WOW…

Wow…

This is Getting Nuts…ok lemme get this straight.

1. John said he didn’t have a clear plan yet…cool…starting a new gig requires one to get immersed into the company culture, learn where the copier is, where the emergency exits are…who the “cool” people in the office are and who are the snitches…as a manager or editor of head honcho in charge I’m sure some “tough decisions will also be made.

This will be a baptism by fire…John will learn quickly…or he will throw in the towel/pass the torch at the risk of his head exploding as a result of comment strings like this one…I like the WAY john writes, but like many of us, I have tended to disagree with him…I like is mannerisms…Like Billy Bob Thornton in Sling-Blade… However look at how he writes…damn. If you have ever studied the perfect sentence, it should sound like a cadence. A perfectly proportioned balance between consonance assonance and message…and john does that masterfully.

2. John said he wouldn’t be a hall monitor. Sweet. But wait…he wont be a hall monitor but he will WRITE, in the school paper… about the people who are doing bad things in the halls…and why the thinks they are wrong…

3. I have always wanted only 1 thing for the recruit-o-sphere. To. Have. Fun. To take a look out over our industry and those in it and say “that was pretty damn funny, crazy, strange, cool etc”. The point where “leaders” pontificate about right, wrong, theory, censorship, and get “PERSONAL” in general, is when we as an industry/professionals loose sight…ironic..this is why I chose to write anonymously. Please do not get me wrong here…doctors in their professions, disagree often on a course of action and the best way treat a patient…but in the process, don’t call them snakes.

We all are going to disagree…from our sourcing styles, to our choices and recommendations of Applicant tracking systems…but time will tell on what rdc will evolve into. My pitch on rdc? Recruiting.com: Because you asked for it.

Community is awesome…take a look at the streets of manhattan when you have a chance…ideally at the corner of 35th and 6th…penn station at rush hour. You see all kinds, but the collective mass makes the whole thing simply work. There is a place for everyone on RDC. No voice should be heard louder than the others…no one person is right or wrong. We all have our opinions and voices…WorkFarce is simply one of many…my SLANT is that there is a place for levity in the recruit-o-sphere. That maybe recruiters and Human Resources professionals are often too serious. Ami and Bob take all of this stuff pretty seriously…and that is perfectly cool. Animal..geez I can’t quite tell. I do know he is candian. Ragan, let’s her words allow her to be the graceful voice. All of the “characters” in teh recruit-o-sack are freaking awesome…even johny Sumser.

When we as recruiting,HR, Talet-involved professionals get wrapped up in things like the first amendment, and censorship and right and wrong, then we lose sight on where we are and what we should be doing…hell for a moment there I was even distracted from my original goal as a blogger…

I am guilty of deviating from my initial intentions, to have fun, and was thrown into the fray of he-sad-she-said. People have taken sides— Some like sumser, some don’t…some like me and many don’t and that’s cool too. But back to the matter at hand.

Bottom line, no matter our preferences, opinions and prejudices, life is to short to hold grudges. Let’s move on. Ask yourself how do you want to be remembered? I for one never wanted to be remembered as a blogger. I do know that I want to be remembered for the mark I KNOW I have made in the recruiting and talent industries (In real life and not on a blog.). My professional life is separate from my blogging life…and maybe that’s what is happening here…personal and professional are being confused. Take stock my friends and know that we are responsible for what becomes of our community in the recruit-o-sphere….and for that…I gotta get back to tying my shoes and my chin strap on my “Special” helmet…back to sleep now…

OH and BTW www.WorkFarceBlog.com

I LOVE YOU,
WorkFarce

My Readers Rock

My Readers have taken their own money and time to start a NEW WorkFarce site where all can come and play… New Servers, new domain, new authors and characters…and more fun to be had by all.  Fuck it… right?  Hell, its WorkFarce reincarnated…they set the spirit free after only 3 days down….

www.WorkFarceBlog.com

It is truly humbling (even though I will not have nor will play any part in the new site/community) when fans will rise up and start something that they believe is important in continuing…in this case, it is satire, hurmorsim, metaphor and parody…all while remianing anonymous.

I LOVE YOU

WorkFarce

I Am Mine……

I Did it My Way…THE LAST STOP…

WorkFarce was begun in January of 2007 as a place where people in the Blog-O-Sphere could come and share a good laugh. It has grown bigger than I ever had invisioned and established more influence than I had ever dreamed…so much so that it has caused some very powerful and vocal critics to contact my employer.

