<p>I have a D who finished her second year of college, mechanical engineering, but that is not really part of this situation. She came home for the summer and was looking for jobs. We have a neighbor, I know his wife, who is the production manager at an automotive plant in town. He found out my D was looking for a job and called to see if she could send over her resume. My D brought her resume over to their house and he looked at her resume. He called her later and said that his company was not going to hire an intern this summer but would she like to work on the production line. It would be good experience and while not the best pay would be a guaranteed 40 hours a week with the possibility of overtime. My D had already accepted another job but this was more in her line with her career so she accepted the job.</p>
<p>So my D worked at this job for 4 weeks. She liked the job and thought that she was doing a good job. No one said anything negative about her performance. All the engineers on staff knew that she was an engineering student and she is pretty sure they knew she was the production managers neighbor. On Friday the plant manager asked her if she was interested in working at the plant full time (he is also one of our neighbors and I also know his wife and children although my D does not know him as she has been at school). She said no that she was a temporary employee (they make all new hires though a temporary agency) as she was going back to school in the fall. He asked her where she went to school and what her major was and that was that.</p>
<p>On Tuesday the temporary agency called and told her that her assignment at the plant was finished and she was not to report to work again. That was it, no reason why, no explanation, nothing. When she talked to the production manager before he hired her, he said it was fine for her to be a temporary employee, that they had a big defense contract and that they needed people for the summer because after that business might slow down. The plant was also going on mandatory overtime starting this week, so they are busy. </p>
<p>My D is devastated. She also expected to work another 6 weeks and hoped to gain a good reference. She wants to email the production manager and see if she should put this experience on her resume or was she terminated because of bad performance (or something to this effect).</p>
<p>My question, how should she word the email to the production manager. My H is convinced that the production manager knows she was let go, that production managers have the final say on who stays and who goes. </p>
<p>As an aside, I am annoyed. This was an offer for the summer. She turned down two other job offers to work there and now it’s too late to get another job. I had hoped that she could cover some of her living expenses next year and it doesn’t look like that is going to happen. This is the second summer she hasn’t made any money. Sigh. With jobs so hard to come by, she managed to get 3 job offers. Thanks for reading this very long post. I appreciate it.</p>
<p>I would have her phrase the e-mail exactly as you suggested.</p>
<p>"Dear Mr. (or Ms. as the case may be) Production Manager: In the brief time I worked for you, I learned a lot about production, which I feel will be valuable to me in my future endeavors (or some such nonsense). I had hoped to work for you longer, but was told that I am no longer needed.</p>
<p>I would have liked to use you as a reference, but hesitate to do so in case I had been terminated for poor performance. Please let me know if you would be willing to be a reference in the future.</p>
<p>Thank you again,
DD"</p>
<p>You never know why something like this happens (although yes, it’s awful). Perhaps the hiring manager was now given orders to put a permanent employee in ths spot your daughter had, or had a candidate for that spot who wouldn’t wait until August to take it. Or they weren’t really as busy as they thought they’d be, despite the mandatory overtime. Or the boss’s daughter wanted the job. Or any number of reasons.</p>
<p>That’s what happens when you’re an “at-will” employee: You can be let go for any reason (as long as it’s not a reason specifically forbidden by law) or no reason. Just remind yourself that this might have happened at any of the 3 jobs your daughter was offered.</p>
<p>If he/she says no to the reference, that also indicates that maybe your D shouldn’t put it on her resume.</p>
<p>I would suggest that she speak with the Production Manager face-to-face, as she did when presenting her resume. She could tell the PM that she was really looking forward to spending the entire summer at the plant and really valued the experience, even in the short time she was there. Then she could mention that she will be listing the job on her resume and ask if there is any reason why she should not list the PM as a future reference. That might illicit any negative issues at the basis of her termination. I would also not be so quick to assume that the Production Manager is aware that she has been terminated.</p>
<p>In my experience, a plant manager would have the final say on who stays or goes. A quick phone call to the production manager would probably answer your questions quickly. Maybe the plant manager only wants temp employees who are available for long term employment. Maybe the plant manager has a college age child who could be doing that job! In any case, since she was hired through a temp agency, the fact that it was a temp job is easily explainable as a reason for leaving and it sounds like she has people she worked for directly who could provide a good reference if needed.</p>
<p>Hi deb…I agree with Chedva…although my approach would be NOT to mention the possibility of poor performance in the email. It’s also possible that the production manager thought the agency communicated the reasons for ending the assignment. You might say something like: </p>
<p>"As you probably know, I was notified by the agency this week that Monday was my last day of work at the plant. Of course, I’m very disappointed, but I assume there may have been some unanticipated change in circumstances that led to a shorted assignment. I wanted to let you know that I appreciated working with the production team and gained some valuable experience that will help me with my future career. I also want to check with you to see if you would be able to provide me with a positive reference. I’m not sure I’ll be able to find other work this summer, but your recommendation would be very helpful in securing a job next summer. </p>
<p>Thanks for your help.
