MMC Group Rude, Condescending Recruiters Irving, Texas

I was contacted to take part in a one day assignment and leading up to the start date I had been in contact with MMC Group several times to confirm. The day of the assignment I find out that my car wouldn't start so being that it was 6:00 in the morning (the office hours are 8:30am-5:30pm) I sent Liz Tedford, the recruiter in charge of the assignment, an email telling her of the situation and the need to take my car into the shop for possible repairs. Here is the e-mail:

Hi Liz, 
My apologies but I'm having difficulties with my car and will need to have it inspected. I don't know how long it'll take but I'll keep you updated.

Now keep in mind that my e-mail to her was sent at 6:05am, a full hour and a half before the assignment was to start. This is important when you look at her reply:

 And you didn't know yesterday that you're having difficulties with your car?   This is unacceptable and unfortunately we will have to mark in our system for unemployment reasons that you have to [Redacted Name] job opportunity.

Now, let's logically look at her response and see how this fits given the situation.

1. And you didn't know yesterday that you're having difficulties with your car?   

No. Fair-minded, rational and logically inclined thinking without pre-conceived bias would say had I known about an issue with my car yesterday I would've sent communication yesterday. I purposely sent communication an hour and a half early because I wanted to not be flaky and just not show up. Isn't that the entire reason why you send communication in advance? 

Furthermore, the comfort level shown by Liz in the reply decrees a forgoing of any sort of professional courtesy, so much so that not even a header was used--she replied as though we were friends, or worse, her position provided her the audacious notion that she was on a platform above me, the temporary employee, and therefore did not feel the need to return the kind natured tone I provided her in the email before. Real classy, MMC Group.

2. This is unacceptable and unfortunately we will have to mark in our system for unemployment reasons 

What exactly is unacceptable about having transportation issues, sending advance notice of such and hoping that even if I was not eligible to continue that assignment, given the wide berth of notice given I wouldn't be seen as an employee who was, in fact, flaky? Responsible enough to plan ahead and react in a manner most would consider above board? Clarification may be necessary but it seems here that Elizabeth "Liz" A. Tedford is either taking my name out of the pool of employees for future opportunities or that AND attaching a reason that would potentially bar me from receiving unemployment. Again, I'm not clear on what that phrase meant but it is still very ambiguously dubious to me. 

For the sake of transparency here is my follow up email that lead me to this point. I'm posting it because even though the good standing relationship between MMC Group and I has been irrecovably tarnished, I am a man of my word:

Liz, 

 

While I have no idea of what a" [Name Redacted] opportunity" is I understand that due to my transportation difficulties I cannot be considered for it. Considering I emailed you at 6:06am (more than a hour and a half before the scheduled start time) I'd just found out that my car was having trouble starting. Given that I even took time to contact you (again, well before the scheduled start time) shows that I had no intention of flaking on the position and was still open to coming should the repair be minor enough to allow it. 

 

That said, your apparent lack of empathy to a difficult situation is appalling; your inflected tone was unnecessarily crass and speaks volumes about the level of professionalism MMC Group has on display. Again, it is unfortunate that a situation easily corrected will end an otherwise fruitful relationship (as I have worked with the company in question before and would've accepted another one day opportunity had it been available) but your actions leave little choice. Equally unfortunate is that now I will have little choice other than to broadcast my negative experience via keyword-rich, search engine tractable content posted in various social media platforms. 

 

Best, 

To MMC Group's management, I sincerely hope that you see this as more than an ex temporary employee speaking his piece; I hope you see it as an opportunity to better acquaint yourselves with the quality of recruiter you employ and decide if recruiters with this kind of brusque, off-the-cuff mannerisms embody the company and brand culture you display to prospective clients and employees. At best I was set to make about $80 pre-tax today. What I learned in lieu of that paltry sum was worth way, way more. 

Thank you for reading my terrible experience with MMC Group (located at 105 Decker Court Suite 1100 Irving, TX 75062) and if you're either considering hiring employees through them or becoming an employee yourself I would seriously consider either going elsewhere or taking a good, long, hard look at the company, their practices and the people who fill their ranks because if this horrendous treatment can happen to me on a Friday for a one day assignment, imagine what could happen to you on a Monday when looking at a longer contract and time, money and quality are of optimum importance.