Hypothetically, a zero-hours contract, it is

Benched and unsubstituted

He reads with a wry smile the many congratulations that greet the announcement of being engaged in a new role beneath which is a story generally untold of process and procedure that confers invisibility and humiliation on the subject affected.

In a similar engagement just 5 years before, an associate role gave contract terms of 100% billing for client assignments and where there were no assignments you were benched at 50% of your daily contract rate. It placed the onus on the organisation to ensure that he spent as less time as possible on the bench, for they had to find him billable work to do.

That bench rate disappeared from associate roles after a year, and then responsibilities shifted in radically consequential ways. Now, he could be on contract but without a client assignment and hence, nothing to bill; effectively there is no income.

It was not working for him

Without rewriting the general terms of engagement, the apparent flexibility and fluidity the new construct brings would be ideal if he did not have to revisit the employment market, it is however exceedingly precarious, there was a period that engagements fell from 90% utilisation to 55% utilisation year-on-year that it was prudent to exit that arrangement.

They decided to reignite the associate relationship recently where the matter of full engagement was discussed at length and assurances were given that projects abound for him to rotate other full-time employees out of roles for longer stretches of time. These were convincing enough to lay trust in the prospect, there was work on offer.

After a presentation and discussion that constituted an interview, a contract engagement was offered as he was assigned to a manager who was yet to begin in his role. The scheduled start date of two weeks time was moved back a week because onboarding processes were ahead of the organisational line of management.

More snags and frustration

Then the proposed assignments with clients could not be taken up because they were of a security-sensitive nature for which enhanced vetting was required and the agency that should have immediately transferred the security status would only offer to share it and that would take months to conclude, even as the term of its validity was running out. This was besides the fact that there was no contracted activity with a sister executive agency he was assigned to for over 4 months already.

Now, having confirmed that the assignee had the necessary clearances even if not in possession of the new sponsor, this should have sufficed, but it took a barrage of pleading emails to engage that thought process and by then, the opportunities being considered for had slipped away.

Zero hours with style

Whilst a valid contract without client assignment seems to break you out of a stretch of unemployment, the critical element of earning an income is lost in the circumstances such that even the agency that facilitated the contract has abandoned the contractor in frustration and resignation.

The many times I have read about ‘zero-hours contracts’ I thought it was redolent of gig-economy stints, piecework, or on-call job roles where you were engaged but not guaranteed any work, along with other strictures that engender such contracts. You never consider this can apply to technical and specialist roles that pay well on an assignment, but nothing at all when not assigned to a client.

Some may suggest, you are at liberty to find other work and return to this associate role when available, it seems an ideal quite different from experience. The only apparent change to the situation is he does not have to undergo the interview and onboarding process anymore, he has everything to be assigned an immediate role, but until then, he is on the most sophisticated castle-in-the-sky highly remunerated zero-hours contract.

Each hour he is still scanning the job boards to send his CV and a cover letter still applying for a role in mid-December. It is going to be a cold lonely Christmas with little to cheer about if nothing changes soon. Bills due, rent due, what a sordid tale, it is. 

I make no apology

Angry about contractors?

Attending a broader departmental meeting yesterday morning, someone anonymously posted a message in the Q&A section of the presentation with the following premise. That the agency had hired contractors at highly inflated salaries who worked less and had no responsibilities thereby leaving the agency hamstrung on recruiting actual staff.

Many were in agreement with the comment, but it was one viewpoint that could not be left to slide. I have been contracting since 1995, in fact, I was persuaded to go contracting my then CIO who felt that there would never be full utilisation of my wealth of knowledge, and I would easily be frustrated in a permanent role.

For the season, for a reason

In all the years of my being a contractor, I have felt no less equal to the task along with feeling an integral member of the teams I worked in. To address the comment, I wrote, “Contractors are actual staff, albeit temporary, they have been engaged by the agency to help fulfil the goals being discussed the in the conference and that it was quite unhelpful to create an us-and-them situation where we should be banding together.” Soon, I had more agreeing with me than those who did with the original posting.

Contractors get a bad rap, usually through no fault of their own apart from the few rouge ones. We are paid competitively negotiated market rates which might seem high, but we fundamentally cost less in administration, overheads, and management, whilst bringing in skill, expertise, and other perspectives.

We do not have the employment benefits of permanent staff along with burdening the employers with fiduciary requirements by law and other statutes. The arrangements are neat, allowing for clean breaks by mutual and individual arrangement. The establishment so easily terminates the contract as they can renew or recall after a break of working there.

No apologies, none at all

As per my own experience, I am there to contribute and regardless of the tendency to differentiate staff status, many industries need all kinds of staff and everything is down to need, skill, experience, demand, negotiation, and the ability to get involved with the people you work with.

Now, if anyone thinks contractors are paid too much, in a free enterprise world they can also decide to become contractors rather than chafe at the choices of others on the one hand and the market requirements that create the need for such personnel on the other hand. What I will not brook is the denigration of contractors, nor would I apologise for being a contractor. So there!

