Being a Robert Half Legal prospect, one has to remember that one is the product, not the customer. As such it is important to QUICKLY develop the ability to see through the never-ending lies and incompetent representations of the assignments which the recruiters are trying to get the prospect to accept. The modus operandi is to offer the moon to get one on board, then blame any changes/shortcomings in the assignment on a fickle client. Often they try to get prospects to agree to take an assignment before they even have the client committed to using RH personnel. I have worked for temp agencies on many occasions in the past, so I had no delusions about the nature of the relationship going into it. According to my associates, my experience was not atypical.
My personal experience was in a major project conducted in the Boston office of RH by a major business information provider based in New York. It was one of three sites across the U.S., the other two being NYC and, if memory serves, Austin, TX. The nature of the work, the potential benefits, and the length of the assignment were all grossly oversold. The client was ill-prepared for the project, failed to have its goals nailed down, and consistently provided contradictory and erroneous instructions. RH in its monitoring of the progress of the project could not have been more incompetent. Here's an example:
The project involved about one hundred attorneys working Monda through Friday during normal business hours. The work was performed in RH's office, right down the hall from the RH manager running the project. We'll call him Biff. Biff wanted to interview each contracted attorney. Good idea. Biff sent me an e-mail telling me why he wanted to see me and asking when I was available. I told him I would be in the office M-F during business hours and asked for his availability. Biff offered 2:30 on the following Thursday. I accepted. Biff then responded that the offered slot was unavailable because he was double-booking all the time slots. Given that Biff knew where and when I (and all the others) was working, why didn't he simply tell me when he wanted to talk to me? It would have been the sensible approach. It's not a big problem, but the incompetence with which Biff approached the situation has stuck with me as indicative of the overall performance of RH personnel.
There was a great deal of turnover on the project, mostly due to actions of RH and the client. People were being replaced almost weekly. I was relieved when I was laid off and took the opportunity to start my own practice.
