Like toothpaste in a tube, once you click “Send” on an Email you can’t get it back.  Ever type an Email that is disparaging to another person or company and then accidently sent it to that person or company?  Well, I have never done that one to that degree, but I just had it done to me.  After my initial anger, disbelief, and short bout of depression (lasted about 30 minutes),  I began to analyze the situation.

I, of course, used the situation to my advantage but I delved even further.  The sheer devastation that this could or may have presented to thier company caused me to pause and wonder how this could have been prevented from the senders stand point.  I do not want my snap emotional responses to end up like this persons.  So, I analyzed every word and punctuation.  Then I analyzed day and time of email and the situation.  The email was sent early in the morning on a monday apparently after a business trip.  I believe it was a business trip because the auto reply was the same for other people I included on the original email.  The original email was an attempt to get a response for someone, anyone because voice mails and email went unanswered. 

I was angered because I was referred to as a GUY and they did not even use my position or name.  I was also portrayed as a desperate vendor trying to retain a client (partly true, but my client asked us to get involed anyway and they knew this).  What threw me into depression was the fact that I was referred to as an “pain” and it was also intimated that we were already the “old” vendor.  Very hurtful email if sent to the wrong person, which it was.

I have been trying to think of what I did wrong (very common thing to do if you truely care about others) and could not think of one.  I only called and emailed two to three times in a two month period!  So, I began to think of this persons situation and how did they get to the point of getting up all over me.  For starters, it was a Monday.  Enough said about that, but I do know many people who like Mondays.  He must of had a ton of email being gone at some trip for several days and that can be a daunting task to get through all of them.  When in that situation people tend to delegate and task out stuff as much and fast as possible with little attention to detail (inter office detail can be worked out later, just get through them all).  The person the email was intended for was also on the same business trip.  So I imagine this was a buddy to buddy type of communication lacking tact and compassion of any type. 

Because I was trying to solicit a response, I had used some strong language as to competence and intent with a soft finish opening a door for communication.  This approach obviously worked, just not the way I would have wanted it to work.  How this works for me is that the person who was trying to throw me over the bridge are trying to gain my client (we are not in the same industry but we compliment each other).  This could have been a good situation to learn from each other how to best work for the client.  I do not believe this person has done a very good job for thier company because they apparently do not value the client more than they value themself.  Someone who can so easily disregard a positive potential will rarely have the advantage – in anything.  My guess is that this person has lost many opportunities that they do not even know about. 

In conclusion, if this person would have responded in a honest, humble fashion I would not have ratted him out to the client.  I may still have to work with them and I am sure there are great people in that company, but I will be wary until I see evidence to the contrary.  When you come in on mondays and after a vacation or business trip, have a couple cups of coffee, talk to a few coworkers about your trip or weekend and laugh a little before you settle into catching up on email.  You’ll have a better chance of doing it from a happy, grateful heart.

Thank God that was not me who sent the email (wouldn’t happen though, I have a happy heart)!

And you know, I have still not heard back from them and they know they sent it to the wrong person because I told them so.  If it was me, I would falling all over myself to fix this one.

     Ever have that client or department that needed that background done yesterday? Yeah, I get that one alot. So, how do you get that background done yesterday?  Prepare for it the day before yesterday by having a solid policy and direct connection to your customer service representatives. Lets face it, when it comes to the background industry the information returned is a commodity, but the firm that you deal with can greatly reduce turn around time and errors.

     It has happend many times where the information passed to us (Allied Information Resource, Inc.) may be suspect, but we have processes in place to verify and check the information given to us is usuable. If the information is not usable, then prompt communication will save time and provide a good background check/verification.

     Lets say that the information passed is perfect. Now timing is determined on when the information passed. Entering information into an online system is a good way to go. Faxing represents possible Client/Firm issues that can unfairly strain relationships for both parties.  Online is better because it lowers entry issues and both Client/Firm know when an order was placed.  Most importantly, it is the time of day that the order was placed.  Like everyone else, court researchers get up first thing in the morning, grab their orders and head out to the courts.  They sometimes go two and three times a day depending on work load.  Because the courts are a government office, they tend to close earlier and also have furlough days (due to current economic conditions). 

    What does this mean?  Simple, early bird gets the worm.  Putting into place a routine where the background is placed as soon as possible, even before they leave the office.

Yeah, Right!

     I know quite a few people in the HR industry and your jobs are tough.  You may have ten people applying, a client on the phone and some background agency asking for more information and then there is the email piling up, oh and don’t forget to sell something while your at it.  The goal of an vendor should be to fit into your organization at your speed and the “at your speed” thing is critical.  If a vendor does not understand you then how can they help you.

How can I help?

A resource for HR professionals in case they didn’t know.  This seams a little early for major elections but this refers to all voting days.  HR beware!

State-by-state list of employee Election Day rights.

A short list regarding E-verify.  You may already know these if you have government contracts.

Feds answer 5 tricky E-Verify questions.

The long and the short of it is that if you do business with the Feds you will eventually have to use E-Verify.

This article seems good but I don’t think it will last.

Half of laid-off workers finding new work — and many are getting paid more.

I guess I am a pessimist, but when I look at the next three years I do not see any indicators that this economy is going to get better.  I place a lot of that pessimism on the current administration.  If this administration continues to create a hostile environment for the small businesses in America, then this is going to get worse.  I have two reasons for this pessimism.

First, we still have three and five year arm loans coming due and if we do not address those there is another wave of foreclosures coming.  There seems to be a lot of action by the administration and private companies to stem the fallout.

Second, the current Healthcare reform proposal leans heavily on the small business to pay for their employees’ healthcare.  Small business can only combat this with lower wages and putting the costs back on the employees.  This will lower the amount of free spending that has been going around and there will be more large businesses closing stores due to lack of spending.  Store closures will raise the unemployment and so forth and so on.

More taxes on the small businesses and people of this country will doom it to third world status.  I know that’s extreme but the only way I see us getting out of this with our pocket books and freedom is to lessen the burden on the public and businesses.

Help me out with this.  I want to see the sun through the trees.  Am I wrong?