I will keep today’s blog brief. Brief because I am lazy. Brief because myself and many of you had a late night last night. For those not in attendance, last night was the Rice PowWow – New Zealand’s premier recruitment networking event. If the turnout is in anyway a barometer of the market, things are finally on the up. Couple this with the Reserve Bank slashing the OCR by 50 points and us recruiters might find ourselves eating Heinz and not Watties beans again. And to be clear, Heinz is the superior product – I don’t care what you think. This week I’ve been thinking about communication. Not so much what we say, but the methods we use to deliver our message. Once upon a time, we had a phone, a fax, and a letter. This was replaced with a phone, an email, and a text. Now, we have a phone, a text, an email, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Facebook messenger, Instagram, and Telegram. There are others, but I’ve personally been contacted by clients and candidates via all of the above. I’ve probably even received a Snapchat, but deleted the app once I realised it wasn’t the hotbed of booby flashes I was promised. That’s why of late, I’ve reduced the ways and times that people can get hold of me. One of the first things I did about 5 years ago was to turn almost all notifications off on my phone. If you email me, text me, send me a WhatsApp, or a Facebook message, I will not know unless I go to the apps to check. Does this make me harder to get hold of? Yes. Do I have more balance and sanity in my life? You bet.
This blog was partly prompted by an email I received a last week from LinkedIn informing me that I had a message from a recruiter I’ve been trying to pin down for about 5 years. Unfortunately, these emails only tell me that I have a message, not what the message says. Like a subscription dating app, LinkedIn lures me in to downloading the app with a “a horny single MILF in your area has sent you a message” type message. However, unlike every other recruiter, I don’t have the LinkedIn app. In fact, I have never logged into LinkedIn via my phone. Am I crazy? Probably. Have I enjoyed not spending my evenings messaging people on LinkedIn? Absolutely. Have I gained deeper connections by actually asking people about their life versus surreptitiously stalking someone’s profile under the table before even shaking their hand? 100%.
I used to be a contactable at all hours. Before I became a Dad, I never had any consideration around what time of day it was. Plenty of my business was conducted at 1am on a Friday morning in Danny Doolans. Receiving or sending a text at some weird hour was no drama. “You don’t have to read it” I’d tell myself. ‘Cept that’s the thing with texts. Unlike an email, which can be, and often is, disregarded until we log in on Monday morning, a text is often more pressing. And if it’s not more pressing, it’s more personal. A text could come from your mum, your sister, your lover, your drug dealer. There’s also the feeling that if you open an email on your phone, you’re inviting a vampire into your home. By clicking that icon, you accept that you may read something you don’t want to read, and be forced to do work you don’t want to do. You cannot complain about the consequences. A text is different. A text is actually worse than a call. Many of our candidates can’t talk openly during the day, so if one of these calls me at 6pm, I get it. I might not answer, but I get it. However, if you only want to text/sext me, you can do that at any time. Why not do it during working hours? And anyone who says they are too busy to text is lying. Men take 1.8 sh*ts a day (for women it’s 0.8). That’s plenty of time to fire off a text.
There of course exceptions. If you work in labour hire or business support, then the “on call” phone is your cross to bear. If a candidate or client is cancelling something that is to occur first thing the following day, then fair enough. If you want to apply for a job or communicate something that does not have to be dealt with there and then, then honestly, you really don’t have to text me during bath time. I’m not doing anything about it until the morning unless I am incredibly bored and lonely. And no one wants to deal with a bored and lonely recruiter. Trust me.
The worst texts to receive of course are those that ruin your evening. Typically, they don’t do it directly. The senders of these texts are far too clever for that. Saying “I’m pulling out of the process and won’t be attending the interview tomorrow” is disappointing, but at least we know where we stand. It is still possible to get a good night’s sleep after this. Instead, the masters of the art say things like “I’ve been thinking about things. Can we have a chat tomorrow?” or “Have you got time for a chat tomorrow?”. Now unless you plan on placing yourself into a medically induced coma for exactly 24 hours, everyone has time for a call (or at least a text exchange) at some point between 8.30am and 5pm Monday to Friday. There is no need to allude that the sh*t is about to hit the fan. Wait 12 hours, let ya man get a night’s sleep, and then fan will gladly meet sh*t. I’ve heard people justify these text by saying “Sorry – didn’t mean to disturb your evening. Just wanted to drop you a text whilst I remembered”. Well thanks! I’m glad to be your own personal post-it note. What other mental load would you like me to carry? How about your wedding anniversary or what day recycling gets collected?
So here’s the plan. Emails can be sent 24/7. Calls can be 8am until 7pm, but let’s not get offended when you get voicemail. Any other messages, 8.30am-5pm unless it’s truly urgent or we’re mates. Deal?
^SW
