Posted on 03/19/2006 9:23:08 PM PST by Graybeard58
In interviews with a job candidate last year, Deborah D'Attilio, a recruiting manager in San Francisco for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, was surprised when the young woman brought a companion: her dad.
Saying ''he was interested in learning about the work environment,'' the father sat in the lobby during the interview, D'Attilio says. She didn't hold it against the candidate and wound up hiring the young woman.
Hovering parents are going to work. From Vanguard Group and St. Paul Travelers to General Electric and Boeing, managers are getting phone calls from parents asking them to hire their 20-something kids. Candidates are stalling on job offers to consult with their parents.
''It's unbelievable to me that a parent of a 22-year-old is calling on their behalf,'' says Allison Keeton, director of college relations for St. Paul Travelers. Like most employers, Keeton handles such encounters diplomatically. Some employers, however, are also adapting by altering some parts of the hiring process, sending parents copies of offer letters or including them in recruiting sessions.
General Electric made an offer to one recruit last fall, only to get a call the next day from the recruit's mother trying to negotiate an increase in pay, says Steve Canale, manager of recruiting and staffing services. GE didn't rescind the offer, but ''we didn't give in to Mom'' either, Mr. Canale says. Rich Hartnett, director of global staffing for Boeing, says one hiring manager was surprised when a recruit brought his mom right into the interview. Enterprise's D'Attilio says the mother of another recruit joined a phone call between her and a candidate and began grilling D'Attilio about benefits.
Some employers play along
Figuring they can't beat the trend, some employers are joining it. Ferguson Enterprises, a Newport News, Va., building-supplies distributor, last year started offering to send a copy of recruits' offer letters to their parents, says Denise Francum, director of recruiting; ''more than half of them say yes.''
Some young adults will resent parental hovering. An online poll of 400 students and young adults last year, by Experience Inc., a Boston career-services firm, found 25 percent said parents were ''overly involved to the point that their involvement was either annoying or embarrassing.''
That's an ideal, not yet a fact. By the way, I wish you well and your children success in life.
If she hadn't burned his lucky suit we would have gotten it.
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