The Job Fairy
Posted on Tue, Jun 01, 2010
By Koleen Singerline
I came across this great article about a company called Balmerton that decided to institute a company policy: a person dressed as a fairy would visit the home of each individual they laid off and place a dollar bill under that former employee's pillow to "cheer them up." The whole notion was the brain child of the bosses' wife, who remembered how finding that dollar under her pillow after she lost a tooth would cheer her up and make everything seem better. The idea didn't catch on too well with laid off employees. Not surprisingly, Balmerton employees disagreed with the whole concept. "Why can't they just fire you and leave you alone?" asks Gerry O'Ryan, who once worked at a Balmerton window factory in Indiana. "Getting your pink slip from a violent, 300-pound fairy, it's not dignified."
The job of fairy had its draw backs as well..."Since that first layoff, the position of Balmerton Job Fairy has usually been vacant." From 1982 to 1999, the company laid off few as it grew from 13,000 to nearly 85,000 employees. But since early 2000, The Job Fairy has been very busy.
Or rather, Job Fairies. The attrition rate for the position is extraordinarily high. In the past 18 months, twelve employees have donned the Job Fairy costume. "Two quit, six were fired, and three are still in the hospital."
Sounds a little absurd, but having to tell someone, "It's just not working out," is very stressful - not only to the employee being laid off, but also to the person who's been given the job of doing it. Additionally, if the process isn't handled correctly, you can leave your company open to legal action.
That "separation discomfort" is the key reason why the Temp-to-hire process has always made so much sense to me. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, Temp-to-hire is a "try before you buy" staffing option that allows a candidate to work as an employee of the staffing firm for a designated period of time before officially converting to your payroll. There are so many positions in a company where success is a combination of not just skills, but "the right fit," the chemistry. Every company does have its own chemistry and you can see if it's there during this time period.
If you find that the new hire is just not working out or you realize you jumped into the hiring game too soon, you can call the employment firm and they will be the one to give the news to the employee. Spares you the pain... and you won't need to send the Job Fairy with a dollar. The employee ends up dealing with someone that can make the news easier to handle and move them on to the next assignment and opportunity. So as your business picks up, make sure your employment firm has a Temp-to-hire staffing option when you're searching for staffing firms in NJ, PA, GA or FL.