Do you remember when singer Rod Stewart, in his trademark rasp, sang "Some Guys Have All the Luck?"
That phrase rings even truer in some business circles these days.
The news media has reported that more than a few companies in search of key personnel haven't bothered to check out the growing pool of jobless execs.
No, they'd rather spend time -- and significant effort -- to lure away someone who may not even be looking, thinking that he or she is especially worthy if still working. The Wall Street Journal quoted the CEOof a tech consulting firm who said, "If they're still employed that means they have some significant value," and two executive recruiters agreed that "more clients recently have indicated that they would prefer to fill positions with 'passive candidates'."
These decision makers are doing a great disservice to at least part of the available workforce. They seem to forget (don't care?) that many thousands of quite accomplished nonemployees have been let go through no fault of their own, the victims of onerous budget cuts, massive restructuring that wiped out whole departments, or other cruel tricks of the failing economy. In many cases, those events were set in motion by their peers in the executive suite; often, the verdict on who to dump was arrived at only after much deliberation and with sadness.