Work from home does not make you a dullard

How things have changed

In conversations with an ex-colleague, I was amused to learn of some exploitation of engagements being contemplated by certain clients employing freelance consultants.

During this pandemic, the employment market is a bit fraught, for some, they are well placed to take on interesting opportunities and certain circumstances have closed up availability that competition is keen. What this can do is weaken both the resolved and bargaining clout of the consultant as they have to weigh the options amongst the various choices.

One given change to the workplace dynamic is working from home or working remotely. People are only going into the office if there is no way that they can do their work from home. I, for one have never visited the premises of my office since I took on this role in May and it is unlikely I will for the term of my contract.

Home and away, the same

Whether working from home or in the office, the same expertise is still required to do the job. For subject matter experts, what they are hired for is knowledge, know-how, and experience, bringing much of their wealth of insight and ability to bear on situations in the environment where they are engaged.

What I have heard is some clients are considering paying a lower rate to consultants who are working remotely, maybe in the misguided view that unsupervised consultants who cannot be micromanaged with some jobs worthy manager watching over their shoulders to ensure they are mercenaries to the core mean a loss of productivity.

This forgets that consultants are by and large professional and dedicated to getting things done effectively and efficiently. My further argument is that consultants are paid for their expertise regardless of where they are working from. A consultant is not suddenly a genius at work and a dullard at home.

The skill is the deal

I have not heard that permanent staff will be subjected to this stupid idea, not that it can happen without a fight, a dirty one at that. In fact, if you do expect a consultant to come into the office during this pandemic, you should be paying danger-money. The organisation I work for had over 500 COVID-19 infections in the time from September to January with one death registered. I fall into a vulnerable group, so, I cannot attend the office at all.

One thing I know is that I have been able to do my job remotely as best I can within the strictures of the permissions and rights that have been awarded. I hope that alone makes me worthy of my remuneration and hopefully is a testament of a good workman that no one will countenance an idea so reprehensible and expectant of utter and complete repudiation.

In form for more forms

Back to form of forms

Gathered strangers of situation and circumstances from all walks of life seeking new relevance in the world of work.

Under the tutelage of some who for reason and opportunity find a calling in what they do as opposed to what they could do if they cared little.

Yet, they are all caught in the maelstrom and spectrum of ability that ranges from the talentless in other departments to the talented in company, the impartations sometimes useful or sometimes useless.

Tumbled by slumber

Forms ruled the day as time fillers and occupational activity, but one whose slumber interrupted his ability to keep pace was sent to his bed with much agitation, his bad luck, a result of his not being able to keep his eyes open.

Maybe he should have declared Human African trypanosomiasis as a condition, but he did not look African, probably he was a somnambulist and the course leader might have been a bit lenient, but the class being held back meant progress was too slow to retain any patience.

There is no shame is saying you have sleeping disorder, there are therapies and help available to those who recognise their frailties, but that is by the by.

Interesting insights

The discussions, lively, funny and humorous, the time passed with periods of boredom helped along with engagement and banter, sometimes skirting the risqué but never offensive – friendships can grow from this.

Why do you want this job?

What skills do you possess that makes you the right person for this job?

Apparently, those two questions are essentially the same question phrased differently and can be asked at different ends of the interview with the interviewer expecting similar rather than different answers.

In closing

However, one should hope that interviewers are not rigidly schooled in particular expectations without the flexibility to assess the total person beyond the rote of function and conformity.

A few more hand-outs, the polishing up of the marketing literature and the mandated requirement was completed to satisfaction with a certificate to boot.

Here is to better luck, favour and good fortune in the next endeavour.

Sent on a fool's errand to possible frustration

Like a fool’s errand

At a government mandated training course this morning where the disconnect between all related departments became so apparent that it was laughable, the dead hand of government protocols landed with a thud before us.

The question was whether any of the participants knew why they had to attend the course on advice and instruction of their advisors, for literally all the answers given, none was close.

Persuade to dissuade

The referral office was just ticking boxes without knowledge of the reasons to tick boxes, as each answer ranged from helping to write CVs, finding work for long-term unemployed, interviewing technique tips and useful preparations for work.

Surreptitiously, part of the purpose of sending people for this course is to frustrate them off the welfare roll and at least one of the attendees disappeared the moment the group broke up for the first break session.

To the market with the marketable

However, in the midst of the mundane and rudimentary, there are nuggets of wisdom, clues as to how people can alter their outlook and mind-set, leading to gainful employment.

Fundamentally, a CV is marketing literature; it is the means of selling yourself to the market. A market seeking talent and expertise you may possess.

The CV should create enough curiosity to excite interest, but it should never be overloaded such that there are no discussion points to give depth and detail to the ability and personality of the person.

The demeanour to project

We rise to challenges thrown our way in everyday walks of life but that boldness and confidence with which we effortlessly tackle problems seems to be lost at interview.

It is important to act naturally, being oneself rather than trying to impress thereby giving rise to nervousness, one of the factors indicative of poor interview technique.

