Why do we think it’s still a good idea to use these words in job ads?
Recruiters, job posters, employers, HR teams…this one’s for you. Consider it a letter of appeal.
I’ve had about a million different jobs and pivoted my career a couple of times too. Now, I’m obviously not a recruitment expert, but with my experience in pivoting most of my life, I am somewhat an expert in job ads and the descriptions attached to them ;) Recently, I started scanning the market again and I noticed myself being A LOT more cautious than I used to be about applying to certain posts. Because the job ad descriptions are just so damn triggering! One particularly challenging sentence that I find highly provoking is to describe the work environment as “fast-paced”. I meeeeaaaaan….?
Ok, let’s unpack why this is problematic:
It’s been 3 years since the world shut down and every employed person who used to work in a “fast-paced” environment realised it was all bullshit. For a year, businesses coped just fine, without the anxiety-stricken cloud of a ‘“fast pace”. I’m not discounting the employee cuts that needed to be made and the financial sacrifices that time required, but the lessons we learned regarding allowing employees to work at whatever pace they were able, cannot be ignored either.
The largest reason for the red flag nature of this statement is that this often describes a business that is either understaffed or has a very high staff turnover, and low staff replacement. Meaning that the organisation will expect employees to carry higher workloads, and simultaneously execute in a faster timeframe.
Other popular job description phrases that convey a similar sentiment are:
The role requires wearing many hats. You’re likely to be doing more than one person’s job. A required skill that often accompanies this description is: The ability to multi-task.
Looking for a go-getter/ self-starter/ rockstar/ powerhouse. All of these terms are vague AF. But essentially allude to there being an equally as vague job description and potentially little to no structure or standard operating procedures for the role itself. Meaning you’ll be expected to make it up as you go along, quite possibly without help, input, or expertise from anyone else.
Deadline-driven/ Handles competing timelines like a pro/ works well under pressure. Yep, you guessed it! There is NO prioritisation system for tasks, the organisation may often & regularly over-extend itself, and therefore its employees. Leaving you to meet unrealistic deadlines, compromising any semblance of work-life integration whatsoever and sending you right up burnout alley, real quick!
And I get it, a lot of these phrases and terms were trendy before, and might have been ok’d to convey excitement or “coolness” about an organisation. But today, in our post-pandemic, highly exhausted world (giving it to you straight here) they just reek of toxicity. Not to mention, that the needs of employees have significantly shifted (and really quickly, I might add) in the last 3 years. These kinds of anxiety-provoking statements are just longer appealing.
If you’re a recruiter, job poster or in any way responsible for writing job descriptions and posting job ads for your organisation or clients, I implore you to give these a rethink. We’re moving into (I would argue, have ALREADY moved into) an employee-centric job market. Employers no longer have the upper hand. This is clear just from the employee attrition that happened in certain sectors over the last few years. Your staff are not leaving coz they found their dream jobs, they’re leaving because they now know they can do better than their nightmare jobs. They even decided to do that in a highly volatile economy, because they literally could NOT, anymore.
Now, the last thing I’m saying is to lie on your damn job ads. Please DON’T do that! Bating us with lies is even more toxic than any of this faulty language. But I might suggest addressing the culture inside your organisations, so that what you’re putting on your job ads ends up being the truth. Creating employee-centricity isn’t an overnight job - and again, I’m not an expert - but the benefits speak for themselves: Increase productivity, increased retention, faster recruitment timeframes, and of course higher profit and revenue. Surely these advantages are worth at least trying to create a calmer more pleasant place to work?
