Sometimes you just have to wonder at how dumb some people can be.
I know, not a nice way to start a blog post, but wait till you hear this.
Not long ago I was coming back to Sydney from a week in the Firebrand London office. I stopped over in Bangkok, and had two hours in the Qantas lounge there, doing what all the other business dudes were doing. Blackberry, laptop, maybe the newspaper.
Now the seats in the Qantas lounge are fairly close together, and it is impossible NOT to hear what the people sitting behind you are saying, even if you are trying hard not to listen in. And, after a week of difficult conversations in Europe, I had no desire to listen in to anyone. In fact I had my Ipod on for most of the time I was there.
So there I was sending emails and listening to music, when the wait-person in the lounge asks me whether I would like a coffee. I take my earphones out to talk to her, and am immediately struck by the loud conversation of two guys, about one metre behind me. They are talking business. No surprise there. But the first phrase I hear is ‘Temp Margins’. Can I help myself but listen in?
The conversation continues. They are talking loudly. Aggressively even. I could have heard every word if I was 10 seats away let alone one. And what words they were!
In a few minutes I learn these two are senior executives of a global recruitment company. But there is more. Their business competes directly with mine, Firebrand, in several locations. The conversations moves from current revenue, to temp margins and then on to which countries are doing particularly badly (Thanks for that!). Then the conversation gets personal. A manager of a particular location is named, and described as a “spineless tosser”. ( I report the conversation verbatim). A second person is mentioned, by name, and one of the men suggests he needs to be ‘boned’, a callous Australian slang word for ‘fired’. Then things really start to hot up. Two people are discussed, both of whom I know personally (through business) and one of whom applied for a job with Firebrand less than 12 months ago. A profit figure for the Australian and Asian businesses is talked about and budgeted profit for next calendar year is debated. They talk about competitors and at one point I thought Firebrand was going to be discussed. And there I am, the Firebrand CEO, almost part of the conversation!
It’s truly amazing isn’t it? These same dudes probably agonise over having all their staff on legally binding restraint clauses. They will pay lawyers thousands to chase down ex-employees who ‘abuse company information’ and yet there they are, in a business lounge, talking loudly and arrogantly about the most sensitive of information. Even if I had not been a recruiter I would have found that conversation extraordinary and irresponsible.
And so it’s a cautionary tale for all of us in this industry. Not only senior managers. Many years ago, my own business was located at 275 George Street in Sydney. That building has 12 levels, and my company occupied two of them. And yet there were 10 other recruitment companies in that building!
What other industry has such a concentration of competitors? And even in those days I was amazed how you could get in the lift (elevator) and hear indiscreet consultants prattling on about clients, candidates and often, colleagues. How immature. How irresponsible.
In our business our stock in trade is not only talent.It’s information!
Information is power, and so is trust.
Abuse one and you destroy the other.
It’s surprising how often this happens in airport lounges. It’s like people think that no-one in the lounge will know who they are discussing because they are not in their home town, forgetting that people travel. And particularly in Australia, the industry is small enough that you will know at least a couple of the same people, not to mention the sharing of sensitive coporate information in a public setting. That is just callous and irresponsible.
I’m thinking these guys were intoxicated or on something. This behavior is far too irrational to chalk it up to stupidity and arrogance.
I would say you are spot on Lee. Whisky it looked like. And plenty of it I think. But no excuse really
Greg
It would have been extraordinarily difficult not to turn and say something. I agree with Lee – too irrational to chalk it up to plain stupidity but certainly not arrogance finely blended with their favorite cocktail. There was definitely some “machismo” going on here.
Unfortunately they are representative of a significant number of people in recruitment industry, particulalry here in the UK so its no wonder we have a general image problem. It’s this kind of approach that directly influences clients general negative response to recruitment consultancies.
However, there is an upside – with people like this in the industry, the benchmark they set is very low so its not difficult to raise the bar and outperform them on the criteria that matter. I also believe that you reap what you sow and that at some stage the future this conversation will come back to haunt them.
Greg, airport lounges seem to create a no-one can hear me mentality plus agree with Gareth a possible UK problem too.
But what worries me is if they say this in public “what the hell are they saying in private”.
Also agree re recruitment villages, have worked in many countries and always seems that “recruiters need to feel the need to be near each other” maybe it’s easy to “get the wagons circled.
Next time you are in the UK please look me up, regular on Bills show and just launched a monthly RecruiterCast web show at http://www.careersiteadvisor.com
Regards
Keith Robinson
Very good post. Recruitment is a small world .. no doubt these guys will pay the price (and so they should!)
Hi Greg
Similar experience was had in an Auckland cafe recently… an eye opener. Made me smile actually.
Also recommend companies operate a ’2 block rule’ post client appointments – as in, do not talk about the just completed client appointment for at least two blocks.
I recall one client telling me of a situation where a ‘frank’ conversation was overheard in an elevator (by a senior employee of the just visited company) between the two recruiters who had just completed their visit. with that company. Not only unprofessional – just plain dumb.
Greg,
Wow! And I thought just hearing a recruiter talk about her day, clients and candidates on the train was bad enough!!
In all seriousness though, it does go to show that people just have no idea who could actually be listening to a conversation!!
I hope the ‘info’ they gave you can be utilised accordingly!
Sadly, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. I’ve seen far too many examples of ‘leaders’ rising to the top in our industry and yet they don’t possess the most basic of skills to run a leading business. I’m sure they wouldn’t survive in the resources or financial services sectors…
What does continue to surprise me though is the shareholders who put up with ‘leaders’ like this in their businesses… they should be run out of town. Perhaps this in part explains the poor price/ earnings ratios and valuations of some of the global recruitment companies?
It reminds me of a similar situation a few years back. A competitor of mine bragging in the pub about a large deal his company had landed with a certain client I hadn’t come across. Unlucky for him the deal wasn’t quite across the line allowing us to nip in and close it before they had any idea. The client went on to be one of our top clients for many years… I never did get around to buying that GM a drink… perhaps a large whisky would be appropriate…
I have made a total of three placements due to a conversation I eavesdropped on whilst travelling to work on the Manly JetCat. These two guys mentioned the company who was hiring and the manager.
Idiots.
I turned to my old friend Google, got the manager’s name, called him and I had what he needed. A few months later I even told him how I had orginally found out about his roles and he laughed out loud!
This issue is not exclusive to our industry. I’ve been in many a situation where I’ve heard business information that should have remained private. Sometimes I’ve acted on it, other times I’ve let it go. It’s a fact of life that people are loose with their tongue when they’re more vulnerable.
If other people’s stupidity has resulted in you winning business, then great , well done.
What’s of more importance is explaining to your own staff the implications of their own actions and ensuring that their behaviour doesn’t come back to haunt them or their business, especially as it’s coming up to Christmas.
Don’t talk shop in public and if you have to, be extremely discreet. Gathering from the responses above, if you’re indiscreet then you’re in for a bit of a wake up call.
You raise a stereotype of a braggadocio segment of the industry that raises questions about how secure any sensitive search they might be doing would be kept.