Rules of Engagement

Recruiters and sales people, let’s have a chat. No, we’re not breaking up, I just think we need to talk about our relationship.?I feel that I’ve been friendly and accommodating up until now, but it’s starting to have a negative impact on our partnership and so things need to change.

Last night, at 8pm, whilst trying to get my 2 month old girl off to sleep, she was abruptly awoken from her drifting slumber by a loud ring and vibration coming from my pocket. Yes, I should have turned my phone to silent, but in the fluster and aggravation of rocking a fussy baby in my arms for 40 minutes, I simply forgot.

Who was this mystery caller? Why did they first try getting through to me on WhatsApp voice call and then my phone number? I don’t know, and I will never know as they are now permanently blocked from ever calling me again.?Suffice to say, this is not how we will build the beginnings of a good relationship.

My experience of recruiters and sales these past few weeks has been exhausting. I’ve been inundated on my private number with unsolicited calls in regards to a couple of jobs posts, on which I’ve explicitly stated that we are not using 3rd party services to fill these positions. Some are from recruiters I’ve done business with in the past, some new, some are services that offer ‘a platform to recruit people through’, and some are from agencies offering outsourced staffing . I appreciate that you need to make yourselves aware to me, but this is not how to go about it.

So let’s settle on some Rules of Engagement for how we’ll conduct business in the future.

Rules of Engagement

I do NOT have a work phone number. My mobile phone number is a personal number, and I NEVER share this as a contact means through my employer. I don’t list it in my email signature; I never hand it out in emails, socials, or in person. I do not know where you’ve got it from and you having it is in breach of GDPR regulation. If you have no business having it, then delete it now!

Rule 1: Do NOT call my phone number.

Any calls from an unrecognised number will be ignored. I will then search for your number on Google and if I find it is a company or person trying to sell me a service, I will instantly block the phone number, and add the company to my mental blacklist of businesses I will never do business with.

Rule 2: Definitely do NOT call my phone number.

I appreciate, sometimes a new caller needs to get through to me. So here’s an exception to Rules 1 and 2 for instances where I have not explicitly handed you my phone number…

Rule 3: If you must call my phone number, request permission by email first. If I do not respond, then assume that you have NOT been granted permission.

But you may ask, “how do I make you aware that our service exists?”. Good question – send me an email. But I’m not going to tell you my direct email address as it’s private and any unsolicited email I receive to my private account will be marked as spam and deleted. My employer’s general correspondence address is open for all, so send an email there with the appropriate FAO, and it may come through if you dodge our spam filters.

Rule 4: Do NOT send me unsolicited emails to my direct email address. Send them to my company’s general correspondence address.

My process for reviewing unsolicited emails will be a mix of ‘archive for later’ for some something I may be interested in, or straight up ‘mark it as spam’ and then delete. You run this risk.

Rule 5: If you don’t want to risk being marked as spam, don’t bother sending me an email.

If I ever do decide to use a recruiter, or dabble in working with a service sent through to me by email, my process is:

• click on my email client’s search box
• search for a keyword (e.g. “recruiter”)
• pick at random something that looks interesting.

I may favour people or services I’ve worked with before, or I may decide to try out something new. But most importantly, I’ll be the one actively making the connection.

Rule 6: If I want your service, I will contact you.

If I’ve said explicitly that I do not want to use a certain service at any point (i.e. directly in the job ad), no amount of persuasion will make me change my mind.

Rule 7: Seriously, do not contact me, I will contact you.

Follow-ups; you don’t need to call/email/InMail/Telegram/WhatsApp me with a follow-up in X week’s time, or send me a constant stream of weekly drip marketing emails. In fact, the more sales pitches you send me, the more annoyed I get, and the more likely I will start marking them as spam. As with Rules 6 and 7…

Rule 8: Don’t bother following-up. If I want your service, I will contact you.

Contact methods; I have explicitly mentioned phone calls and emails above. I am also happy to put LinkedIn InMails under the email category too (same filtering/marking-as-spam rules apply). These are my only open channels for business.

Rule 9: Do NOT ever attempt to contact me by means other than the above. WhatsApp, Telegram, Twitter and Instagram are NOT channels I do business through. I WILL block you, no exceptions.

If these rules offend, then I apologise as it’s not my intention. I understand that we are all involved in business, and sales can be particularly challenging. That’s why I strive to be polite and accommodating when I speak to cold callers. However, it’s becoming overwhelming. I kindly request all sales people, whether in recruitment or other services, to understand that I have a small family to care for. I strictly work from 9 to 5, Monday to Friday, and the few working hours I have are crucial for my company. The time I have outside of work is extremely precious to me, my partner, and my children, and I will do everything I can to protect it. Please follow the rules above, and we can hopefully have a happy and healthy business relationship going forward.