Sincerely, </p>
<p>If you get no response or a negative response, I agree that your D should NOT put it on her resume. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you so much for your advice! It is so appreciated. We are having a very heated discussion about this issue at our house. My H, (who is a site manager although not one who hires temporary employees) is very against her calling the production manager. He feels that things are very sticky as we are their neighbors and will see them and the plant manager at social functions. He feels an email is the best response to this. I thought she should call him. It’s funny but it seems that the responses are half and half email vs. talking in person. Another option would be to talk to the production manager at a family social function we were all planning on attending but that is in two weeks. I think that it would be better to resolve this before then. She was not planning on confronting him, just asking for a reference.</p>
<p>toneranger, love your response. I think it sets the perfect tone and will encourage my D to use that tactic. I like the idea of not mentioning poor performance.</p>
<p>Thanks so much. I think this will help my D. It’s been a rough couple of days.</p>
<p>deb…I’m on the side of email because it helps the Manager think about and plan his response. I know I don’t like being caught on the spot. He may want to even make some calls prior to getting back to your D. If you keep the tone of the email positive, and just ask for a reference, there should be no hard feelings. I imagine the Production Manager is already feeling pretty bad about things. He may have broken some rule by bringing someone in who had no intention of going permanent. Good luck to your D! This experience will help her in the future (even though it feels horribly painful right now). Don’t tell her that though, for a while at least. :)</p>
<p>It seems odd to me that the plant manager would try to convert an employee from a temp agency into a full-time employee. The temp companies that I’ve dealt with in the past had clauses stating that the company couldn’t solicit temporary employees for full-time work.</p>
<p>BTW, if my son had a similar position, I think that I’d tell him to put his college degree on hold and just continue working for a while if the job would further his career. He already agreed to do that (I don’t think it will happen and he only has one more year). You can go to school at anytime and you might get your employer to pick up the tab. Jobs aren’t always available.</p>
<p>I work with temp agencies. There has always been a buyout clause that would go into effect if we wanted to hire the temp full time before the contract period was up. Usually, I wait until the contract is fulfilled and then hire the worker.</p>
<p>BC- I’m not sure that working on a production line for an extended period of time would further the young woman’s engineering career, though it could help to finance it. I do agree that the summer experience will be very helpful.</p>
<p>It might be helpful if the engineering staff worked with her when they had production line issues. My route into software engineering was through support. My background was MIS and that’s usually not enough to get into engineering.</p>
<p>I’m not sure but I think based on what my D has said the company would wait until the contract was up and then hire the person full time. I think the plant manager was trying to gauge if she had an interest in being full time.</p>
<p>I think she was blind sided when the plant manager asked her and answered honestly. She goes to a great university with a nice FA package which her father or I would not want her to give up. She had an engineer who was mentoring her informally and he suggested that she go to HR and inquire about the company’s co-op program. This was before she was let go.</p>
<p>This is an aside but my H hires engineers. It is very rare for him to have a female mechanical engineer who wants or has production experience. In my experience, companies really try to find and keep female ME’s. I thought that this would help her in this company but as others have said maybe it was out of her control</p>
<p>I went to an engineering school & have quite a few female ME friends with production experience (as we all were co-op students & most worked in production facilities). Every one of these women ended up with great jobs. Your D will, as well! She should definitely put the job on her resume, regardless of the response she gets if she decides to contact the production manager (and I also suggest email for this). She gained experience, and who gives a hoot whether or not the company thought she was a good production worker. As long as she was on time every day & worked as hard as she could, that is all that matters. I worked the line the summer between high school and college, and I am pretty sure I was AWFUL at it. I didn’t have the proper tools, and I was too “green” to know that I was supposed to have been given air tools (I was given a hand riveter, instead, and it was painful & impossible to do my job properly). No one EVER asked anyone if I was a good assembler … but they were impressed that I had actually worked on the assembly line, as it helped me to understand the people I would be managing as a production supervisor (which was very true!).</p>
<p>I am normally a face-to-face type of person. I operate better that way. In this instance I believe that a very carefully worded email is going to be your best avenue. Another poster pointed out that it gives the PM time to reflect. The job outcome isn’t going to change (as much as that stinks…and it does!). The variable now is the reference. The most effective way to get that is not to corner someone.</p>