Blessed at the font of the double page

The advice whilst useful could be quite prescriptive as preferred fonts being Garamond or Verdana, set headings providing uninspiring structure, page setups with set margins or that a CV must never exceed two pages with the employment history restricted to five years except for security or artistic roles.

For information technology roles, the suggestion is to use LinkedIn to document the other roles or have a webpage containing that detail.

Some things

Avoid clichés like ‘hard-working’ or ‘customer service skills’ in the profile because people are expected to be hard-working regardless, and customer service skills are innately functions of a person’s respect for others, acting courteously, politely and with a friendly disposition – you either have it or not.

Besides all this, forms, yes, many forms filled to the point of distraction but with the challenges, opinions, reviews, assessments and the ideas, it really was not a wasted day. Another day of observation and participation is set for the morrow.

Thought Picnic: Discussions with recruiters of my ire

Don’t they just irk you?

Daily, one is presented with opportunity for some decision-making as to whether it would be worthwhile or just another waste of time.

Here, one has to engage with supposed professionals who do not bother to skim talk less of read the profiles they have harvested off the Internet before they are on the telephone to suggest a general consider become a corporal for their convenience and in the hope that the general has no guiding principle apart from a mercenary quest for filthy lucre.

Half this stuff amounts to adding insult to injury as one bites the tongue to avoid the much deserved expletive if you are wont to being that expressive without reservation.

It is no favour

The other day, the conversation went along the lines of the recruiter hoping to negotiate on my behalf whether the employer will up the rate from 50% of what I am currently on to possibly 60% - the effrontery.

Without being as terse as I was at rights to become, I informed him that there was no need to negotiate because we were nowhere near the spectrum of acceptable remuneration to give it any consideration apart from the fact that he should not be deluded into thinking he was doing me a favour when he was not recognising my particular interests.

The conversation ended as I drew a sharp intake of breath at having to run the gauntlet of the most atrocious engagement I have had in quite a while.

Get me the job first

In other cases, these people want to have references long before they have committed to anything, I have come to the knowledge that they use that to obtain names of contacts they can harangue for other positions they want to fill.

I do not want to bother my referees for references if the job is not yet in the bag that when my referees ask at some future time they realise it has been a waste of their time, I have many times been embarrassed by this that I have been firm – get me the job first and references will follow.

Building solid bridges

However, the best legacy one can leave at the completion of a contract is the willingness for your ex-colleagues to have you return to work with them if another opportunity arises.

I might well be that within a week of completing one tenure that started as a 6-week engagement and ran for 2 weeks short of 5 months, they might want me back if the funds can be sorted out – a bit of waiting as I brush up on some theory and practice, I am amazed about what new stuff I have learnt of what I was doing before – I am ready to go. That’s excitement.

Nigeria: MegaNet Resource Limited isn't getting better at this

Address the improper tithe

The MegaNet Resource Limited (MRL) saga continues as changes are made to their website and more emails come into my possession with atrocious grammar and excuses that still do not address some of the fundamental questions I asked in my first blog.

For all that MegaNet Resource Limited has written to date; they have not touched on this particular portion of their original letter.

“Note that, there will be a reduction of 10% of your salary for the first month which will be in a written agreement between you and MegaNet Resource Limited, after that you will have no business with us.”

A justification cannot be found

I am yet to understand the reason and justification for filching the tithe of the applicant’s first month’s salary and whether the clients that have presumably engaged MRL are aware of this arrangement made as part of the contractual process of engaging new employees.

This arrangement is not only improper, it is reprehensible and no organisation should be party to having recruitment agents dip into the salaries of new recruits as the compensation for recruitment services.

A strange medical

I am still not happy with the idea that applicants need to pay up front for a medical before consideration when what should happen is that applicants first get a provisional offer subject to passing a medical examination wherein the offer becomes substantive leading to a probationary period of work that might include inductions and training.

As for the latest letter to come into my possession I will suggest MegaNet Resource Limited find another language for business in which they can be grammatically correct and plausibly coherent, this is a shame.

An “English” letter?

From: MegaNet Resource Ltd

Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2013 06:50:55 +0100

To:

Subject: Chat Rescheduleing

Dear Applicant,

Your recent chat invitation with the HRM of MegaNet Resources Limited has been rescheduled to 5th March 2013 (Tuesday) as a result of the questions and answers that arouse from the invited applicants that was were selected for a CHAT with the HRM in other order to verify the credibility of the company/job due to the FACT that a N2, 200 (Medical Fee) was imposed on them.

We are a Human Resources Consulting Organization with RC 1523321. Our head office is located at 26, Church Rd [Which I note is once again different from 26, Alagomeji Street, Church Rd. And different from the address that was there yesterday – can these people get anything right?], Ikorodu Lagos State. We recruits for banks and Industries Nation Wide, but right now we are recruiting for Unilever Nigeria Plc.

