About five weeks ago I rage quit my job of many years, my boss feeling I needed to put my job ahead of taking care of my father, who was mentally and physically crippled over the summer. In the weeks since I’ve had:
-A job offer me a role two hours after applying for it, then retracting it the next day when they asked if I had specialized training and I responded in the negative; the HR person apparently thought everyone in healthcare who isn’t a doctor has an identical skill set.
-An employer contact me an hour after I applied to tell me a role had been filled hours after it was posted, and has proceeded to relist and revise the position listing multiple times in the weeks after they talked to me. People I know who work there can’t figure out what is going on.
-Getting repeated e-mails from one employer asking me to rate the interview process on a job I never got an interview for. That company finally took me out of the running for the job about two weeks after I applied . . . Not that they sent me an e-mail, but rather I had to sign into my account with them and look up my status to find that out. Weirdly, I was only taken out of thecrunning thecsame day I checked.
Friday I got a job offer on one of two interviews I had in the last week. It wouldn’t be my first choice, but a variety of reasons I’ve taken the offer rather than waiting to hear back on the other job. Today I received the first bit of paperwork for the role, and “WTF?” keeps coming to my lips.
The insurance is about 20% higher than my old job. It also doesn’t start on my first day of employment as I’d been told, but the first of next month.
Then I get to the 401K info. The match is two percent less than my former employer, and I have to wait two years to be vested for my employer’s matching contribution. But that’s not too bad, as I see that the yearly match caps out at only $1,000 per year. /s
From there I get to the discussion of the various vaccination proofs and testing records you have to provide. While talking to the recruiter he made a big deal about me having to provide proof of having certain ones, which I didn’t think too much of at the time. Looking at the paperwork, I see the ones that he made a big deal about are all ones the company reimburses employees to get; I can only assume HR was hoping I’d pay out of my own pocket if I didn’t have those vaxes, rather than having the company pay, forgetting it was mentioned in the paperwork.
Then I get to the real “WTF?” of the paperwork.
First, I come to a notation that I MUST give two weeks notice before I’m allowed to leave. The sentence immediately following that statement says this in no way contradicts the “at-will” employment rules of where I reside. This is hilarious, not just for the fact that they’re saying I have to give two weeks notice even though I can leave at anytime, but because the HR guy is unaware I’m unemployed, and kept asking if I could just leave my current employer and start immediately.
Second, the paperwork says that if/when I do leave their employment I may not do the same work for the next six months.
I’m in healthcare. Before my rage quit I worked over 15 consecutive years in the field. Now I’m being told that by taking this job I agree to do nothing like it for six months after my departure. Like, I’m going to learn some proprietary way to use a butterfly needle for a blood draw they can’t afford to get out?
I wrote back for clarification a few hours ago, and have heard nothing. What really blows my mind is that this is the largest health care employer in my area, tied with my former employer, and they’ve been around a lot longer than where I used to work. I’ve never heard anyone complain about anything like what I’m reading, and am left wondering if this is a new plan to screw over new employees.
Thanks for reading.