<p>Under no circumstance would I approach anyone about this at a social/family or community function. Nothing good can come out of it, and all further job or reference will be closed to DD. I wouldn’t even talk to a neighbor about it. It sounds like people are pretty closely related and your husband is probably right to be cautious.</p>
<p>While she is old enough to fight her own battles, she’s inexperienced enough to need parental advice and coaching about tactical approaches.</p>
<p>My vote would be for a carefully worded email.</p>
<p>(I just received an email from one of my young employees telling me it was “not convenient” for her to work specific hours and it would be “more convenient” for her to have alternate specific hours … and that “c” word really gets my back up because she is still a newbie in training and not that valuable at this point. It would probably be more convenient for me to not have her at all … therefore my reasoning behind a very carefully worded email with parental input.)</p>
<p>Under the circumstances, I think it’s strange that the production manager would not have called your D directly if he knew that this had happened, though people don’t always do the right thing. Is it possible that letting your D go was an oversight and that someone did not realize that your D was hired with the understanding that it was a full summer position? </p>
<p>The email route is good for all the reasons people have mentioned (especially since it gives him time for the production manager/neighbor to get to the bottom of this if there WAS some kind of mistake), but I don’t feel that strongly about it and don’t think it’s inappropriate under the circumstances you outlined for your D to put in a call to him. It’s even possible that you might get some kind of “off the record” feedback in a phone call. Of course, he can always just pick up the phone himself and call your D back after he reads the email. </p>
<p>I know several people who have worked for temp agencies and hear that they often hire and terminate without any advance notice or explanation whatsoever. I fully understand your H’s skepticism, but you have to wonder if one hand knows what the other is doing in this case.</p>
<p>A former employer of mine (manufacturing) required all new employees at all levels in engineering, supply chain mangement and a few other functional areas to spend several months in the production environment before starting their perm positions if the employees had no actual production environment experience. The D should absolutely put this on her resume.</p>
<p>I also vote for a very carefully worded e-mail.</p>
<p>I personally would try to work in that your D is still interested in working there if circumstances change or if there is some way that she could do so besides the temporary agency. Because that is what she really wants, right? She wants the job back. And if she can’t get that, she would like a positive reference. My take is that she has nothing to lose by sending a well-worded email thanking them for the experience, notifying them that she is still very interested in working there (I’d emphasize that it is because she liked it and felt she was adding value, NOT that there aren’t any other jobs). And close with that if it not possible to be rehired for the summer, ask if she could use the person as a positive reference.</p>
<p>I completely agree with those who say mom/dad ought review the e-mail. Young employees say the dumbest things without meaning to sometimes… A young guy who sits near me told the boss today that he was too tired to concentrate, so was leaving for the day about two hours before the rest of us knocked off. He hadn’t come in early, or done any shift work or anything else.</p>
<p>Also, if she hasn’t yet, your D should talk to the temp agency about other assignments. Might not be any, but better to do something even if it is not in her line of work and earn a paycheck for the summer.</p>
<p>We are having a very heated exchange about this at my house lol! My H is very angry at the entire situation. He absolutely is not happy that the production manager has not called my D about the situation and feels that company has handled things badly. He doesn’t want her to do anything. Just chalk it up to something out of her control. She showed up to work on time and did everything that was asked from her. </p>
<p>I on the other hand think that mistakes happen and things fall in the cracks. That maybe the production manager is not aware of her situation and doesn’t know what happened. My H is convinced he does know what happened and is avoiding things. I thought my H and I were in agreement that she should email the production manager. She would like to ask the engineer who mentored her for a reference. My H thinks she should just drop everything. Put this on her resume and say that the assignment ended.</p>
<p>My D is very quiet and can’t imagine that she complained about the job or avoided work. She usually puts her head down and tries to complete the job. I am so upset and it really bothers me that we have no idea what happened.</p>
<p>My D just keeps crying about it and feeling like she failed somehow, although she has no idea what she did. To compound things she does not have the production manager’s email, just his phone number.</p>
<p>She will talk to the temp agency and see if there are other jobs. We live in a very small town though and I wonder there will be anything but she will still try.</p>