I don’t mind taking a job that has less responsibility.

My conversations with candidates have been quite sparse over recent week for obvious reasons but I am now back working as much as I can and so the volume has started to increase, and I am loving it! But this morning I had a chat with a candidate, and it reminded me of the candidate I placed 2 weeks ago. Both happy to have less responsibility than before, both still passionate about their career and both immediately available. If I’d have had these conversations in 2019 I might have been a bit more cynical about their choices and asked a few more questions but this time, both candidates were very clear that the right thing for them and their family is quite simply, to find the right job with the right people in the right company.

2020 has been utterly bonkers for everyone. Regardless of age, career choice, whether you are working or not, not one single person on the planet has had a normal year. Well maybe some random tribe in the Amazon might be OK but in the “modern world” we have all been affected by The C word. And here in the UK, as we come out of 8 weeks of Lockdown, we have possibly been faced with reassessing what is important in life and what simply does not matter. Our priorities have changed and in 2019 when I was desperate for a holiday, this year I am just desperate to hug my Mum, Stepdad, Dad & Stepmum. And my nieces. What we all thought was important has now changed. I could (if the body would allow) do a cartwheel every time I get a Tesco delivery for my self-isolating Mum who lives in a remote farmhouse, I get super excited when I complete a jigsaw puzzle and I grin like a Cheshire Cat when I clock 10,000 steps a day. We also may be more tolerant with some things but less tolerant with others, with no rationale, just because.

On VE Day last Friday, I sat down to my laptop at 9.55am and at 10am I watched a friends’ funeral. I watched his wife sit in a chapel with 4 other people. He and her, deserved so much more than 5 people at his funeral to show not only their respects, but the love and support that was there in bucketloads. Then 20 minutes after the service had finished someone in my street decided to play VE Day music at full blast, even through the 2 minutes silence. As neighbours and I sat out at 2pm for a cuppa, we could not hear each other talk from one garden to another. I simply lost my rag and marched over to the people opposite and told them to turn the music down as it was at an unacceptable level. A few months ago, I would never have wanted to upset a neighbour and my manner would have been much more apologetic. But my priorities have changed. My level of tolerance has changed, good and bad. You do not go through something as mega as a global pandemic and not learn from it.

So, when you are speaking to a candidate and they have changed what they are looking for, absolutely ask the right questions as to why they have changed. And if they’ve simply realised that life is too short & too precious to be in a job that they don’t like, where they don’t spend enough time with the people that they love, I’d say that speaks volumes about the person that they are. And I know I for one would want a person like that working for or with me. It does not mean that they care any less, it means that they care more. They are still dedicated to working hard for your business and your team, but their priorities have changed. And will they change back? Who knows? Maybe it is a chance you have to take or maybe they had their values wrong all along and they have finally found their true selves. I know which one I will believe and would take a chance on.  

Email: jo@winhurstrecruitment.co.uk

Tel: 0115 972 6513

@winhurstrec