I had made a conscious effort to not use my real name, mention my employer and took steps to protect my identity as I believe that my personal life and my work is not important in the matters here on Workfarce.

WorkFarce the site and WorkFarce the person are 2 totally different things. I don’t want my clients or my employer to take offense or any flack for being within 3 degrees of separation from a site that in most cases is not to be taken literally.

I am a firm believer of Free Speech and the ability for people to express their views. Freedom lost this weekend.

It has come to my attention that people have taken efforts to “out” me as a blogger and have contacted my employer.

WorkFarce is my alter ego…a “character” and is not me as a person…and that was the whole point. It became a place where the most outrageous of comments and assertions could be made within the confines of a site where the absurd could be embraced…a place where those in the recruit-o-sphere caould come and say…”I can’t believe he said that!” (But I was thinking it)

Sure the Daily Show is not REAL news, and Alice cooper on Stage is different than he is off. But, no matter. WorkFarce the Site/Character is getting confused with the Author of WorkFarce…the person.

My loyalty resides with my friends, family my Employer and my clients.

Therefore, this will be the last posting by here on WorkFarce. It was fun while it lasted.

I will not:

1.Reaveal my identity

2. Reveal my employer

3. make any apologies.

I would simply rather shut down the site.

I have made a conscious effort to shut down the site at the risk that my employer and clients will be somehow pulled into its madness.

I can safely say that the witch hunt by a select few people in the HR Technology business and main stays in the Blogging/Recruiting news industries played a huge role in my decision…evil prevails in this case…

I hope to return to the Blog-O-Sphere in another reincarnation soon.

But until then, please know that this is the LAST STOP for WorkFarce.

Until we meet again

I Love You,

WORKFARCE

THE END

Apology Accepted but Sorry, Sumser & Goldberg…Revolution is on…

I’m Having Trouble Hearing over the Blimp Engines…

“Me?  Oh I’m just on a sking adventure across the Pacific…WHAT!?! They fired BillPastore?  Oh Well…I heard he was a prick anyways…  Listen, I gotta Go…BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!”

On the Goldberg v. Cheezhead Challenge

Sometimes Irony Wears Polar Fleece…Former Jobster Employee on TLC’s “What Not To Wear”

Sometimes Irony Wears Polar Fleece…

Jobster.com, referred to on some blogs as “Chopster” after cutting almost half of its work force early this year, no longer has one of its most visible employees. Visible because product manager Rita Conley Mitchell appeared on TLC’s “What Not to Wear” TV program recently, the segment airing to millions of viewers, filmed when she was working at Jobster. Her husband, Shane Mitchell, had contacted the show. “She struggled with what to wear,” he says, “and while she is just golden in other areas, she just needed some help. And she was a fan of the program.”

The hosts ambushed her at Jobster Nov. 21 and spirited her off to New York for the makeover. Throwing away most of her wardrobe, one host said, “Look at these fountains of fleece. She has more polar fleece than anyone should own.”

No more polar fleece now. The couple gathered recently, with friends, at Goldie’s on 45th in Seattle to watch as the show aired. Now jobless in Seattle, she has “all these great clothes for interviews and for life. (The makeover) makes me feel more self-expressed. Now, how I am presenting myself matches who I am.” She’s actively looking for a product management role, with “smart, fun co-workers and a product that I can stand behind.”

Just the Facts Sumser…Just The Facts…

It can be said that John Sumser wrote a piece this morning about the Replacement of America’s Job Bank. Now in keeping with the spirit of being totally wrong about just things in general, I will stand up and say that John Sumser is a freaking…ok…stop…breathe…be nice…. If John Sumser is to be actually taken seriously and professionally then my prayers go out to all of the retarted young minions in the recruit-o-sack….pull out your drool cups and strap on your special helmets…the road ahead may get a little blurry…filled with words like “compliance”…

Sure he is a stodgy stalwart of the industry…Johnny trigger finger— sure as shit didn’t pick up the phone to call Bill Warren at JobCentral or Dennis Martin at Navisite for comments or clarification. Which begs the questions…can he be TRUSTED with a medium like recruiting.com? Can he be considered an editor? A Journalist?