A questionable ploy, still

The reason why the N2, 200 Medical fee was imposed on you is for a Medical Test that is compulsory we carried out on every qualified Applicant we are to post to Unilever Nigeria Plc. and the money can’t be paid at the venue because Unilever does send an investigative panel to monitor the recruitment exercise and we wouldn't like a situation whereby they will think we are extorting money from applicants. The purpose of this chat is to screen the original copyies of your credentials before being posted.

Under normal circumstances, you are supposed to be given a written test then an interview follows, but due to the urgency of the request of for staff from Unilever Nigeria Plc we couldn’t achieve this that is why your CV/NYSC certificate was randomly screen regionally and an invitation was sent to 40 qualified 40 applicant Nation Wide knowing full well that as a Nigerian Graduate you will be able to cope with since an in house training that will be giving given to you.

Therefore, if you are one of those that was selected I will advise you to pay your medical fee and follow all instructions been giving being given to you oin the previous invitation letter to enable us to complete the recruitment process. It’s for your good and ours.

Yours Faithfully,

Dorcas Bode

Sec. [Now the secretary has upended the Human Resources Manager?]

Phew!

Bunglers beyond belief

After all the blogs I have written about MegaNet Resource Limited and the actions they have taken to-date, we can safely say they are bunglers of the first order, unprofessional to a fault and incapable of paying attention to meticulous and essential detail.

We met here with a situation where a company that may well be genuine has operated on the fringes of legality that it is almost impossible not to consider their speciality scamming.

When I compare they are doing to the activities of a similar but better organised recruitment activity by TrippleLink Global Solutions Limited who are organisers of the National Recruitment Fair 2013, MegaNet Resource Limited plays charlatan without dispute.

Pages, charges and videos

That is not to say I do not have some issues with the TrippleLink enterprise considering they have a website that has no detail of their business especially no indication of their Upcoming Events.

If you are going to put a webpage up as a business, make sure it promotes what you do rather than show your business practices as sloppy, uninspired and amateurish.

They will also be charging N3000 for applicants to attend, however, that would be for conference materials and other needs at the fair.

Then as we pay tribute to the inferiority complex that so easily impresses us of foreign things, they published a YouTube video that includes a Text-to-Speech voiceover with an American accent. Shame on them.

The MegaNet Blogs

Nigeria: MegaNet Resource Limited has all the trappings of a scam outfit

Nigeria: They Came to Bury MegaNet Resource Limited

Nigeria: MegaNet Resource Limited and Flights of Fancy

Nigeria: MegaNet Resource Limited and Flights of Fancy

If...

If what we end up doing with regards to MegaNet Resources Ltd (MRL) is force it to stop operating like a scam outfit that it polishes up its act to start operating like a professional recruitment services company, then we would have achieved something for the business landscape in Nigeria.

Besides that, it will become a greater benefit for MRL in the long run and we who have scrutinised, criticised and excoriated their practices can come to a point where we might deign to praise it as the most improved Nigerian recruitment firm by reason of social media activism, but we are a long, long way from that prospect.

What I find interesting is that since we published our misgivings about MRL, they have begun to put up a web presence and started to answer some questions, many of which I say are quite unsatisfactory, but these are early days yet. I have time for this matter and I will devote time to it.

Meganet Resource(s) Limited

In the 3^rd of March 2013, a week after my blog, they launched a website, a blog where they have attempted to present a professional front that looks like props of a desperate outfit fighting for some respectability.

Apparently, as they claim, they have been in business since 2009 and are involved in Staff Management, Professional Resourcing, Talent Management and Fleet Management services.

Herein is my confusion, is it MegaNet Resource Limited (singular) which appeared 4 times in the original email that brought on my first blog about this outfit being a scam or MegaNet Resources Limited (plural) which now appears on the website and it makes you wonder how the Human Resources Manager (HRM) could have gotten the name of his company wrong 4 times in addressing applicants.

Threats?

Then, I only had two comments to my original blog which were addressed in a following blog, however, agents and/or clients of MRL have been more active on this blog, claiming MRL is a genuine business concern and threatening the writer of that blog for making them lose an opportunity for a job prospect.

Address to no place

My second problem is with the Contact Details – They claim to have this address –

MegaNet Resources Limited.
Church Rd. Alagomeji Street,
Ikorodu, Lagos.
P.O Box 67430,
Lagos State.

According to comments in the other blog, MRL is based in Ikorodu town which is to the East of the Lagos metropolis but I have a problem getting my head round “Church Road, Alagomeji Street”, a road on a street, anyway, let us not belabour a point, I can only find Church Street, Ikorodu on Google Maps, all the other permutations of Church, Alagomeji, Road and Street do not seem to have been documented by Google Maps for Ikorodu town.

Then they claim to have a Post Office Box, but no letter will arrive here because a letter has to arrive at a post office box at a particular locality, the way that address is written, it is not referring to a post office box in Ikorodu town or in the sprawling metropolis of Lagos but in Lagos State.

You have to ask if they hired idiots to do this. How can a business not be able to present its visiting address and postal address in a sensible coherent fashion that does not make it look suspicious? These are charlatans whose every attempt at gaining respectability exposes them as worse, they should have kept their peace.

