Complaint Review: Alar Corporation - Santa Ana California

Amber,  

When I met you, I liked you.  I thought you had a good heart.  Knowing that we needed p/t help in accounting and thinking I could use a p/t personal assistant, I created a job for you.   At the time, you understood that the position was new.  You wanted to start immediately, and I made that happen for you even though we weren't quite ready for you to start.  You were clear that the job included running errands for me.  You said you were "flexible".

I know sometimes coworkers share things about their personal lives.  That's pretty normal in the workplace.  However, if you felt uncomfortable in any way at any time about conversations you were having with others, you really needed to inform me or our Risk Manager, so that we could take appropriate action.  Now that we've been made aware of your allegations, we will investigate and proceed accordingly.

Amber, it saddens me to read what you wrote.  If ever you had a problem with our systems, discussions, or whatever, my door was always open and I would have listened to your feedback.  But to come on the internet and call me unethical and racist is just wrong.  The events you describe are either complete fabrications or taken so far out of context that they are still lies.  I am probably one of the most ethical people you'll ever meet.  And those that know me, know that. 

Amber, the truth is that you were very upset when things didn't work out for you at Alar.  But to write what you wrote here is pretty hateful.  It says a lot about you and the person you choose to be. 

Nonetheless, I wish you the best.  If there's anything I can do for you, please call me.  I will always help you, if I can.

For now, just remember what Zig Ziglar once said:  "It's not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life, it's how you handle what happens to you."  May his words help you go far.

I wish I would have seen this report sooner, either before I got hired by Alar or right after I was unfairly "let go" by them. I do not know if I would call my experience a "rip off" or just a waste of time and effort on my part, not to mention the discrimination, immoral behavior, and disrespectful comments I was exposed to. The unprofessional and unorganized manner in which the business is ran should have been apparent to me from the start but I really needed a job and thought that working for a staffing agency would be great, that I could gain valuable experience and learn a lot.

I interviewed with Pati Cinkle late in the afternoon on a Thursday in July of 2009. I was hired by Pati on the spot and asked to start the next day. I arrived on time for work as requested. I was supposed to be working with the Accounting Manager that day. The Accounting Manager arrived 15-20 minutes late and had no idea who I was and what I was doing there. Pati Cinkle never communicated the information to the accounting manager. So after waiting nearly a half hour for the accounting manager to arrive I then had to wait nearly two hours for her to go through her emails, her voicemails, then finally contact Pati Cinkle to find out what I was supposed to be doing and then wait for Pati Cinkle's response.

When hired I was not told I was hired for a temporary position. I wasn't told that it would be a temp to hire position until the following day when I reported for work. I accepted the temp to hire status as I knew I could do the work and would impress anyone who hired me with my intelligence, qualifications, and skills. I wasn't given a timeline on the temporary status until weeks later when I requested a resolution and that deadline originally given wasnt realistic either because Pati was going on a several week vacation to Europe. The timeline seemed very unclear and unplanned entirely.

I was hired by Pati to do accounts payable, help with contracts, and other administrative duties as needed. The first task I was given as an employee was to run a personal errand for Pati and take back some make-up she had purchased. I was even asked to purchase new make-up products out of my own pocket and would be reimbursed later.

I was eventually trained on the accounts payable procedures required at Alar which were not difficult to learn however the training took a ridiculous amount of time. While being trained by the accounting manager I had to listen to hours of personal calls and complaining from the accounting manager about Pati Cinkle and how she liked things done and how difficult she was to work for. I was being paid my regular wage that I worked hard to achieve and I was doing remedial tasks and sent on wild goose chases for special projects and purchases and personal tasks for Pati Cinkle.

I do have to say I was shown amazing kindness by Pati Cinkle and was allowed to take a week of paid bereavement upon the passing of my brother for which I will always be grateful.

One of the biggest problems I had with this employer was the accounting manager for whom I looked to most often for direction in this position. During training we of course talked her conversations always seemed of a more personal and less professional manner she talked about her relationships to which I responded about mine. I am a l*****n and had to listen to her remarks about l*****n relationships, her experiences in a l*****n relationship, and her misunderstandings about l*****n relationships. Also in one of her many rants about her relationships she talked about her abusive relationship with her ex husband and I concerned about her told her she should talk to her therapist about it that I had been to therapy and it was helpful. To which she replied, "Are you crazy I dont go to therapy, I go to physical therapy, and only crazy people go to therapy". The accounting manager was so unprofessional it was astonishing.

