And the Verdict is...

[queenoftheskies]

I'm not going to be taking the new job.

It all seemed to be going too fast. Too good to be true.

I guess it was, though they still wanted me.

Too much.

I had my first interview on Tuesday night. I had my second--a phone interview--on Wednesday. At that time, they asked if I could go to lunch with them today in order to meet the president of the company and get the job offer. They also wanted me to give them a free day next week to talk to the person who developed their cost acocunting system.

Yesterday, they changed it. They asked if I could go to lunch with the Controller today to meet the rest of the accounting department. The job offer would come later in the day. The HR person would type it up and send it to the agency.

When I got home yesterday, the plans had changed again. They wanted to do a background check. But, they still wanted me to go to lunch with the Controller and the accounting department today.

Knowing that background checks can take a week or more, I expressed concern and told the recruiter that I didn't think it was a good idea for me to take too much time off work because I couldn't quit until they got the background check back and things were final. If I did, I'd have an amount of time without income.

Today, she assured me it would be a quick background check.

However, a problem arose at work. And, today was not only month-end, but fiscal year-end as well. To those of you who are not familiar with the financial world, that's a big deal.

This problem had to be corrected TODAY. It was important.

I called the recruiter to ask if I could reschedule lunch and explained the problem to her. She said no problem, that she'd handle it.

She called back a short while later to tell me that the Controller said NO. Definitely NOT. He would not reschedule it and I WOULD be there today. He said that I owed it to them, that I was theirs now and that since they were going to offer me a job, I had no loyalty or allegience to my current job.

I expressed concern over these statements (and more) to the recruiter and she said she'd run into this before, that it was fairly common.

I told her I'd been working a long time and hadn't run into it before, that I needed to think.

She asked if she could arrange for me to meet them at the restaurant and shave some time off (they wanted me to be gone for two hours), would I go?

I told her yes.

She called back shortly thereafter and told me he said NO. I had to do it HIS way.

So, I thought about it, all the while the BAD vibes growing stronger.

And, I looked at the work I had to do and knew that things had to get done, and I e-mailed the recruiter and told her I was concerned. I told her that my work ethics would not allow me to abandon my current employer while I was still employed by them and that, if I'd been employed by this other company, I would have afforded them the same allegience.

I told her that if that meant I wouldn't get the job, so be it, that I wasn't sure it was the place for me if that was the attitude.

She e-mailed me back a short while later with the message that if I wasn't going to do it their way, they weren't going to hire me. However, she went on to say that she applauded my work ethic and sticking to my guns and doing the right thing. The client, she'd decided, was a bully and was in the wrong.

She then proceeded to tell me that there were several other possibilities through her agency and they would be pleased to represent me to other clients.

For now, I've made my peace with the drive I'm going to have to start next week. Yes, this could change. I could be stressed after I do it. But, I'm starting with an open mind and willing to give it a chance.

I've realized that I could have jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire.

I am so lucky he showed his true colors and I was able to make the right choice.