Who is touching you up?

Next, they provide a reason for why they are charging for the medical examination which they say is compulsory. Their words: “The N2,200 is for a Medical Examination that is compulsory we carried out on every qualified Applicant we are to post to our client company and the money can’t be paid at the venue because some of our client company do send an investigative panel to monitor the recruitment exercise and we wouldn't want a situation whereby they will think we are extorting money from applicant. The purpose of this chat is to screen the original copy of your credentials before being posted.”

I will not bother myself with grammatical corrections but if their client checks to ensure they are not extorting money from the applicant, does the client known that the applicant signs away 10% of their first month’s salary as part of the chat where original copies of credentials are examined? Whose account is that 10% paid into?

MD, we need you now

The moneys are paid into the HRM’s account because, “Is for easy access of fund to pay our medical expert because the MD is not around at the moment to sign a cheque for withdrawal of fund from the company's A/C and the request of staff from our client company is very urgent.”

This is interesting because it makes you wonder of the medical expert who might well not be a qualified medical doctor will be touching up people as if to give them a clean bill of health or even fail them and still walk away handsomely rewarded.

This should be a business to business transaction; the reputation of MRL should be such that the medical expert knows they will get their money from the company because whenever the Managing Director returns, all bills will be made good.

Charlatans

The more I look at it; even charlatans running an outfit on a shoestring will probably do a better job. Should there not be signatories to the company account and why does it not involve the accountant? Too many questions arise as to how MRL is run and by whom.

Again, from what I said at the beginning, Meganet Resources Limited has a long way to go for its activities to be viewed as professional, their rather limp effort leaves much to be desired. I am not out to get MRL but an organisation that fails to get its house in order will be a subject of public ridicule.

Do I think MegaNet Resource(s) Limited is a scam? – It looks like one, it operates like one and I have not been convinced it isn’t one. 

Nigeria: They Came to Bury MegaNet Resource Limited

Speaking up for MegaNet Resource Limited

Within 5 minutes of each other today I received comments pertaining to the blog I wrote four days ago about MegaNet Nigeria Limited.

I had good reason to think and suggest that the outfit was a scam and I laid out my case as to why it had all the appearances of a confidence trickster’s front to fleece people of their meagre means in return for an unconfirmed and improbable posting with Unilever Nigeria Plc.

Chinedu wrote: “Meganet Resource Limited are not scammers, my brother got a job through them. According to him he said the job was a contracted one been given to Meganet Resources Limited from an insider in the said company. Investigate properly before writing.”

Tosin then wrote: “Is it every job that requires you to pay that is a scam. Though I know it is improper but with the type of world "Nigeria" we find our self many things do happen. Well I have heard of Meganet Resources Limited and they are for real, I don't know the reason why people will be calling them 419.”

Act local but always think global

I will answer each of the claims made here because the issues need to be addressed as clearly as possible to raise the standard of business activity especially in Nigeria.

Now, MegaNet Resource Limited might have thought the sphere of their business is within a local community of people they could access via email whose interest in whatever they claim to be selling or offering a service for will be central to just Lagos.

Nothing could be further from the truth, much as any organisation can seem to act locally, they must think globally, no act that can be communicated in this world is local anymore, it risks at all times global scrutiny and those acts will be measured by the standards the scrutiniser deems are reasonable, fair, just and above reproach, regardless of where they reside, it is not a cultural or regional thing, anymore.

A fish rode a horse

Chinedu claims his brother got a job through them, I cannot vouch to either Chinedu or his brother and MegaNet Resource Limited (MRL) which is most affected by this matter has not put out a disclaimer with regards to the seemingly questionable practices I highlighted in my orginal blog. Chinedu will have to realise that I require a greater burden of proof than a flippant comment.

The provenance of the job supposedly contracted appears to have breached the transparent and somewhat professional channels one would expect both firms to have adopted. In fact, the lack of process and procedure would mean that MRL was most likely doing their own thing with the even greater possibility of prospective employees being sent on the wild goose chase for jobs which may or may not be existent since there was no clear official procedure involved.

Appear professional or else

I did enough investigation and if MRL were an organisation worth its salt, it would have a website, the protagonist will have a proper email address rather than a gmail.com email address and the email sent out will have an office address for MRL. This kind of activity is not meant for tyros and MRL’s activity in this regard was so amateurish, it had all the trappings of a scam.

You are either professional or not and when you are not professional, others cannot be responsible to giving you an image you do not possess.

Advance Fee Fraud?

Answering Tosin’s question, the answer in my humble opinion is Yes. If you have to pay for your medical examination and forfeit 10% of your first month’s salary one has to ask if MRL was indeed engaged by Unilever Nigeria Plc in the first instance and whether Unilever will want their global brand to be associated with what is evidently, suspect, underhand and to put a finer point on it, atrocious.

