Very important post - Robert Half & Age Discrimination

LeagleBeagle in Houston, Texas

I am a former Robert Half manager too. They can't keep people in the seats past lunch. They are clueless in the legal staffing industry and think their accounttemps/officeteam model of 125 calls and 12 visits solves everything. It's all about gross margin profit and NEVER about the candidate. They practice age discrimination with a secret coding system called AIP -- Attitude, Intellect and Placeability. High is 1 low is 5. Passed out a sheet in a training seminar saying to grade someone as a "4" who was a "matured worker." A clue--job orders are 3 numbers and a dash like 111- if the next number is a "9" it is a fake job order.

All of their jobs I have seen are numbered ###-"9" or ###-"1". Do they have any real jobs?

Interesting post. As a "matured worker", I found the facial expression of the "staffing manager" at Accountemps both informative and not-so-amusing when she
read my age. Calling to check my availability and to discuss one posting (which was already expired on the web), she had no clue even about the position's daily responsibilities. Pul-leeze! That's basic info. Accountemps exemplifies ATTITUDE, misrepresentataions regarding postions, and just plain typicaltemporary agency sleaze.

Lena in Austin said: All of their jobs I have seen are numbered ###-"9" or ###-"1". Do they have any real jobs?

THEY say they do, but I beg to differ!!!

Leigh said: Interesting post. As a "matured worker", I found the facial expression of the "staffing manager" at Accountemps both informative and not-so-amusing when she
read my age. Calling to check my availability and to discuss one posting (which was already expired on the web), she had no clue even about the position's daily responsibilities. Pul-leeze! That's basic info. Accountemps exemplifies ATTITUDE, misrepresentataions regarding postions, and just plain typicaltemporary agency sleaze.

WOW!!! I thought it was just my impression of the receptionist's attitude problem towards the grey haired candidate in the waiting room. She was so abrupt with the poor lady. She called back to one of the recruiters and you could hear her disgust. The poor lady was just trying to be proactive and find a job.

Lena in Austin said: All of their jobs I have seen are numbered ###-"9" or ###-"1". Do they have any real jobs?

I noticed the same thing that you did! I thought: "no way,this must be a mistake". But after reading what you wrote....!

Hang in there, something will show :)

Maybe elsewhere, but in my local office, not only do we not ask for age, we don't care. Many of my best candidates are twice my age, and I have never heard of anyone instructing someone to grade a "mature" worker as a "4." In fact, that is not only illegal, but we are trained vigorously to avoid such discrimination and would certainly be terminated if such were found to be true. I wonder if the poster in Rhode Island who claimed this goes on is only speaking for a particular, corrupt manager, or is just a disgruntled former employer spreading lies out of spite..?

Either way, even if true, it's not the norm.

Accountemps Staffing Manager said: Maybe elsewhere, but in my local office, not only do we not ask for age, we don't care. Many of my best candidates are twice my age, and I have never heard of anyone instructing someone to grade a "mature" worker as a "4." In fact, that is not only illegal, but we are trained vigorously to avoid such discrimination and would certainly be terminated if such were found to be true. I wonder if the poster in Rhode Island who claimed this goes on is only speaking for a particular, corrupt manager, or is just a disgruntled former employer spreading lies out of spite..?
Either way, even if true, it's not the norm.

Cecil Gregg's District started "Assure Your Success" Training in Houston where they danced in conga lines and "vigorously trained" as you say it their recruiting managers on the AIP system. Two of the blue-haired blondes from Office Team Health Care and Creative Group passed out AIP suggestions from 1 to 5 and A-D and 4 was "a fairly matured worker." Yes it's true! Robert Half is a great environment for someone who needs to be micromanaged and told how to do everything from pull out a chair to answer a phone. The statistics of turnover tell the truth. I have the Robert Half document saying to grade older works at 4 -- "Triple 1A's sound familiar California?" I know the internal vernacular and left in disgust at how little the training meant -- they only wanted to document that they gave lots of it. The quality of training meant nothing. Again -- be ware if you are older -- even though this girl claims they don't discriminate. Be ware of ANY job that starts with a 9 after a 3-digit and a dash.

Accountemps Staffing Manager said: Maybe elsewhere, but in my local
office, not only do we not ask for age, we don't care. Many of my best candidates
are twice my age, and I have never heard of anyone instructing someone to
grade a "mature" worker as a "4." In fact, that is not only illegal, but
we are trained vigorously to avoid such discrimination and would certainly
be terminated if such were found to be true. I wonder if the poster in Rhode
Island who claimed this goes on is only speaking for a particular, corrupt
manager, or is just a disgruntled former employer spreading lies out of spite..?

Either way, even if true, it's not the norm.

Maybe it isn't you personally, but I am registered with 5 different employment agencies and I get no where with them. The same problems with phone calls not being returned, playing pass the buck as to who is handle the job or "the position has been filled" or if I did get an interview and I followed up on it I get with no explination "they hired someone else". I'm sick of it.