Ok please allow me an opportunity to straighten out Johnny Trigger-Finger

1. In March 2006 the DOL/ETA sent out notifications to um just about everyone on the planet, that they would no longer support funding for the America’s Job Bank. It should be noted that the DOL had been funding AJB to the tune of $8M-20M for the past 10 years or more. In turn they felt that the technology was quite antiquated (see John Sumser for definition) and that the private sector would replace the federal posting requirements set forth by the OFCCP, JVA (Jobs for Veterans ACT), VEVRAA (Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Act) and EEOC.
2. Enter DirectEmployers Association. Basically a group of about 265 major companies who started their own association, as a HR leadership consortium and leadership community where the members could design and develop recruiting and HR technologies like the NACElink, the college recruiting platform and the JobCentral.com national labor exhange.. The Non Profit Group is run by Bill Warren widely recognized as one of the founding fathers of internet recruitment. DirectEmployers Association, using the JobCentral.com engine, indexes the links of company jobs, directly from their corporate career pages, and then redistributes the job-links to hundreds of different sites on the net. One of these sites where members of DirectEmployers Association would have their jobs sent was to AJB, in order for the federal contractor members of DirectEmployers Association to meet federal posting requirements.

When the Association members were notified that AJB was shutting down, they immediately began work on developing a tool (NOT A SITE) that would index member company jobs and deliver them to the State Workforce sites, the Career OneStop Centers, the Local Veterans Employment Resources (LVERs) and the Disabled Veterans Outreach Programs (DVOP). This was designed with a firm understanding that the goal for companies would not be TRAFFIC or a NEW SITE but that DirectEmployers Association would deliver their jobs to the appropriate areas to make companies COMPLIANT. It should also be noted that DirectEmployers Association’s JobCentral National Labor Exchange was endorsed by NASWA (www.naswa.org) –the National Association of State Workforce Agencies- as the replacement to America’s Job Bank. DirectEmployers Association/JobCentral also has one hell of a reporting feature that show’s its member companies where and when their jobs were delivered to the state and local levels. Therefore upon an audit by the OFCCP are in good and safe hands.

3. Now Please let us take a look at Navisite… a publicly traded company base out of New York State and was the third party vendor who has operated and run America’s Job Bank. This team has received in excess of over $126 MILLION DOLLARS of Tax Payers Dollars over the last 10 years. The DOL decided to stop funding the America’s Job bank because is was outdated and did not meet the compliance requirements set forth by the federal government (never mind that companies posted there because it was a requirement and most companies had seldom if ever received a hire form the AJB site/interface.) simply put, AJB was/is not working. The Department of Labor has explained to Navisite that they are not allowed/authorized to use any AJB related materials…No URL’s, LOGOS, SERVERS, DATA, Resumes, Etc…ABSOLUTELY NOTHING..AJB …IS FINITO..

Dennis Martin who runs navisite has chosen to create a new job Board in light of America’s Job Bank being shut-down by the feds. This site called America’s Job Exchange, while dubbed the successor to America’s job bank is NOT a successor by any means. Martin and the Navisite Team have decided to create a site that will be supported by advertising dollars and a “scalable subscription based model”. Details on how the site plans to survive remain to be seen. Further it remains to be seen how navisite will be providing a solution to the smallest of Federal Contractors to meet federal posting compliances. I’m sure that the folks at Naviste mean well but there is too much that is simply NOT THERE…too many question marks… especially as it relates to meeting govenment requirements when their contract with the Department of Labor expires on June 30th. Can they survive? Can companies trust them with compliance? Can Navisite raise money to support their initiatives in light of losing a major federal contract and no experience sustaining a job board w/o that federal taxpayer dollar? I Personally dunno.

Let it be known by John and others that the Federal government kicked AJB to the curb because the technology was not working and was simply put, outdated…kinda like John himself. Which begs the question…”If AJB was “fired” by the government, and does not work, does it make sense to build a job-board business using the same interface?”…um no…which is why the member companies of DirectEmployers rose to the challenge and built the national Labor Exchange….

Good work Sumser, you have proven, once again, why you have no business in the recruit-o-sphere and that you surely have no business as an editor…I don’t think that either organization was opportunistic, but rather that if AJB was shut down, then all of the companies needing to meet OFCCP guidelines by MANUALLY posting each of their jobs to State sites, Career OneStop Centers, LVERs, DVOPs and be able to REPORT on those postings upon an audit were simply up shit creek w/o a solution.