Now, Tosin does agree that the demand for money is improper and then tries to justify it to the situation, circumstance and location. Well, what is improper is improper and any organisation engaged in improper activity is unprofessional, probably fraudulent and needs to be excoriated in Nigeria and anywhere else their activities come to light.

Another point I must mention is why the money is paid into a personal account rather than the company accounts of MegaNet Resource Limited.

An abuse of position

We cannot continue to tolerate a society where those who have information and access use it to gain additional undue advantage of others to unfairly enrich themselves at the expense of the desperate and the vulnerable.

If Unilever Nigeria Plc did engage MRL, I do believe MRL would have had a contractual engagement for their services and that service would have been fully paid for by Unilever.

If MRL in producing they contract failed to fully account for the costs of recruitment with the view of pilfering and tithing the first month’s salary of the successful applicants, they should not be in the recruitment business.

They came to bury MegaNet

In my view, the comments posted by Chinedu and Tosin have literally buried MegaNet Resource Limited in ignominy and exposed the charlatans who have run a haphazard unprofessional outfit that has gotten by on the lean and the questionable for so long until it came under my purview.

MegaNet Resource Limited might well be a going concern, as to its viability conducting business with questionable practices; it does not have much of a future.

With regards to my original blog, I have not be persuaded that the MegaNet Resource Limited for all that is know about them is not the healthy front for an unhealthy scam activity – they have got their work cut out and I am not backing down from the impression formed by reading their original email to a prospect.

Finally, I reviewed the comment source and found both comments came from the same IP Address: 41.203.67.54, even though it appears the comments are from 2 different people with different email addresses. See the graphic below.

Nigeria: MegaNet Resource Limited has all the trappings of a scam outfit

An atrocity of conmanship

I just received this link in a DM (Direct Message) on Twitter and it exemplifies that atrocity of conmanship that bedevils vulnerable and desperate job-seeking Nigerians who some have found heartless schemes to exploit without conscience.

It is bad enough that the quality of English leaves much to be desired but I really do worry about how many schemes like this have had people go on a wild goose chase after jobs that don’t exist dangled as treasures within reach to relieve people of the very little they have.

The malevolent deviousness of this matter beggars belief and it is incumbent on every well-meaning person to expose all the miscreants involved in what I also believe is a scam – if it is not a scam, then the people involved will have to repudiate this so publicly with a media publication or else, we should all take it as given – A Rotten SCAM!!!

A scam, if I ever saw one

The body of the letter sent out as an email appears below. My comments are in italics or parentheses.

With reference to your application sent to MegaNet Resource Limited, after much analyses [shouldn’t this be singular?] of your CV, we are pleased to inform you that, you have been invited for a brief discussion with the HRM of MegaNet Resource Limited for immediate posting to Unilever Nigeria Plc.

[There is a great likelihood that no CV was sent; MegaNet Resource Limited is a front and Unilever Nigeria Plc. did not engage this company as a recruitment agent. Besides, no indication is given of the role applied for.

There is however a Meganet Nigeria Limited, it is NOT MegaNet Resource Limited.]

You have to ask, why?

Note that, there will be a reduction of 10% of your salary for the first month which will be in a written agreement between you and MegaNet Resource Limited, after that you will have no business with us.

[This is no doubt the piece de resistance, it gives the impression that a job has been secured and it has to be illegal and fraudulent for a recruitment agency to charge both the customer and applicant for the same service, if they were genuinely engaged by Unilever Nigeria Plc. The idea that there is a contractual agreement to fleece the applicant of 10% of their first month’s salary and then abandon the applicant is almost convincing in its intent that it looks like the a work of genius. If Unilever engaged MegaNet, I will like to know what they think of this.]

Meanwhile, you are hereby invited for a brief discussion with the HRM of MegaNet Resource Limited.

This is a requirement to meet you in person and review your credentials.

A gathering of the fleeced

Please find details of your invite below:

Date: 27th February 2013

Time: 9:30am

Venue: University of Lagos Multi-Purpose Hall (Main Campus) Akoka.

[An open venue with no links to either Unilever or MegaNet, they might be expecting a crowd but really, this beggars belief. Now, where is MegaNet based? Don’t Ask.

You can be sure that many will be gathering here and suddenly find kindred with many others who have been parted with their cash with no respite, recourse or succour but a stark slap of reality on the bare cheek and curses that will go no further than the strength of the breaths of their mouths.]

Required Materials: You should come along with 2 passports [passport sized photographs, I think this means], original copy of your credentials and the invitation letter for security check point.

[To really show that you’ve been had. I feel so sorry already.]

What will I pay to see you caught?

Note: You are to pay the sum of N2,200 Naira for [a] Medical [examination], as [an] external doctor will be at the venue and a file will be opened for you that will comprise your entire document including the medical result that will be taking to the place of your posting.

[What humiliation, a doctor will examine applicants in a multi-purpose hall in the presence of other applicants? What kind of medical tests will be conducted there? Why can’t Unilever or MegaNet foot this bill? Why do applicants have to pay out of their own meagre resources with no guarantee of compensation to apply and qualify for a job?

