After this past recession that America experienced (there are those who believe that it has not ended – I am in that camp), the revelation was advanced by many magazines and other outlets that a high percentage of companies would only employ you IF YOU WERE ACTIVELY WORKING. In other words, the unemployed need not apply. A former officer of one of my former companies held to this philosophy. That made my job much more difficult as I was responsible for producing some of the talent on a few of the company’s higher end managerial positions.
There are multiple reasons why people may be unemployed, but the majority probably falls into one of two categories: terminated due to poor performance or reduction in force due to poor company financial performance. As a corporate recruiter, avoiding candidates who were terminated for performance is a worthy goal. However, when a company refuses to consider a candidate who is unemployed because of a corporate reduction, they show their true colors, their short-sightedness.
As formerly being part of a corporation where one of the officers held this employment philosophy, the theory behind that philosophy is this: if someone is unemployed, they must not have been a very good employee when they were working. That philosophy totally eliminates all employees that were displaced because of a reduction of force, all employees who left their last position to care for a loved one or someone who is terminal or someone who is unemployed due to the dissolution of their previous company.
In order to conserve your time and sanity, research all companies to which you apply to learn if they have such a philosophy in place. Not all companies will admit their hiring practices are so narrow, but some are very blatant about where they stand. You do not want to be associated with those companies.
James 1:5
