Business on Top, PJ Party on Bottom! Remote Employee Goofs.

Working from home can be great. It provides the flexibility so often craved in our over scheduled society. It allows you to save money on gas, dry cleaning and, wait, who am I kidding, dry cleaning? There are numerous perks to being a remote employee but my two big positives are no commute and more time with family. Since I started working from home I’ve grown surprisingly comfortable with video conferencing and in this global economy that is a big plus.

Working from home provides employees with a unique perspective of workday goofs. While you might not witness the hilarity of your co-worker missing his chair there are other spectacles unique to the virtual workforce. Some of my witnessed video-call goofs are:

• Sleeping dog suddenly passes gas, with audible force. (It wasn’t me!)
• A forgotten dirty pile of laundry peaks into view. (Why did I readjust my camera?)
• Your mullet attire….buttoned up top, pajamas on bottom, accidentally revealed. (No more standing to get something!)
• Your roommate comes strolling into your office to ask you a question, sans shirt. (Must invest in locks!)
• It’s your turn to speak and the phone keeps ringing. In a panic, you can’t remember how to silence it! (#$@!#$$~!)
• You click answer instead of ignore. That visual check in the mirror you needed is now replaced with explaining why you look like you just removed your finger from an electrical socket.

We all need reasons to laugh and goofs like these are definitely worth a chuckle. They might not be ‘box office smash’ funny but if Will Farrell was the victim of these fails, they just might be!

Box. Me. Outside.

"Think Outside Of The Box"

Probably one of the more annoying corporate phrases around, definitely one of the most overused. Although, now that everyone is outside of the box it might be edgier to just think inside of the box. More room.

I blab about this because when it comes to hiring, you got it, we need to think outside of the box. Sigh. I apologize but I had no choice! Now there are the regular channels we think of when hiring and those include:

1. Posting Jobs
2. Career Fairs
3. Reviewing resumes on job boards and in databases
4. Candidate Depot (I joke but oh how I wish it existed!)

Then there are the unconventional ways to find talent and get people aware of job opportunities. As a manager you know the role for which you're hiring better than anyone. You might not have all of the tools you want but there are definitely ways for you to get out there and drum up more interest in your roles. 

How? Well, I am glad you asked! Below is a list of other, unconventional, ways to find talent:

Social Media 

You can find diamonds through social media. It takes some savvy research skillz and time but if you are equipped with both, go for it! I would start with your personal Facebook network. You might not like mixing work with pleasure but don't you want to help your friends (or friends of friends) find better job opportunities? It's a win/win for everyone and I always appreciate when my facebook friends share jobs. It's also true that I will always share the opportunity to someone I think might be interested, always.

Networking Events

Looking for a marketer? Attend some local marketing events where active professionals are hanging around mingling with one another. Replace marketer and marketing with any other industry name and repeat.

Dating Sites

I'm sure you might find a few people who are embellishing their jobs, but it's also great place to look for people who are openly promoting themselves. I would recommend finding names and then look for another way to actually contact this person. Your fiance might not appreciate you contacting "candidates" through OK Cupid and HR might be squeamish too. Definitely use only as a source of name generation.

Tap into Top Talent's Networks

What's that other saying that is overused? Birds of a Feather Flock Together? It's true. If you're looking for UX Designers, odds are they know other UX Designers. It's pretty simple logic, yet, we often forget to ask those superstars we already have working with us!

Align with Marketing

Marketing events for your company are targeted towards the customer, right? Why does the customer and a potential employee have to be different? They don't. In fact, a customer might be a perfect employee since they're already a brand advocate. 

The main point is, always be recruiting. If you're going to get the best talent out there then you have got to keep your eyes and ears open at all times. Most likely they're right there in front of you.

The Golden Rule of "Candidate Experience"

Ever meet someone over 100 times and they never, ever remember meeting you? Introductions are redone and you all agree that it is, in fact, nice to meet each other. This kept happening to me in high school with my best friend's neighbor. Did he not notice the giant girl always with his neighbor or remember my witty jokes and the four pack of wine coolers we all shared? Honestly!

This type of self centered behavior has always intrigued me. It has no benefit to the narcissist and is rather confusing to the forgotten one. Really though, what were in his wine coolers?


My point is that there is no reason to make other people feel irrelevant or useless to you. It's rude and more importantly for those who care about their business, it just doesn't benefit anyone. Ah, yes, the candidate experience!

I don't think it's all too difficult to give candidates a decent experience while interviewing with your company. The "wow" experience might be a little more time intensive but a good experience is pretty simple, you need to:

1. Acknowledge the application - in today's world there is no excuse not to at least have an auto-message letting the candidate know their resume was received and will be reviewed. It would be excellent if we could contact everyone who applied but that isn't always feasible.
2. Schedule interviews in a timely manner - hiring managers might not realize it's been a week since the candidate last talked to them but the candidate sure knows. You risk losing them.
3. Send a rejection - I personally prefer rejection letters. I have called people to reject them and have sent letters. They both have their place.
4. Just be nice- don't act like they are lucky you are interviewing them. You're representing your company and no one likes a jerk.

I know there are a lot of other ways to make the candidate's experience even better but it's surprising how many companies don't follow those four basic rules.  It all comes down to the golden rule. Treat others the way you want to be treated. No one wants to be interviewed by a jerk who doesn't let them know they didn't get the job after they've been interviewing for a month.