I first heard back from HSA Bank about a week and a half after I applied online, being invited for a half-hour telephone interview. About a week after this interview, HSA Bank was pushy, even downright arrogant, in all but insisting that I come in *the next day* for an in-person interview. When I mentioned that my being currently employed posed significant difficulty with that, I was told that the entire next day had been reserved for interviews. I found the tone aggressive and demanding.
Strike one, HSA Bank.
"If this is how HSA Bank treats job applicants," I thought, "how does it treat its employees?"
When I came in the next day, I was given an apology for the short notice. I was told that in-person interviews were being done both that day and the entire day a week later. This, again, did little for my confidence or trust in HSA Bank as an employer. At best, the short notice I was at first given was bungled communication; at worst, it might have been a "power trip."
The in-person interview gave me cause for even more pause. The new job, I was told, was created to meet the company's ever-growing workload which, I was further told, would approximately double, given how HSA Bank had recently acquired the HSA (health savings account) portfolio of JPMorgan Chase. HSA Bank, via this interview, seemed to be seeking a person willing to put up with a heavy workload, with many overlapping, ever-changing deadlines and last-minute demands for unpaid overtime, including on evenings and weekends.
About a week later, I was called for a second-round interview with a different interviewer. HSA Bank seemed almost as pushy as was the case with the first interview.
Strike two, HSA Bank.
I felt not-so-subtle pressure to come in for the second-round interview that same week, but this time, I made it clear that I would be available the next week.
While I acknowledged during both in-person interviews that the nature of proposal writing meant that crises and tight, unexpected deadlines would crop up from time to time, I noted also that I believed very strongly in being proactive to anticipate and prevent such crises and, as much as possible, in working a regular schedule.
I never heard again from HSA Bank. My voicemails regarding the status of the job never got so much as even a voicemail reply. Typical -- but still rude.
Based on the salary range described to me, given the expected level of unpaid overtime for the HSA Bank job, my hourly pay would be the same as, or likely lower than, my current hourly pay -- likely for more hours worked. No, thank you, HSA Bank. Good luck on retaining for any length of time whomever you hired. HSA Bank, at least with regard to this job, seems likely to be a "revolving door."
In my current proposal writer's job, I am paid time-and-a-half for overtime. The practice of not
paying "exempt" workers in America for overtime means, in effect, that for employers, their
overtime hours come for free. No, "comp time" *doesn't* make up for this, even when it *is*
granted and observed. This shows why (1) we need to end such abuse of "exempt" workers
and (2) white- and pink-collar workers in America, at HSA Bank and elsewhere, need stronger
legal protections of their rights as well as strong, relentless unions.