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Where I am, they aren't hiring particularly, and even though it is a financial services organisation they aren't firing particularly either. Which makes them one of the winners in the current credit crunch. Such is life at the moment that if you aren't losing your job, you are a winner, if your company isn't cutting jobs, it is a winner. The business I work for is not in a crisis - one of the advantages to being a less competitive slowly plodding business. The company wasn't fast enough to realise how much money could be made from from all that toxic stuff in the boom time, so it failed to get into it. And as it's a slow plodding organisation, it never even went in for all that excessive bonus stuff either. Which, all in all, makes it a paragon of virtue for financial services. The irony is entertaining.

Anyway, while there aren't new jobs, there is always, even in this recession, some turnover of people. The few resulting openings that come up need interviewing, and it seems I have been co-opted for that task to spread the load. The market out there is back to the very worst after the dot bomb, seems like hundreds of applicants for every opening, and filtering out CVs is one of the tasks. IT is not a small world, so imagine my surprise when one of the CVs shunted my way was from my old enemy, Weevil! He was even qualified for the role, though not what I would call a choice pick. But how could I resist selecting him for interview, I am, after all, merely mortal. And so, within days, I was sat in a room with Weevil. Interviewing him.

"Hello Weevil, how nice to see you after all this time. I'll be interviewing you" were my first words to him, as I met him in the waiting area, and walked him to the interview room. His look was picture perfect, if only I had a camera to retain that look for posterity. No, it would need to be a video, a single picture couldn't do justice to the obvious thoughts flitting across his face. We opened, of course, with a test. Was it harder than normal, my carefully designed test? I don't think so. Nor do I think I marked it particularly harshly. Perhaps poor Weevil just had a bad day. I also felt his interpersonal skills left something to be desired. Surprising, really, how badly he did in his interview. Naturally I fed that back to the agent.

Two days later, I had a visit from a very nice HR lady. "Do you have the notes from your interview with Mr. Weevil?" she asked. I did. "It seems that Mr. Weevil has made an allegation that we have to investigate" she said to me, once we had moved to a meeting room. I expressed bemusement at this. "Mr. Weevil claims that he knew you previously, and that you were a complete gentleman who would open doors to women as they entered a room." She stated. I confirmed that, indeed, that was exactly the type of man I was. "Well, Mr. Weevil then goes on to say that you did not open the door to him for the interview room." I looked at her, unable to quite understand the point she was making. "Mr. Weevil, claims that this is clear sexual discrimination, as you treated him differently from how you would treat a woman. For the moment, Mr Hutt, we must recommend that you take part in no further interviews until this matter has been investigated and the issue decided."

BCNU - Javva The Hutt.

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