Ditto! Not to mentionn the new one: they decided to go from within their company. I have heard that one twice!!! It is all a joke! I mentioned in another forum that a the woman answered the phone: "ok, ok, ok"- then "click"

I'd be aware of any position from them, PERIOD!

Age discrimination is joke anywhere. I am an older jobseeker, but with current software skills. Doesn't matter. If the guy/gal interviewing you across the table is a twenty- or thirtysomething, you are not likely to get hired unless you have some unique quality they need and is hard to find. The rest of us are "overqualified," which has become a code word for "too old."

I think most age discrimination litlgation now focuses on why employees were terminated, not in a company's hiring practices.

You want some back up for that, look at the company websites that ask for "voluntary self-identification." They ask 1. Ethnicity and 2. Gender always and 3. Veteran status and 4. Disability status sometimes. Why? To track statistics in case they get sued because of past court decisions that tended to put a burden on employers to show that out of so many applicants, they hired this percentage of women, that persentage of a particular ethnic group, etc. When have you ever seen them ask "Over or Under 40?", which is when the Federal statute on age discrimination kicks in? Never! If they were worried about getting sued for not hiring older workers, they'd be keeping track of how many over-40 workers applied so that they could prove they were not turning away a disproportionate number of them.

I went to Robert Half and Accountemps about 4 years ago, in Manchester, NH. I was 48 years old, with a BS Degree and 30 years experience (I worked in bookkeeping while I went to college nights). I waited all afternoon to be interviewed while 20-30 somethings in skimpy, sexy cloths were interviewed and sent on interviews (they make a big deal about the interview part for everyone to see).

When the Robert Half interviewer brought me in, the interview was short and nebulous. I am a fairly assertive person, so I asked what was going on. He said I was over qualified for anything they have but he'd let me know. I asked about the executive positions ($75-$100K) which I am NOT overqualified for. He balked but said they would test me. I took all of the tests, Accounting, QuickBooks, Secretarial even.

After my test was scored, the manager spoke to me. He said he said I scored higher on the tests than anyone they had seen in years---I scored in the very high 90's on each test---but that they just did not have anything for me now...

I said to him "Since I scored so high, how about sending me out on some of the interviews I heard you sending others on today?" He said he'd check and get back to me.

As I was about to leave the interview, I asked him to speak to me candidly and "off the record". I asked if he plannned to put me into the interview pool. He said probably not. I asked why? He said I am too old and even if I truncated my resume to appear younger and less experienced, he could not risk "wasting the employer's time" with older applicants. He needed to keep Robert Half in the forefront by offering employers what they wanted, which unfortunately was not older employees. I thanked him and left.

Robert Half is not the only employment agency or employer who does this. I truncated my resume and got an interview at Granite State Telephone. They turned my down for the job in the interview----before 3 minutes. They told me I was too old to fit in to their offic

Debi, I think that is horrible what they did to you. But I am not suprised. I had two former employers comment to me that they would not hire anyone older than them after interviewing 2 perfectly seasoned older applicants. One supervisor was about 32 and the other was about 57. They ended up hiring young women in their 20's. Both young ladies ended up not working out though, and these employers were looking for someone again after about only 6 months. They were back to the drawing board for finding someone "new". Sounds like poetic justice to me though.

Accountemps Staffing Manager said: Maybe elsewhere, but in my local office, not only do we not ask for age, we don't care. Many of my best candidates are twice my age, and I have never heard of anyone instructing someone to grade a "mature" worker as a "4." In fact, that is not only illegal, but we are trained vigorously to avoid such discrimination and would certainly be terminated if such were found to be true. I wonder if the poster in Rhode Island who claimed this goes on is only speaking for a particular, corrupt manager, or is just a disgruntled former employer spreading lies out of spite..?
Either way, even if true, it's not the norm.

All the training in the world does not mean that the staffing people do not discriminate. I have had similar experiences since I am a mature worker. I also believe that many of the jobs posted never existed. I have called about a job more than once that was posted on the website and called the day it posted and she said it had been filled. How could that be? Anyway, they were perfect fits for me too. I have given up on these people. I have met too many others who work for the same agency that have these same complaints. I have tried to talk to the manager and she just said "oh thanks for bringing that to our attention", good bye. This many a growing company but if they considered us (the workers) their customers instead of just commodities I think everyone would benefit. I am sure that there are some good staffing manager out there, but obviously very few.

I registered with AccounTemps in 2004 and the professionalism and honesty is totally different from when I registered and worked for them in 1997. I too am a mature worker and have often believed AccounTemps practiced age discrimination. Also, I now understand why they always made excuse when I called about some of their job postings online that I had the qualification for. They would say the job posted online had incorrect information and they are working with the employer to get the correct info. Here's another one.... they would say the salary posted online was incorrect and it does not pay as much as what is posted online. I now know that's because of the code they have on my file as being an older person.