Is this not a variant of the Advance Fee Fraud scheme? You pay up for a service you are not guaranteed to get from a stranger who is more persuasive than the serpent in Adam's Eden.]

Find details of the account number below:

Bank Name: Ecobank

A/C Number: 0803043511

A/C Name: Adesanya Kayode

The culpable banks

[As usual the essential collection bucket of the scammer is a bank account especially where banks are usually derelict in monitoring nefarious activities of confidence tricksters who clear out the accounts long before the conned comes to and launches a complaint with the bank.

I dare say, banks by reason of their lack of vigilance, carelessness and negligence inadvertently aid and abet money laundering and fraudulent schemes granting anonymity to crooks who find the intermediary services of the bank a good front for a bad scheme.]

Please, come with the Teller to the venue, we don't accept money at the venue. This is for security reasons due to previous experience.

[One can only wonder what previous experience apart from someone coming to the realisation of this atrocity and demanding their money back on the spot – money in the bank is literally impossible to reclaim without extraneous means.]

Yours Faithfully,

[Faithful to his scheme and insincere to your plight.]

Adesanya Kayode

HRM

This, my friends, is a SCAM

I am at pains to find the professional import of this enterprise apart from it being a well-crafted scheme to fleece the vulnerable and desperate of their meagre resources.

It is my intention to expose such machinations which on scrutiny look too good to be true, cajoling and inveigling like a slithering venomous snake looking for easy prey.

As I happen to be involved in contractual engagements with Unilever in the UK, I will be asking their management of the veracity of this subject, because even if MegaNet Resource Limited has been engaged by Unilever Nigeria Plc for a recruitment drive, how they are going about it is reprehensible, wrong, atrocious, audacious and scandalous.

Tell Mr. Adesanya to take a hike

I can see no reason why MegaNet Resource Limited should not be put out of business forthwith and Mr. Kayode Adesanya exposed as a scamming fraud.

Thanks to TheWordSmith on Twitter for intimating me of this scam, there are no two words to it, it looks like a scam, it reads like a scam, it is crafted like a scam and it lacks the trust elements that would make us think otherwise – a scam, is a scam, is a scam and this my friends is what it is – A SCAM!!! I have responded to the comments to this blog here.

Incredible India: No task like a job

How many men do it take …?

I think I have to conclude, it is an Indian thing, passing through customs was a breeze of handlers. In fact, my passport was first touched at the entrance to the terminal and that was two checkers just 3 metres apart to ascertain the first had not been derelict in his duty of observance.

Then I am approached at ask was flight I would be on, that was by a lady, she gave me a form to fill in – yes, we have to fill in a departure form that includes the address of where we stayed in India amongst other unnecessary bureaucratic information.

Then I checked in my baggage with the privilege accorded a frequent flyer to add one more, airline loyalty and airmiles accumulation does pay. I paid for my return trip to India with my airmiles and got to travel in style too. Two men at check-in, though in this case, one did help with my baggage.

Form filling is form

After filling in the form and cabin luggage tags, one was issued for my cane but there was no way of attaching it to my cane, I did not bother; I gave my passport, boarding pass and departure form to the immigration officer who squinted and bent my passport every which way, took advice off his colleague then passed it through the electronic verification system before stamping it and handing it back.

Then I was at security where everything was put in trays and I was handed identifiers for the trays going through the X-ray system, at the point my boarding pass was checked and stamped, and that was a lady at work. When my goods eventually emerged from the X-ray system, eventually, because they chose to change positions after I stepped through the metal detector, the identifiers were matched and once again my boarding pass was stamped – another lady at work.

I had to smile as I watched the lady try to attach a hand baggage tag to my cane, a really stupid exercise that someone by law had to do – Shaking my head, vigorously.

All busy very slowly

I am surprised at my somewhat apt observation from when I arrived in India that there was indeed a man per task rather than a person doing a job that consists of tasks – this supposed division of labour keeps everyone busy and props up a bureaucratic system that is unwieldy at best.

Just when I thought I have seen the last of checks before the boarding gate was another man checking if my hand luggage had the correct tagging as well as ensuring I had a boarding pass – as if everyone else was sleeping on duty.

I suppose everyone is busy doing something in India, to what end escapes me apart from it keeping unemployment figures low, not helping people assume responsibility or take initiative and worst of all, it means very few will know how to multitask because it takes that to do a job and do it well.

Thought Picnic: The character of professionalism

Living by the wits of one’s expertise

For the past 16 years, I have been self-employed, within that time; I took full-time employment for two years, was seriously ill that I was out of work for a year and have had the unfortunate situation of being unemployed for nigh on a year.

Difficult as times might have been, there are things that appear to stand out in my career that requires sharing or maybe just documenting for posterity sake.

Trying to get back into work has not been easy especially where I have had to deal with people who only recognise me from what they have read in my resume and nothing else.

