Complaint Review: George S. May

Having just recently completed the worst six months of my entire life's career as an Executive Analyst with the George S. May Company I finally feel empowered to join in with others in speaking out against this horrible company.

I too lasted far longer than anyone in my class (six months) and can attest to the accuracy of all that has been posted and rather than rehash the postings I wish to address one question that I have seen posted with great regularity; why don't more ex-employees come forward?

Let me give you some personal background before I dive into my response. I am probably the typical GSM recruit. I had a degree in business, I had succeeded in reaching the officer level in a fortune 500 company and I had "the look," the white shirt, dark suit, polished shoes, expensive watch and the graying temples that just screamed integrity and knowledge. Oh yeah...and I had been laid off from my $100,000 plus position due to downsizing, and for the first time in my life had been forced to really look for a job (incidentally, GSM is just one of the predators that are out there waiting to talk to displaced executives that happen to be over 40 years old and scared, just search for the Haldane Company on this same site).

After six months of sending out a couple of hundred resumes and getting very few calls of interest from anyone really reputable (see above reference to Haldane) or being told at interview after interview that I was too experienced or wouldn't be happy starting at such a great reduction in salary (truth be told I would have been happy just to work) the George S. May Company called me. The absolute relief at hearing that "one of the oldest and largest consulting firms in the world" was interested in me and was discussing a position where I could make, "as one of their top performers over $175,000." The more they talked the better it got, my plane fares would be covered and I would receive a per diem to cover my travel expenses, and health INSURANCE!!! I was directed, very carefully, to their
website to investigate the position further and then set up with an appointment to meet their recruiter.

If you have actually applied to GSM or have been contacted by them in response to your resume being posted on Monster then you have undoubtedly received the same spiel...I know, because on occasion I was the person calling you up to set the appointment! That's right, even the recruiting call is scripted, and in such a way as to sound enticing without giving too much information. In retrospect, I heard in your voices the same relief that I know I had in mine when I eagerly accepted the invitation to meet with the recruiter (the psychology that these guys use is truly frightening).

I watched the video on the website and realized that this was truly my calling; I was going to be helping small to mid-size business owners get back their dreams! I would be traveling to wonderful locations and meeting with people who have decided they needed the help of outside experts and since I would undoubtedly be one of the top producers I would be paid at the level that I was used to. What could possibly be the downside, right?

Evidently this initial scam works quite well amongst its target market; the desperate displaced executive. In my class we had M.B.A.s, lawyers, bankers, former business owners, Silicon Valley casualties and a couple of young, aggressive wanna-bees that fell for the pitch too. After the well documented training sessions with the inimitable Diane Gill, we were sent out, one at a time/one to a taxi, to travel home before leaving for our first assignment the following week. I probably should have paid a bit more attention to the cab driver that took me to the airport because believe me, he knew more about the company, its turnover rate, and the probability of my failure than I ever did.

I honestly felt, initially, that I was doing good for the business owners that I was calling on. The reality of the small business owner is that many of the ones I met did not have the basic business skills to effectively run (by business school standards) their own operations. I met people who had no idea how to read their Profit and Loss statements, didn't know their profit margins, had employees stealing them blind, truly were heading down the path to bankruptcy and had no one to turn to for help. I was the answer...I followed the script because I knew that, even if the methods seemed canned, the ultimate goal was to get these people the help they needed from the experts that would be following me. I was good...I could make my clients laugh or cry and I was getting closer to attaining that auto pilot attitude where I could mouth whatever "the council" wanted me to say except for one part; how would these people pay for the $40,000 in services that I was telling them they needed?

That's right, I could beat them into submission, get them to admit their faults, recognize that they had to call us in or face certain ruin, I just couldn't buy into the concept that we would take their last bit of cash flow to help them. Not that it mattered to the GSM company; I had Senexs tell me to get them on a certain credit card website to see if they could qualify for a new card to finance the services (at 18% annual interest). I was told to "roll up my sleeves" and call their overdue accounts to see if we could generate enough cash flow to "just get started." It was suggested that they call their families to see if there was a way to pool finances to get us in the door, to cover just one day (so that the next crew could have an opportunity to locate the money for the rest of the contract).

Well, I couldn't do it...oh at first it made
sense, after all I was saving them their company, but after awhile I realized that if these people actually had the cash flow to finance our services they probably didn't need us and if they had no money how on earth were they going to pay us?

I also began to question the quality of the "experts" from Management Services that followed me when I began to notice on my commission statements that very few of my jobs actually ran for the full term. Granted there were a couple that did, and a couple that ran over but by and large the vast majority ended very quickly. What was going on after I left? We were forbidden by the company from contacting our clients after we left their premises so I couldn't call to find out but I did have to do a couple of personal turnovers (where the Analyst turns over the account personally to the Management Services people at the business with the client present).

I found out that these weren't the advanced specialists that we were led to believe them to be...they were simply analysts that couldn't cut it in
the field and for whatever reason stayed on with GSM for a while longer. There job was just to print out the boilerplate notebook, eat up billable hours and stay on as long as the client could tolerate them. It sounds harsh I know, but in my mind the one justification for my actions was that I was bringing in experts,.... yeah,.... right.

I got quite a few go aheads but because I was never able to make it to the elusive "x contract," consequently the money was truly negligible. In the time I was there my commissions never went over $22,000, and thats after six full months of heavy weekly travel! I did qualify for their insurance, which incidentally is very good... probably because no one ever gets to use it.

I realized early on that what I was doing wasn't entirely right but I managed to convince myself that it wasn't entirely wrong either and thats when the company psychology kicks in again... the Senex informed me that I was being considered for a management trainee position!! That's right after just a few short months they saw in me the talent necessary to become a Senex! That would mean I wouldn't have to leave my family every Sunday night, I wouldn't have to stay in flea bag motels, I wouldn't have to drive till two or three in the morning to get to the small town where my unsuspecting victim's business was located. I just needed to play the game a little better, and get a little more ruthless at taking people's money.

Wow, essentially if I gave up all semblance of integrity in just a short time I could be the idiot screaming at bewildered, former professionals reduced to being Executive Analysts! I actually got to shadow these people (Senexs) and believe me they are every bit as intimidated by their higher ups as an analyst is.

The difference is that they know they are selling crap...and for that they can not be forgiven. I was almost willing to make this compact with the devil until a client brought the Rip-off Report to my attention (in a not so subtle way, I might add). I was astonished; this had never been discussed in training, and what made it even more disturbing was that everything I read rang true. The Senex I was working with just had the same, lame excuse cited by others, its just disgruntled ex-employees,...even Disney has complaints on this website,...don't worry about it, most people will never even read it.

Well I did, as often as I could, and the more I read the more ashamed I became of what I was doing. Here it was in black and white, the whole horrible "act," and not just for me to see but also my friends, my previous co-workers, and my family. Never had I been ashamed of what I did for employment until I joined the G.S.M. International Company.

It has taken some time to admit to myself that I was duped by this ridiculous operation. It took many nights in many "fleabag" motels, many hours sitting bored out of my mind at airports awaiting my next assignment, many holidays and birthdays away from family, and many months of facing virtual financial ruin to realize just how badly I had been had. I can not say that I ever look forward to meeting any of my former clients again because I simply can't face them knowing the economic hardship I undoubtedly put them through.

In a sense this posting has been cathartic,...if I can convince one person as to the validity of all that is posted here and persuade them not to work for or hire this company then I will feel that I have achieved something positive from my horrendous relationship with GSM.

Danny
Henderson, Nevada
U.S.A.