In a recent blog post, Isabella Mori asks about tips on recognizing organizations you’d want to work for. Taking the opposite tack, here are tips on knowing which companies to avoid.
Have you ever heard of The Waiter Rule?
This is what Raytheon CEO Bill Swanson wrote for #32 of his Swanson’s Unwritten Rules of Management:
“A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, or to others, is not a nice person. (This rule never fails).”
Many CEOs agree, including Donald Trump. Hardly surprising, because the Waiter Rule is:
- Simple to understand
- Easy to apply
- And it just works.
The only drawback with the Waiter Rule is that it can only help you after you’ve already begun a meeting or interview, and not earlier such as before you send a cover letter.
How can the Waiter Rule be applied to companies?
Useful, honest information about an organization is harder to find than you’d think.
- Company websites are marketing tools and will usually limit themselves to highlights of a company’s story.
- Publicly-traded companies are required to divulge lots of information but it may only be comprehensible to financial professionals or economists.
- Large private companies will sometimes be mentioned in the media when they put out press releases.
However, over %90 of the time you’re most likely to face a small or medium-sized company or non-profit organization where even the above information may not be available. You’ll need to get in closer contact to make insightful judgments.
4 guidelines to discern bad employers
A company that charges you – or anyone else, without your consent – to read your job application is not a nice company
Application processing fees, requests for you to meet far from home, etc. This is as dumb as a casino that charges you to gamble.
A company that requests free work during the hiring process will continue to do so after the hiring process
Before the first interview, an Israeli hitech company once asked me to review their unfinished product. Regrettably, I wasted a few hours giving them free consulting advice when I should have immediately turned away.
Which I did after the first interview a few days later.
A company whose hiring process is unnecessarily complicated is an employer for whom working will be unnecessarily complicated
Endless rounds of interviewing are a good indicator of a boss who’s afraid to take responsibility for their own decisions.
A company that asks illegal interview questions is probably acting illegally elsewhere too, out of ignorance or otherwise
In the USA, being asked your political affiliation is an attention-getter. In Israel, ethnic background has been an issue in the past.
Conclusion
Sometimes, only a deeper look will tell you what you need to know. If you follow the above guidelines, you can save yourself from job search headaches or worse – job headaches.
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--Jacob Share
Filed under: 
Jacob Share is the founder and SVP of 
I would also caution that there is an increasing trend, at least out here in SF bay area, for some ‘recruiters’ to dangle a sexed up position in front of you, get you to talking, and go to their offices.
Then you discover that they want a fee from YOU!. It is a scam. It is the first harbinger of a weakening economy.
My recommendation: Start all recruiter conversations by determining that the hiring company pays the fee. If you have made the mistake of actually going to the recruiter’s office, and then they reveal that they charge for the referal, you know that there is no job. Tell them no thanks.
Go down to their parking lot, find a local hardware store and buy a small length of steel pipe. Get a sandwich and wait for that sales rep to exit for lunch or at the end of the day. Finally, kneecap the sucker – they had ti coming.
Comment by Alan Wilensky
— December 31, 2007 #
Great wisdom there… and very good insight and practical advices… clear and to the point… the person/s who wrote this article know/s what is talking about and knows who to get the message through…
I do appreciate these ideas and advices very much..I do take them seriously and I will also make great use of them
Tanks
Ines
Comment by Ines Lebel
— January 1, 2008 #
Jacob,
There’s a site in the U.K. in beta mode called The Career Mole which, as I understand it, is trying to give prospective job applicants a venue to get inside, front-line intelligence from current employees about what a company is really like BEFORE applying. The concept sounds promising.
Comment by Bilingual Blogger
— January 3, 2008 #
Ines- glad you like the article.
Bilingual Blogger- Thanks for the tip, I found the Career Mole. Not the most appealing name but it does sound like a solid idea.
Comment by Jacob Share
— January 3, 2008 #
thanks for continuing the conversation!
i have to confess that i’m one of those people who is overjoyed when she finds a good waiter and gets a bit snooty when she finds an unco-operative waiter.
my daughter still drags up the time when i asked for tea to be made with boiling water (as opposed to just hot water). the waiter said, “i can’t boil water.” i said to her, “you can’t boil water???” and then proceded to expound to my daughter on the lack of intelligence of some customer service people for at least another 5 minutes.
so every time my daughter – one of my best teachers, as you can see – finds that arrogance gets the better of me, she says, “oh, you mean they can’t boil water?”
Comment by isabella mori
— January 3, 2008 #
Great Post! Fantastic perspective. I
Comment by Recruitnik
— January 4, 2008 #
Isabella- that’s a great story, and the inside joke is the best part. But I think the main point of the rule is when you cross your conditions i.e. you’re snooty even with a good waiter.
Recruitnik- thanks
Comment by Jacob Share
— January 4, 2008 #
yeah, but thanks to my daughter, i’m working on being gracious with un-gracious waiters, too … :)
Comment by isabella mori
— January 4, 2008 #
Unfortunately, this is so true !
there are also other “signs” of employers you will not want to work for:
1. an employer who asks what your payroll demands are (like they’re really going to pay what ever you ask for) this is a dirty ploy which will only get your name crossed off the applicants list. if you answer you are doomed. the best answer is that whatever is acceptable for this position for someone with your experience and credentials
by the way – any recruiter who starts a conversation with this question – forget it, there is no real job.
2. an employer who asks you what your salary was at your last place of employment – this is another dirty trick to try and get free info about what others are paying while if you answer you will never get more than what you say, even if the employer was initially willing to pay more and although it is a legitimate reason, never say that the pay was low as a reason for leaving.
3. employers that offer just above minimum wage salary and want it to be a global salary or make an issue about paying things they’re required to by law – havra’a or travel expenses…
Comment by Moshe
Twitter: @israpay — April 24, 2008 #
perfect ,im from lebanon
Comment by elie bassil
— September 24, 2008 #
Great advice. I especially like the waiter rule. I recently blogged about hiring professionals meeting with the receptionist to ask their opinion of a potential candidate after a job interview. It works both ways.
Comment by Barbara
— November 12, 2008 #
Barbara- Good insight and you’re absolutely right that there are waiter rules for candidates too.
Comment by Jacob Share
Twitter: @jacobshare — November 14, 2008 #
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