Quality and qualification

At interview, the questions are usually geared to the fundamentals of my knowledge rather than my suitability for the job, as I pride myself in implementing systems that work right the first time I have found that I might not have answers to questions that represent the experiences of others who might not be as thorough in their implementations – some problems just seem too incredible and unnecessary but not many are ready to have others fix the poor setups they have created.

That by the way, it so happens that literally every job I have had has come from recommendations of those I have worked with or worked for in the past.

As much as possible, I strive to do my best and that appears to create some lasting impression that keeps me in the professional and sometimes social minds of my ex-colleagues that when certain opportunities present themselves I get a call to ascertain my interest.

Leaving worthwhile legacies

I believe it is a combination of character and professionalism that allows for this including the simple aim of not burning any of my bridges.

For the job I will start tomorrow, I am even the more amazed because I was recommended by colleagues I worked with at a time when I had just returned from a long bout of illness; I only had the strength to do 32-hours a week with Wednesdays off and the greater technical burden was shouldered by a selfless and hardworking colleague.

In many cases, I believe I was accommodated quite well despite my shortcomings and frailties, these same people always seemed to have me in mind all through the times when I had no work which for some reason must have indicated I had left some sort of impression.

I am honoured that they have chosen once again to have me as a colleague to approach new challenges but the most important thing of all is a career that is built on the character of professionalism will always find opportunity when such openings present themselves.

Editorial: Yahoo! Reprehensible Ya-hooligans

Maybe important

The sacking of Carol Bartz, the CEO of Yahoo! yesterday most definitely had great effect, the markets were hoopla as the almost 3 year tenure of the lady came to an abrupt end.

Now, Yahoo! had to do what they had to do having seen that she had failed to appreciably turn around the fortunes of the company but it would be remiss of observers to think that the CEO runs a company like a fiefdom without the team that constitutes the board and management of that organisation.

Appalling action

However, none of that bothers me as much as the manner of sacking of this lady; she was apparently sacked over the phone. The excuse being proffered was that she was on the other side of the country and the most immediate contact that could be made to deliver this “world-ending” news was to deliver it over the phone.

I am not persuaded in the slightest of this view, for all the cut-throat competition and the cut-and-thrust of corporate politics it would be rather unfortunate if the basic tenets of good manners, courtesy, decorum, gentlemanliness and I dare say chivalry were lost for the expediency of pleasing the market.

At worst, the immediate and prompt summoning of Carol Bartz to an emergency board meeting to deliver the news to her in person is the least that should have been expected of those who by circumstance might have been highly fed, lowly taught and quite lacking in breeding.

Apes on boards

This masterstroke of palace coups ranks high in the annals of ignominy and will not have Yahoo! shooting up the charts of the next best company to work for; the callousness of sacking a colleague of such importance by such clinically repugnant tactics does make the men involved appear to fit better in an ape colony than in the company of polite society.

I will expect any Yahoo! employee with the slightest dignity and honour to be considering the precariousness of their positions if this could happen to their CEO.

One can only wish that this type of reprehensible behaviour does not become the staple of boardroom putsches where cads on executive boards begin to give much credence to the one funny play on Yahoo! – Ya-hooligans, this sort just make your skin crawl.

Up in the air

Meetings for surprises

Nothing could have prepared me for the day I encountered today, with one being the proverbial grass on which elephants seem to have fought to the finish.

There were uncertainties and definitely no guarantees but assumptions were made, plans laid out and the idea that a future existed was the picture until as late as this morning.

I had planned to get to work by 10:00AM but arrived a bit later, meanwhile, even yesterday on my day off I was getting engrossed in typical office politics about ownership, responsibilities and deflections – they never tire in finding someone to dump the shit on.

A meeting was planned for 11:00AM and I arrived just in time to be pulled into an unplanned meeting where I thought we would be discussing strategy – maybe I forgot it was also July the first, the beginning of the new month and as it happens, I just happen not to have a contract anymore.

The squabbles that affect us all

That explained why the office looked emptier than usual, everyone else had already been informed to stay at home pending the time the bigwigs sort out if the contract can continue and who would be needed to man the contract.

It has probably come down to money, hard-bargaining and all that but as a self-employed consultant, consultant is hardly the word to use, one feels like a day labourer at best in these circumstances because just a fortnight ago we were to be in employment up until November.

There are prospects as I have been informed, a possible cooling down for the month of July and a return to activities in August, but no one really knows – it is all up in the air.

Up in the air

To think that just two days ago I watched Up In The Air starring Goerge Clooney on DVD about travel and the laying off of staff being outsourced to smooth talkers who were engaged to do the tough-talking for timid Human Resources departments, I could just imagine the feelings everyone had when told they were being let off.

A feeling of emptiness with that little voice of hope trying to scream in your head that you should just be calm, be cool, be collected and be considering of your future as a new opportunity for new challenges, those are your possibilities.

I had my timesheets signed, sent in my invoices, got on the wrong bus and made for home, and then it occurred to me that I could call on some ex-colleagues and so there I am.

With stories to tell from when I left, fell ill, got well again, had work and now on a loose end, it really is all up in the air.