Sunday, May 9, 2010

Can't Quit Dropping Names?

Last time I spoke of over quoting one’s previous employer and the amount of irritation it would generate among colleagues and superiors. However there can still be more ways of saturating one’s peers, one among them being inability to quit dropping names of references that pushed your case all the way through your orientation in the Company.

These days Companies look forward to recruiting a large chunk of prospective employees through employee referral scheme. What better way can they get to attract friends, relatives and acquaintances of existing loyal employees; to become a family of strong values. This means every second person joining the organization has been referred by somebody and times like this there are people who love to flaunt their references.

What people forget is that references can help as much as pushing one’s CV across the recruiting team, getting an interview fixed and to some extent bypass the background verification process (if the reference is strong and higher up the hierarchy). The rest of the story of a happy ending or screw up depends largely upon the individuals’ capabilities.

People who tend to drop names also forget the fact that those very individuals who are being quoted would very much be placed in the highest discomfort level finding their names being tossed around conversations and across board meetings. The discomfort level exists equally among other employees who find it disbelieving to be subjected to such influence levels.

It isn’t just the colleagues and people associated in one’s project that start keeping a distance; but the HR dept. also keeps a note of such boasting chaps. At the end of the day it’s the person who’s performing and no matter through which channel he/she lands in the organization; he/she can be shown the gates!

So if one thinks it’s fancy to show your connections and get privileges out of situations, think again – Are you performing or are you making enough background to be despised and cornered!