I also believe she was under qualified for the position she holds as she kept asking me how to do many of her tasks such as some taxes she was preparing at the same time as she was training me.

I was also exposed to some unethical and fraudulent practices. I was made to sit through a meeting between Pati Cinkle, the accounting manager, and I of how they could tamper with and manipulate some workers compensation categories to reduce their workers compensation costs. I also witnessed the owner Pati Cinkle making racist remarks about an employee. An issue came up about an employees time card to which she replied "Well she's black, listen to her name... (name said) that sure sounds like a black persons name to me." Everyone in the room at the time laughed but I was actually appalled.

After all of this I still was shocked when I was let go. Though I was not 100% satisfied with my employment there I was also extremely stressed and depressed about the death of my brother and did not think I had it in me to go through the instability of moving on from this position and searching for a new job in a horrible economy. It is much more common for an employee to settle with a less than ideal job than an employer is to settle with a less than ideal employee. When I was let go from this position it was only approximately one week after being hired on as a regular employee and no longer a temp. The explanation I was given when being let go was that I was doing a wonderful job, I was very smart, and a pleasure to work with but Pati saw my resume and the wonderful skills I had and didnt want to let me get away but they hired me before they actually had a position for me. Though if I had been given the full responsibility of the position for which I was hired it would have made a fulltime position.

This to me felt as though I was taken advantage of and my time had been wasted on a whim. This is unfair and unethical in my opinion in these horrible economic times. I did work and get paid for everything but it was still a waist of my time. My time was not valued and I could have spent the time wasted at that position finding a new job or moving onto my new goal of reaching my education goals.

My intent with this is not to slenderize Alar or Pati Cinkle but maybe help someone looking for work possibly save themselves some time and not invest too much time and effort in pursuing positions with Alar because it seems to be kind of hit and miss. It works for some it doesnt work for others but that doesnt mean Pati Cinkle couldnt learn something about valuing other people and their time a little more. And possibly learn something about the inappropriate actions of her management employee.

I'm a General Manager in the manufacturing industry and have used this agency at two different manufacturing sites. Not only did we receive exceptional service from Alar but we also received a degree of exceptional behavior from Alar staffing that we don' always experience from other temp agencies; integrity, honesty, professionalism and courtesy that go way beyond our normal expectations. I've also visited their main office and found it to be very organized and professional. All of the Alar representatives are working diligently and the possible new hires were going through the formal interview process quite quickly. Alar has the ability to find class individuals who perform admirably. In my book they are BEST IN CLASS and you would be very fortunate to work for Alar. At the same time if you are an employer it would behoove you to seek their services for everything that I've noted above plus extremely competitive pricing. It's a true win-win for both the employee and the employer.

We will not respond to slanderous and inaccurate comments of a competitor.  We wish them well in this tough economy.

I invite anyone who has a negative experience with Alar to contact me personally, and I will work to resolve the issue promptly.

Pati Cinkle
President
714-667-3104

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Amazing the owner of the company can come on here and slam an ex associate. Please understand that your associates are your bread and butter. Without them your business is nothing. Maybe you can explain to use why you are banned the Houdini in Fullerton and a bunch of other accounts...... Or should we guess its the HR department their at fault?

Sadly, I did not see this posting before today or I would have responded sooner. Jennifer applied for a 2-3 week temporary assignment as a Designer Artist. The position required basic experience drawing black & white objects in Illustrator. Jennifer's portfolio and Illustrator test score (85% on Application Use) more than qualified her for the temporary assignment. Unfortunately, the client was unimpressed, and requested that her assignment be ended after one day. We sent a replacement shortly thereafter. Although the replacement had less experience than Jennifer, the client was so pleased with her performance and attitude, that they hired her on directly after a few months. We find it odd that Jennifer and her family are so "upset" and "angry". After all, she was unemployed when she applied, she was paid for the hours she worked, and she was never promised anything more than an opportunity for a short-term assignment. Seriously, where is the "rip-off"? Her comments are outlandish and really just ridiculous. We wish Jennifer the best of luck in all that she does. Hopefully she has now moved on, and figured out how to improve the world from the inside-out.