Potential employee wanting to meet 121

[working4ever]

I'm a (female as I think may be relevant) manager with a very small team. Bringing on board another employee with good skills. HR are keen on him. He's older. He has kicked back on hours of work, working from home and salary so far to which HR has bent over backwards to accommodate including seemingly changed another employee's work pattern. He now refuses to accept reporting to me which to be fair with his skills he is more of an equivalent role and I have no issue with. He now has said before accepting the job offer he wants to meet with me face to face to discuss working arrangements.

On the face of it seems sensible, however alarms are being set off. Even a a male colleague who I manage has said he would volunteer to be at any meeting as it seems as if there would be an attempt to bully me (his words and he said he'd spoken to other friends who are in senior positions in financial services, HR and IT). Apparently the new potential employee (he hasn't yet accepted job offer) wants to know all about our working practices and software etc which I wouldn't want to divulge for security reasons until he is an employee. No one I know has ever come across a situation where a potential employee has asked for a 121 with no one else present to speak about working practices and find out what our security set up is. HR are pushing this however I am very wary. Yes my dept needs help but is this a security breach attempt or sussing out how far I can be pushed and manipulated?

Chap is mid 50s and said all the right things at interview and then suddenly the hours weren't right; it wasn't convenient to work in an office location; his skills were way too senior; we clearly needed him etc. Suspect he wants to work out towards retirement at a senior level.

Any advice?

Nope, when you are that 'level' you wouldn't be requesting a 1:1 with someone you don't consider high enough up the ladder to report to.

If it had been a female colleague who made the same comment, would you have said this? There are red flags all over this situation, and no male colleague is allowed to act empathic, professionally or have an opinion? People do offer support to others just because they are genuinely good people, not because they want to put someone down.

OP, I wouldn't agree. This person has pushed every single "I want or else I walk" button - I hope they are remotely as good as they (or HR) think they are. I somehow doubt it though. Whilst I get that it's reasonable to do some negotiating in employment terms, it appears that this person has applied for a role where none of the terms were what they wanted. So they are stupid are they? Or well arrogant. I cannot see any of this ever playing out well - this level of arrogance will not disappear when the graciously decide to accept the job. It will get worse. And I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them on any basis.

In your shoes I would be (a) putting my concerns about disclosing sensitive company information to this person in writing to my manager and HR, and (b) if they insist then I would also be inisisting on being accompanied by a senior manager (not HR) who will take responsibility for the information disclosed. If he is no longer reporting to you, be prepared for a rough ride - although I suspect you won't be the only one. Was "teamplayer" not a requirement for the job, because what you have here is a maverick?

This is an excellent response ^

Is your HR department not at all concerned about all the red flags this man is waving? He is going to be a nightmare to work with. Remember the saying - when someone shows you who they are, believe them.

If he's not going to be reporting to you now, then wouldn't it be more suitable for him to have this meeting with his actual manager?

I agree with you - red flags galore. If you do agree to meet him then in advance ccd to HR say you're happy to meet to discuss generalities like company culture, but can't disclose any specifics on systems and security until he has started the role.

I've hired or been involved with hiring at least a hundred people. A whiff of being difficult at this stage means he's going to be a complete nightmare if he's hired. Your HR is shit and you're right to want to stay as far away from this mess as possible.

My instant feeling was he wants to meet woth you to then go back to HR and argue he needs to be mroe senior and have you report to him. A consultant we brought into a company years ago tried to do this, it was allowed to get far too far before someone finally put a stop to it.
whe is absolutely no reason you should be meeting with him at the point.

I think @Hillrunning has it, he's doing some sort of obscure power play.

There is a shortage of experienced people at the minute and HR are desperate to have this position filled, even though this guy is more trouble than he's worth and hasn't even started yet.

I wouldn’t have a problem with meeting with a potential employee, however, it would seem more appropriate that he meets his new LM and it sounds like that isn’t going to be you.

Why are HR so keen to have him? What does the person who will be managing him think of all this? Why on earth does your junior staff member know any of this or think you're liable to be bullied?

Oh give over. Sounds like a concerned colleague.

Many thanks for all your replies. A lot to think about. And yes I will ask a member of HR to be present as that will cover my back!

Have a good Easter everyone! x

I also think this smells like a potential power play.

Given some of the proposed topics of conversation, the potential hire should be having this conversation with his proposed LM and a witness from HR. He should also sign an NDA. If there is a particular need for the two of you to assess how well you can work together you might also attend.

Someone who reports to you and is therefore junior to this guy doesn’t have a role, but I wouldn’t necessarily read anything suspicious into their offer to be present.