The other day, I was called in for an interview by a very enthusiastic G.M. who also sent me a very enthusiastic email the day before that I hadn't read, yet. We agreed to meet and I got there 30 minutes early because I take mass transit and wanted to test the maximum amount of time it would take me to walk to the station, miss my bus, wait the extra 20 minutes for the next bus, and get dropped off in front of my new job.
So I'm chatting with tge A.G.M. and a few otger employees to pass tge time when finally the A.G.M. asks if it's okay if he interviews me instead. This is at 20 minutes past my scheduled time. We talk for 30 minutes, hit it off quite well, and he starts asking me about availability, etc.
10 minutes later, an hour late, the G.M. shows up, approaches me and asks “Are you okay?” “Yeah, I just talked to so-and-so for half an hour.” She says, “Great,” then dismisses me and says she has other interviews lined up and will get back to me. Never even met me. So now I'm waiting for a call back for a job I desperatley need that I still want and can't help but wonder if I won't get the job simply because now the G.M. knows she can't reprimand me if I happen to show up 5 minutes late after she showed up almost an hour late to my interview.
This all seems to me like a scene out of Joseph Heller's Catch-22: “Sorry, but we're so understaffed our management can't find the time to interview new staff.”