Show a little common courtesy, Silicon Valley

All I can think about is that kid. I can’t remember his name, but I remember his face. Young, energetic, confident. I remember he wore a really interesting tie to the interview. It wasn’t radical, just interesting enough to catch your eye, know what I mean? Some of the others who interviewed him found him a bit on the arrogant side. There were a few holes in his resume, nothing serious. But, overall he was a fine candidate.

I keep thinking about this guy, because when we decided to hire someone else for the position, no one called to tell him. Not the hiring manager, not HR, no one. The worst part is, I got a voicemail from this kid asking me if I had heard anything about the job that he so earnestly wanted…and I never called him back.

I was busy. It was HR’s job to call him. It wasn’t even my opening, the other manager should take the responsibility. Maybe I felt a little too important to deal with it? Whatever, I didn’t return his call. I don’t think anyone did.

I keep thinking about this kid, because I can now clearly imagine what he must have been thinking about me. On the one hand, he thought my company was stellar, sitting at the top of a hot market floating on a sea of venture capital. He thought we were very interested in him, since he a already made it to a second round of interviews. So, why on earth was nobody making the simple common courtesy of calling him back to tell him he didn’t get the job? He probably felt confused, then angry, then glad that he didn’t have to find out what a bunch of losers we were three months into the job.

I keep thinking about him, because I just went through the exact same thing a couple of months ago. Karma is a four letter word in my dictionary.

The first time it happened to me, I ignored it. I got a call from a company saying they were interested in talking to me. Great. I spoke to the recruiter, then to the hiring manager. I was then told that I would be getting a call the next day to set up an in-person interview. I never heard from them again.

The second time it happened, the CEO herself left a message to set up an interview. Her assistant followed up to arrange the details. It was set for 2 p.m. and I made it a point to be near the phone. I never heard from the woman. That’s understandable, given the typical CEO’s schedule in Silicon Valley. I phoned the assistant and left a message explaining that there may have been some crossed wires. Should we reschedule? Never heard back from her either. I let that one go too.

By the third time, I was getting angry. I felt a column coming on.

I could ask the question, what the hell is the matter with all you people? But, I know the answer, since I was just like you a short time ago. You’re busy. You’ve got a million things going and calling back some schmuck just doesn’t get a priority in the go-go valley. No matter how much you committed to him or her.

But, think about this: if your company can’t accomplish the simplest task of meeting their most trivial commitments, then they’re either not prioritizing properly or they’re morons. Either way, it’s bad business and it will cost you in the long run. What if that next call they drop is from that nobody sales rep who just happens to know a certain VP of Marketing you’ve been trying to ink a contract with for the last six months? Believe me, it can happen. It did to my previous company and we spent weeks trying to get back our credibility with the VP.

I’ve got no high-horse to sit on, so I’ll use a soap box. Stop for a moment and think about what you’re doing. Honor your commitments. I’m not talking about calling candidates back anymore. That’s a symptom of a larger issue. I’m talking about taking the fundamentals of operating a winning company. Get to your appointments on time. Respect your customers by turning off your cell phone when you’re in a meeting with them. Call people back when you say you will — don’t return every call (that’s impossible), just call people when you say you’ll call them. Think of it as part of your Total Quality Management program: every single person is a PR rep for your company so make sure every interaction is a positive and productive one. Start with calling folks back.

A friend of mine’s younger sister accepted a position recently in a company out of Santa Cruz. On her first day of work, in what she thought was a permanent job, she was informed that she was there on a “trial” basis only for one day. They just wanted to try her out. You know, take a test drive, kick the tires. At end of the day, her manager said that he would call her the next day to discuss the permanent position. She got no call. The following day, she called the manager herself, and he said — get this — that he couldn’t recall her name and would she refresh his memory on who she was? She hung up, of course, realizing that the firm would probably be out of business within six months if they had idiots like that working there.

If I could turn back the clock to last November and could do only one thing, it would not be to save my job and my company from hitting the skids. Instead, I would pick up the damn phone, call that kid back, explain that he was a fine candidate and a good person, but that someone else got the job instead. I’d wish him the best and then send him on his way with some closure.

Oh, and then I’d try to save my job. I feel guilty, not crazy.

This was originally published in Silicon Valley Biz Ink on Aug. 19, 2002.

Why a blog?

My husband, H.B., is a storyteller.

Anyone who has sat around a dining room table with him, read our annual holiday card or seen some of his published work knows this.

A few years ago, our dear friend Shawn Dufraine, suggested that we start a blog.

Actually here’s exactly what he said:

“well, with a great sense of relief I got my Mok Card in the mail today, it was getting so close to Christmas and it hadn't shown up, I was afraid I had been dropped from the list, and I had that sort of year work-wise so I thought maybe it had been a total sweep, phew.

Once again awesome card … anyhow I think you should do a blog, not daily because then it seems like work, but with a promise of a bi-weekly or at least monthly update, and it could be like the cards, briefly highlighting events but sprinkled with words of wisdom and humanity, I mean a couple of paragraphs once a year is lovely, but your audience wants, nay demands, more.”

Well Shawn and anyone else who's interested, here tis. . .