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| Wednesday, February 21, 2007 |
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Lowball
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 So I heard back from the apartment book people. "I have some good news and some bad news," the lady tells me. "Which do you want first?"
Bad news.
"Due to budget cuts we have to cancel the jobs I was hiring for."
Oh, great! Well I was prepared for some sort of shit sandwich. Nowhere Fast chapter XXXVIIV.
"But we're offering you the job."
Oh, boy!
"But we can no longer offer $30,000, it's $28,000."
Okay, hold on a minute. Let's backtrack. When she initially called she said this job would pay $30,000, and she said that's what I had as my requirement on my Monster.com resume. I was surprised to hear this but on looking at it attached to her e-mail that was what I had put; I had just upgraded it to $35,000 a few days before. I figured I would go along with $30,000 but try to talk them up if they made an offer.
But now the offer was going lower? This is unheard of. I told them to give me a couple of days to get back to them, but within two seconds I had my answer, "FUCK YOU!"
I took it to the Van Halen and Telecaster forums, where all the career experts reside, and some say it could be worth it to put on a resume, but most say that's a load of shit. One guy said, "To make an already low offer and then go even lower is an insult. If they're doing this to you now, what will they do when you work there?" Another said, "When they offered $30,000 you should have said, 'Sorry, but I'm not looking for part-time work.'"
Any place that would pull this kind of shennanigan smells like horseshit to me, much as I initially suspected. You know why I listen to my parents (sometimes)? Because they often see the shit before it hits the fan and splatters in my face!
Thoughts?
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Posted by Art | 10:23 PM EST |
8 comments
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Paul Conley used to work at the company and has a great website on journalism and B2B.
"FULL DISCLOSURE: I'm the former vice president for online content at Primedia Business. Also, during this past weekend I took on a small, short-term consulting arrangement with Primedia Business."
from Paul's blog, August 2005:
Primedia Business sold to Wasserstein
It's over.
And yet little has changed.
Primedia Business has been sold to yet another New York-based buyout firm. The seller, of course, was KKR. When I was an executive at Primedia Business, it was the folks at KKR who were in charge. And I found them to be -- almost entirely -- a repulsive group. KKR's chosen would gather in the executive dining room and complain whenever Primedia Business' workforce seemed unwilling to sacrifice more wages and time to further enrich KKR's investors. My time at Primedia Business was an endless series of meetings with people who genuinely disliked each other. And it was clear to me that KKR set that contemptuous tone.
Primedia Business' new owner is Wasserstein & Co., a private equity firm that also owns "The Deal." I know nothing about Wasserstein. And I would urge everyone at Primedia Business to try and maintain a positive attitude during these next few weeks. Perhaps Wasserstein will turn out to be a more skilled leader than KKR. (8/9/05)
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Negotiate the lower salary to your advantage. It's not a good sign for sure. But they also just bought into the Atlanta car market (magazines) so maybe it's belt-tightening time. Get everything in writing (work at home, travel, reimbursement). And use work assignments and business cards to create new contacts. Leave customer service behind and build a B2B portfolio.
http://paulconley.blogspot.com/2005/08/primedia-business-sold-to-wasserstein.html
"The Official Word: Van Halen Tour Kaput"
It looks like David Lee Roth’s first tour with Van Halen in twenty-three years won’t happen, after all. Over the weekend, employees of tour promoters Live Nation were informed that “the Van Halen tour has been shut down.”
It’s not yet clear what went wrong: Just last week, the band released their first official photo of their new line-up to Rolling Stone. At the time, Roth told us that he was thrilled about the tour, and that the reunion could be permanent: “I have hope and faith – and that’s more than just the name of a couple of strippers from Albuquerque,” he said. Check back here for more VH news as the story unfolds.
-Brian Hiatt
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/02/21/the-official-word-van-halen-tour-kaput/
I'm hoping Diamond Dave has realized he'd rather sing between the corndogs and the bean bag toss than do a half-assed tour with a drunk meth head and his 15-year-old son. Sounds like that may be what's going on, though nothing is confirmed on their official site.
This company is many things... but a sinking ship they're not. They're here to stay, very aggressive about growth and acquisitions. (They also just sold About dot com to the NY Times, along with some of their more creative sites... guitars and stuff.)
Remember, that blog entry is from Summer '05. It only says that the previous owner didn't have a warm fuzzy style. And that they weren't running things the way the guy at the site would like. Read their business activity and press releases and you'll see they're a very aggressive company. They indeed do need people to write. Who knows if a sale is in the future. (Who knows if a sale is ever in the future.) I didn't read it that way but you know, a number of smaller CC clusters that have already sold will keep, not nuke, the current workers. Again, no blueprint or guarantees in any office.
I'd prefer to get in and get paid for what I like doing. If you negotiate trade-offs now for that lower salary, it also tells you how much they're willing to honor an employee. Ask for one flex day a week. That is, work a full day at home. They get their 40 hours and you get a day of writing away from the office. If they can't meet you in the middle, while offering a surprisingly lower salary... that's another red flag.
Hey sometimes you have to eat a sh-t sandwich to get to the caviar. Personally I'd take the gamble. But you seem to prefer comfort and security, and you've settled into weekend guitar practice and home cooking. You should at least try to negotiate the lower salary into a couple perks -- see how it plays out -- then send a thank you note.
Anyway without Dave, there's really no show.
The L.A. Times has just published a brief interview with David Lee Roth and someone from the promotion company. The tour is off because Eddie is too drunk to make it. He and Alex aren't likely to show up at the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame, either. Dave says he, Sammy and Mike will be there, though. Wow. Pitiful.
Of course, one of the higher paying jobs are the best...
Beginning salaries can bounce all over.