Beware: NET-A-PORTER

[Kieren Diment]

I suspect this is a symptom of the GFC rather than anything more sinister. I'm sorry you and your not-to-be colleagues appear to be friendly fire in this circumstance. 

I can tell that GFC][ has people twitched. Although I live in the best functioning developed economy in the world (fsvo), the bank  I've recently been going through the motions with were asking some weirder-than-the-last-time questions about my situation. 

(disclaimer, I barely know who net a porter are as they don't offer telecommute positions). 
--
Sent from my phone, so apologies for any spelling errors, top-posting, brevity, etc. 

On 09/12/2011, at 14:13, Rudolf Lippan <rlippan at remotelinux.com> wrote:

> Good morning, Perl Mongers,
> 
> This is a followup to my post to the Perl jobs-discuss mailing list.  Terrence picked it up here: http://livingcosmos.posterous.com/beware-of-net-a-porter-perl-jobs and the original can be found here: http://www.mail-archive.com/jobs-discuss@perl.org/msg01469.html
> 
> 
> About six weeks ago, I was contacted by a recruiter and asked if I was interested in a team lead position in New Jersey, and so begins my story.  
> 
> I was wanting to get back into the community after a limiting contract, but this wasn't really the sort of splash I hoped to make.  I've never been moved to do something like this in the 10+ years I've been programming professionally.  I've experienced some less than honest recruiting techniques and companies that had no issue jerking people around, but I was made aware this morning that there were at least two other Perl programmers affected, including junior candidates that probably had more hanging on this than I did.
> 
> I sent the following list of events to both NET-A-PORTER and the recruiting agency 7 Dec.  Earlier today (8 Dec.), the recruiter called me and confirmed this, point by point.  NET-A-PORTER has, as of yet, not replied.
> 
> 1) That NET-A-PORTER was fully aware of the contract rate during the interview
>   process.
> 
> 2) That NET-A-PORTER selected me to lead their US team and I was asked to wait 
>   for final sign off.
> 
> 3) That NET-A-PORTER was aware that I let another opportunity go based on my
>   understanding that my employment was pending a 'final signature'.
> 
> 4) That as a condition of final sign off NET-A-PORTER asked that, at the end 
>   of the 6 month contract period, I would be willing to accept $30K less than 
>   the original budgeted salary with the proviso that the salary would be open
>   to renegotiation based on the market conditions at that time.  Furthermore
>   that I agreed to this.
> 
> 5) That NET-A-PORTER decided to withdraw the position at this point and no 
>   longer build out a US-based Perl development team. The reason given is that
>   it would cost 1/2 as much to build out a team in the UK.
> 
> For a company that espouses their programming culture and community support, I can't understand how they could think this was even remotely acceptable.  If anyone has any questions, please feel free to contact me.  The recruiter gave permission to share contact information with any interested parties regarding this situation.
> 
> I know I'm not in the UK but, short of trying for slashdot, I thought this was the most appropriate venue for informing those who should be most aware of their actions.
> 
> -r