Purdue University’s Football Coach on Blogs

Purdue football coach Joe Tiller announced Wednesday that all further practices will be closed.

Wednesday’s practice in the Mollenkopf Athletic Center was closed, a rare occurrence under Tiller. He has closed some spring scrimmages before but most practices have been open, to the media and the public.

“There’s a lot of reasons,” Tiller said after Wednesday’s workout. “And you better get used to it, because we’re closed the rest of the spring. And we’ll also be closed all fall.”

During previous seasons during the fall, players were available during Tuesday afternoon teleconferences and after Tuesday’s practice. Except for Sunday, which usually are light practices designed to allow the players to work out the bumps and bruises from the previous day’s game, all other practices have been closed.

“I’m tired of blogging and guys talking about our practices, and postings, and all that (B.S.),” Tiller offered as an explanation. “All’s it is is more problems than it is value.”

It’s raining in Seattle today and Goldberg is Out of the Closet (No More Hiding)

One of my favorite subjects, Jobster CEO Jason Goldberg has taken it on the chin a lot these past few days. I kinda feel bad for the guy. I mean if we follow the old adage of “put yourself in his/her shoes” (in this case Prada), then you just may feel the weight of the world bearing down on you.

There have been quite a few posts here on WORKFARCE where I have completely made fun of Goldberg, but in all honesty, I have an immense amount of respect for the guy.

No matter how he got to this point, Jason has raised a TON of funding for a fledgling online job operation…acquired his competition and complimentary services to the initial Jobster offerings and has made Jobster a “household” name in the recruiting industry. Sure he’s made some mistakes…very very public mistakes, but all in all, what he has been able to accomplish is truly impressive. He also has a reputation…but show me ANY person in a leadership position in politics or business who does NOT have a reputation…Jack Welch was a bastard, Jeff Taylor is a shitty DJ and was a suspected womanizer…Ronald Raegan was really that nice and Mark Foley…let’s just say he never used a bookmark when he read, he just liked to bend over the pages…

I admittedly never really GOT jobster. I never understood its direction and what it wants to become when it grows up. I know that many companies have used them, tried them, liked them, hated them and everything I between. I also know that Goldberg promised profitability THIS YEAR. Yep. Just like I am gonna be the father of Halle Barry’s first-born child THIS YEAR.

I once worked at a start-up in New York City where the CEO’s favorite activity was to get coked-up and bring the entire business development staff into the conference room and tell us things like he “would smash our heads in”. All the while ranting about why he was SURE our company could kill monster.com, the Brassring Applicant Tracking System and every freaking vendor management system on the planet. He was a rough guy…full of passion, wrought with debt and totally and utterly full of himself.

I soon realized that working with him would not last long… after the Sept. 11th attacks on NY, despite the televised instructions from the Mayor to stay home on September 12, my boss wanted us there at 9am… He was an asshole

However, being there was singularly the WORST and BEST work experience I had ever had…you could never PAY for an education like that…sure, the company contracted, and swelled, and contracted again, almost collapsed, but is somehow alive to this day. My Co workers and I formed a special bond as each one of us was jettisoned from the company. We would talk shit about our former boss over drinks, bash the company and its direction/strategy and breathe a collective sigh about “being free’.

Bottom line,…I learned too much to even describe and I have a feeling that Goldberg just may be that EXACT prototype-personality. Ton of Cash, ton of Pressure, big freakin ego, no patience and forced, at times, to do the inevitable…be human. However, for the sake of this comparison instead of being like my boss an angry Italian beast from Long Island, Jason is a fashion conscious little  man living in Seattle…but everything else is seemingly consistent.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Jason may come out of hiding today…ready to pounce.

A guy like him; feisty, entrepreneurial and competitive can only sulk, watch the rain trickling down the seattle-loft window and cry for so long about all of the crazy rumor mill. That people have tuned on him and this bullshit people are writing about him whirling around on some very popular HR/Recruiting blogs. He won’t lay down… and take this bullying anymore. This will either get really nasty really quickly, or Jason will come out of the closet/hiding once again and amaze us with a new jobster “moment” so stupefying that it will completely make his employees, critics, past employees and client base forget what the hell was just going on (what blog’s?)…forget what day it was and make us love him all over again…

It is his time to shine…I ask the readers to let him be human. Everyone needs to f*ck up now and then…it keeps us humble and makes us appreciate our successes . We learn from our mistakes and our industry can learn from Jason Goldberg.