m trying to leave my current job. The only reason I’ve stuck around as long as I have is that I didn’t have to do any work for the psycho partner until a good six weeks into my employment, and I don’t have to do all that much for him now. That, however, is going to change soon, when the other associate gets a new job. She’s announced she’s leaving because she just can’t take him anymore.
Once she goes, though, I’ll have to work for him more, and that would be bad. They just had someone bolt after one day because she did some research for him and he ripped her a new one.
In fact, I think the reason I have never, ever been given any crap about what time I get in in the morning (and it’s getting later and later as I start caring less and less) is that I continue to show up at all.
Nah, hell, the sooner they get somebody better for the job the better!