…I’ve been outta work for about 5 months after making a personal decision concerning my father’s illness at the time.  But now that he is gone I’m back out here on the job hunt.  So after blasting my resume all over the planet via Monster and Careerbuilder, etc., I had an interview this morning.  And I discovered something.  As I’m being grilled with all of these questions, the interviewer keeps referring to the agency or recruiter that is representing me as the “vendor”.  Hmmmmm, let me think about this for a moment. I have no problem with the word “recruiter” because they actually recruit you for the position.  And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the term “agent” because an agent represents you with respect to getting the position.  But I do have a problem with the word “vendor”.  Why?  Because a vendor is a person who sells something and last I checked, I AM NOT A SLAVE. 

So is this what America is coming to?  The job market is sick, in the worse shape ever and companies know we need jobs so what do they do?  They post notices to “vendors” to scour the prospects for the ones that come in at the lowest bid and they “buy” us for a term with no benefits.  Now I may just be venting here, but how long before we are put on the actual auction block?  Dont think it cant happen. Every plan starts with a small seed.  You plant it way down deep in the dirt and no one knows that the roots are steadily and mightily growing because they see no sign of that growth above ground.  Some people might think its ridiculous still and that it could never happen.  And maybe they’re right.  Maybe it’ll just be more sophisticated this time and we’ll be put on EBAY instead.