Social Scare
Chapter 2

So Preston goes into work today. Just for the morning as I'm currently at a Preston DEFCON 3 (see previous blog for explanation).

I had to conduct interviews for the position of team Leader for a Mental Health Team. So I'm sitting there, feeling a bit crappy, when the first interviewee enters the room. Before sitting down, she announces that please excuse her if she looks uncomfortable or tense as 'it's the time of the month and she is quite heavy at the moment...'

WHAAATTTTTTTTTT??????????

She's interviewing for a leadership role and she asks that? I almost choked on my bottled water.
Not only is she interviewing for leadership, but the interviewers are her potential Area Manager (moi) and the goddamn Operations Director.

Since working in London in social care, I have had to set the bar at such a low height. Imagine the caliber for support staff if potential team leaders come out with such socially and professionally unacceptable comments.

In two days I am spending a day shortlisting for support staff positions. Apparently we have 52 applications to sift through. I have every intention of setting the bar high enough to sort out the crap from the cream. This means my criteria for binning potential applicants will be extremely harsh. This includes:

If they don't address the person specification in point form - BIN.
If they use a capital letter every time after a comma - a grammar lesson and then - BIN
Any trace of matriarchal or patriachal tendencies - BIN

I fully expect to only be interviewing a maximum of 6 people. I would be surprised if even that many meet my criteria. Social care is not menial work. Vulnerable people deserve people supporting them who respect them, support them to learn new skills, and can think laterally and creatively.

I fully intend to be the Ghengis Khan of the interview panel.