I registered with AccounTemps in 2004 and the professionalism and honesty is totally different from when I registered and worked for them in 1997. I too am a mature worker and have often believed AccounTemps practiced age discrimination. I now understand why they always made excuse when I called about some of their job postings online that I had the qualification for. They would say the job posted online had incorrect information and they are working with the employer to get the correct info. Here's another one.... they would say the salary posted online was incorrect and it does not pay as much as what is posted online. I now know that's because of the code they have on my file as being an older person. And by the way the test scores of mine were very high. I took a microsoft access test and scored very high and the recruiter said he would give it to the manager on the Robert Half side, but I never received a phone call for a position. Weeks pasted and AccounTemps called me for an access database position and wanted me to come in and take a test and I asked them what happened to my test that I had previously taken and they said they lost it. I asked them how can you lose a test that's was taken on the computer and they said it's gone. I even expressed this information to the Division Manager at the Corporate office of Robert Half and she said their computers sometimes lose test scores. AMAZING!!!!

funny, an office team/account temp/robert half associate was telling me just yesterday how i was offered several positions but did not take them. hunh? my company was sold in 2006 why would i not want to work. he sadvised per the notes from his collegues that was i informed of avalable positions but declined to show up. If so, why would you keep offering a "no show" now I am deemed "unhireable".

that is a laugh. the dog and pony show at sign up was great but i have yet to hear from them except for this past phone call in 6 months.

DO NOT USE RHI UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!
This company looks out for themselves and profit ONLY! I have worked and been placed by them numerous times over the past fifteen years. I calculated that they have made approximately 30-45K in fees and contract buy-outs over the years and have damn near lost me permanent opportunities over their outrageous fee structure. Now they won't even return my calls or e-mails. RHI sent me an e-mail last week advertising positions for which I am qualified yet won't respond to my e-mail inquiries or voice mail. Does anyone out there know if they have a way of "coding" employees they don't want to use anymore? Is there a secret temporary employee sh-- list with RHI? Or are they just inept?

Robert half isn't unique in the age discrimination thing.

If we were smart we'd organize and target the organizations practice and stop buying there goods and services.

Like Gandi and King, no more laws please.

I have been having problems with the Birmingham office for YEARS. Ever since a new manager came in, it has been the run around. I believe I had personally offended her with trying to avoid certain types of cultures in favor for politically correct cultures and her being a "southern belle" of sorts. As an expert in the "investigative interviewing" (not job interviewing, think interrogation except the subject can leave), I have numerous red flags of activity that is illegal. I too have had ALL of my good test score lost and only the bad ones on file. Email messages interpretations twisted and changing stories. A technique called "investigative discourse" has also lined up a red flags of illegal practices. The RVP has her back in sideways maneuvers when contacted. It comes down to what they can and can not get away with and not what the law dictates. I market RHI to my friends and acquaintances as an avoid because they will not have their best interest. I am open with my story that brings in a negative view that I (in one case I know of) hurt their market share.

This morning, while counseling a new client, he mentioned that when he (finally) gets a call from someone from one of the thousands of resumes he has sent out into the universe, he always says the same thing to the person on the other end of the receiver. “I am 52, is that going to be a problem?”

I assured him that no HR professional who knows employment and hiring laws and has any sense of ethics would answer that question any differently than “Absolutely not! However, this call is simply a courtesy call for sending your resume to us; someone will get back with you if an in-person interview is required!” And, of course, he’ll never hear from them again.

The fact that he actually got a phone interview to begin with was a surprise since his resume was truly a mess; it was a concoction of various “cut and paste” wording and sections from bits and pieces of other resumes and wording he found while surfing; it was confusing to follow and made him seem, to the reader, unsure of where he wanted to be in his professional life. However, this client is a licensed, certified, well-educated, highly-trained, and experienced specialist in his particular field, so it is possible the few calls he has gotten were a result of that potential employer needing someone with his credentials, however unappealing they may have been presented. But bringing up something he has absolutely no control over in life and that he is clearly bothered by is not going to win him any place on the “Let’s call this guy in for an interview!” pile.

Everyone is insecure about something – at some point in life. If you don’t feel you are “too old” to get hired, maybe you feel like you are too young! (Think you are perhaps too inexperienced to land that managerial job?) Maybe you think you are too heavy, too short, or too educated.

Whatever the insecurity or fear is, leave it at home when you go to that interview or answer that phone. No one knows what you are thinking or feeling about yourself unless you articulate it or show it in your body language.

No matter what the issue is for you, remember, you are applying for a job that probably doesn’t require someone to be a certain height, a certain weight, or a certain age. Unless you are wanting to be a jockey, a model, or an NFL player, what matters most is the “essence” of you that comes through in the phone conversation/interview.

Sell yourself on the phone and you’ll snag that in-person interview.

Remember, some things in we life we have absolutely no control over (like our age, our nationality, and what other people think, say, or do!) You can’t change your age, but you can certainly change your attitude!

Embrace where you are right now in your life!