taking a job from a fired person 4

[langleymass]

I am probably interviewing for what seems to be a decent job this week. I have been out for about three months and am starting to get a little worried.

My main issue is that the person interviewing me is firing his current person because he has "lost his focus." It sounds like he is interviewing secretly until he finds someone he likes. He said that the current employee has been there for two years.

Should I be concerned?

Thanks.

 

[TomKane]

Only if you take the job

 

[MikeLacey]

I'd look carefully at the interviewer and at how he defines what he wants from his staff. Does he have regular reviews with them? Did he mention what he'd tried to get his current employee's focus back where he thinks it belongs or did he just become disatisified and decide to let him go?

Should you be concerned? Would I be?

Yes

Mike

To err is human,
but to really foul things up -
you require a man Mike.

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[SQLSister]

It is a common practice to interview and hire before firing someone in a mission critical position. That alone is not cause for worry.

However, as Mike said you need to get a feel for the personality of your potential supervisor. What specifically does "lost his focus" mean? Will he be upfront in telling you how to avoid the same mistake this other person made? Actaully the vagueness of why he is firing makes me concerned. A phrase like that can mean anything from he's been late too many days to he is no longer actually performing all the tasks he needs to perform. It also means he may not be very clear to you about his expectations. You might also try to find out how much of a mess you will have to clean up.

A ray of hope, it is often easier to come in replacing someone who was doing a poor job. That way just about anything you do is an improvement. And he did keep the guy two years, so he clearly didn't just go off the deep end immediately, he probably did give the guy a chance to improve.

But if you do take the job, it is up to you to make sure that what the supervisor wants you to do is clearly defined and that you check with him frequently (don't wait for this guy to tell you) about how he perceives your performance. If he has any complaints, fix them immediately.

Still, sometimes a bad job is better than no job; nothing says you can't keep looking after you get there.

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[langleymass]

But if you have a job, it is a lot harder to look. I don't really want to ask too many questions about it for fear of making him uncomfortable. Legally, he can't say a whole lot about why he wants to fire the other guy.

There is a possibility of a one-year contract with someone else. If I get that offer, I will take that instead.

That's a very good point about replacing someone who is doing a bad job. Years ago, I replaced a guy who left a the data backup system in a shambles. It tooks months to get that clened up. I got heck for not getting it cleaned up fast enough.

Thanks.

 

[SQLSister]

If I took a job under those conditions, I would mmet with the suprevisor the first day and find out what exactly he perceived the problems to be and how badly messed up the system was. I would also find out his expectations for my performance.

Then I would take about a week to get truly familar withteh systems and meet with him again and identify any concerns you have that he didn;t know about. Then work out a plan of attack to fix the problems and what the timeframe for fixing the problem is. I might also assume that I would be working a good bit of overtime until the major problem areas are fixed. Usuallly when someone is doing so poor a job as to get fired, there are muultiple problems and depending onthe skill set of teh supervisor, there may be many problems that the person successfully hid from him.

I would give this person plenty of updates as to how I was progressing on fixing the problems and any new problems I ran into during the course of fixing things. I would document all of that in emails, so I would have backup proof of what problems existed when I got there and what Id did to fix them and how quickly I did it.

Basically, I'm saying don't take this job unless you intend to be very pro-active about changing the existing system and are willing to take steps to protect yourself.

Questions about posting. See faq183-874

 

[GwydionM]

Would you have dinner with a cannibal?

People are much to ready to think it won't happen to them. Really, you don't want to work for characters like that.

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A view from the UK

 

[langleymass]

GwydionM,

It may depend on how hungry I am. It would also depend on how well I think I can defend myself from the "cannibal" if necessary.

I know of plenty of instances of people who have been fired when it was the manager's fault. I also know of plenty of times in which a person deserved to be fired. I have also seen employees that should have been fired, but were not.

I just have to believe that if I do the best possible job, things will work out.

 

[sedj]

If you are out of work, and there are no other *decent* jobs on the horizon, then what have you got to lose ?

Worst case scenario is that you get hired, find out that actually, they all are the spawns of evil, and you hand your notice in. Simple as that. On the other hand, it could be fine, and you enjoy it, and they other guy is being fired because he is a lazy so and so. You'll never know unless you try.

I'm not saying I would leave a job for this job, but if you're out of work, can you afford to be choosy ?

I say go for it - but be cautious, and watch your back if you get hired.



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[philote]

So did you interview for this job yet, and if so, how'd it go?
I wouldn't be too worried about why this person is being fired until I interview and get a better feel for the company. I'm betting the guy really did lose his focus but didn't bother to do anything about it himself by finding another job. I've lost my focus, or interest rather, in a previous job so I found one I liked better.