Difficult days

It has been a difficult 36 hours.  Yesterday when I opened my work email there was a message from HR stating that I was disqualified for a Customer Service Manager position because my documents had not been received on time.  But they had, and I had an email confirmation that said so.  I emailed HR and didn't hear back.  Meanwhile, I'm hearing from others that also applied for the position that they had received the same message.  We were confused and getting pretty mad.  It turns out that about 12 of us had submitted a required form, only to find out the form was originally filled out incorrectly by HR.  Because we didn't catch the mistake, we were disqualified from consideration for the position. 

As the day wore on, our management got involved.  They suggested that we appeal our decision and gave us the phone number of the person to contact.  When I called, the guy must have been tired of repeating the same information because he wasn't at his best.  I tried to explain my position, but he wasn't interested in hearing it.  Since the position vacancy announcement had closed, he would not take a corrected form.  Nor would he accept any responsibility on the part of HR for the error.  Maddening.

I was so angry that I couldn't stop the tears. I had to take a walk around the back parking lot to get a grip on myself.  To be dismissed on a technicality that stemmed from an error not of my doing, really got me steamed.  I should have been able to be less emotional about the whole thing.  In reality, this isn't my dream job -- it is listed as second shift.  I won't go back to 3:30-12:00.  But I would have been willing to work a modified shift.  It seemed to be to be bureaucracy at its worse.  I couldn't shake the anger.

Towards the end of my work day, I wrote an email appeal indicating that the information that had been missing on the form was found on my enclosed performance evaluation, and the missing information of the required form wasn't in my control, therefore, please reconsider my application.  When I got to work this morning, the response was the same.  The job announcement stated clearly the form requirements and since my form lacked the information necessary, no action could be taken at this time.  Lesson learned, don't assume forms from HR are correct, and take ownership of all documents before hitting send. 

The one good thing that came out of the whole issue, is that I found out that on my status form, I was still listed as a conditional employee.  That should have been changed a year ago.  I was able to ask my HR person if that block could be changed from career conditional to permanent.  She made the change today and now all the information on my form is there and correct.

At the end of today, our Director did not act on the certificate of names for the position that she received and requested another vacancy announcement to start the process all over again.   That was brave on her part.  For she is in a lose-lose situation.  If she kept the list of names, the gossip mill would say that the person management wants made the list and therefore, they kept it.  The people that made the cut would get interviewed and that would be that.  Now that she rejected the list of names, the gossip mill is saying that the person management wants wasn't on the list so they had to throw it out and start again.  There might be people who made the list the first time who might not make it the second, if the list of candidates is stronger the second time around.  And they will be made and complain that the system wasn't fair.  Our Director can't win.  I'm happy that I get a second chance to prove myself.  I want to make the cut.  I want the interview practice and the chance to be considered.  It looks like I will get the chance.  If I do get the interview, then game on.