Finally, we have John Pliniussen, a former Finance Manager at the Harlequin Division of Torstar.

Can you tell me about a job that really stuck out in your mind?

After Undergrad, in the late 1970s, I was hired as a manager of Finance, Credit & Collections within the Harlequin division at Torstar. I had responsibilities towards market research and credit and collections.

How did you find out about the position?

The Director of Finance there had worked with me before, and he called me and said we have an opening below me, I think you should apply. So it was a warm contact because of us working together and getting along at a previous job. I’ve come to know that that’s become very common. Wherever you’re working, make more friends than enemies. Because the friends you make at the same level as you, or one level up, in the future, may recommend you for a job.

What were your main tasks at the job?

One of my main tasks there was credit and collections. We had about 175,000 people who were clients of our book of the month and record of the month club division. So the job was you would sign up, you would get your 12 books sent to you that you had agreed to buy. We would send you your first book and then for some reason people wouldn’t pay. This is back in the day before computers, and the challenge was coming up with a way to incentivise people in LA or Vancouver or wherever they were, to pay their 15 dollars. Because now we’ve gone into bad debt - where it was over 35 days’ accounts receivable. So my job was to come up with a system that could do that. One month we had 100,000 clients go into bad debt. All over North America. The challenge back then was to mail a letter would cost a dollar. So that’s either a lot of expensive letters to send, or something else. We found out the problem had been caused via a coding error made by a new worker who hadn’t been properly trained or supervised. So this person would resend books to customers who wanted to end their membership. Instead, he coded them as new customers so they got another 12 books that they weren’t going to pay for because they had ceased their membership.

Think back to your first few weeks there. Was there anything that properly surprised you?

Yes. What surprised me were 3 questions I hadn’t asked in the interview – that if I’d known the answers I would’ve never taken the job. The first question was “How many people am I supposed to have in this department working for me.” They would’ve said 5. It turns out I had 2. If I’d known that I would’ve asked the second question. “So how long have the three positions been unfilled?” and they would’ve said a year. And then I would’ve asked the final question: “So what’s happened to all that work?” Then they would’ve said that it’s been piling up, and the reason the other guy left is because there was just too much work. So I had to inherit this, so I’m already behind a year. I guess this would’ve led to another question of “So why haven’t those positions been filled?” “Because no one wants to work here, because we have such a high turnover, because our vice president isn’t very nice.” And I guess actually the final question would’ve been “Why are they still here then?” and the answer: “Because no one wants to hire them, because their skill set is weak But they’re your two staff, so good luck.”

So what did you do next?

So how do you deal with all of those things? This isn’t something you can learn in a case study. What I should’ve done is talk to some of my friends and ask them for some tips. But back then I thought I couldn’t be vulnerable, as I was young and inexperienced. But after all I’m smart, I got the job, got a promotion, a company car and so on - people would think that everything’s going so well, but in reality, it was misery, pain and suffering. So I few times I found myself in tears because I over challenged and under skilled. This was all new to me. So I kept quiet, got my head down and did the best I could to catch up.

Were you ever able to catch-up before you left?

No, never. It actually got worse.

Were you ever able to fill the vacancies?

We got one person who was good, but the other two just couldn’t do it. The people we interviewed would ask the right questions. This job actually paid double what my previous job paid, and you can see why.

Seems like silly question, but did you enjoy your time there?

No, none of it. But looking back on it, the reason I’m where I am today, is because of the tough stuff I had to endure. “Pressure makes diamonds” is a saying I came to believe in. Sometimes bad experiences open the door to good luck. I had never had these types of feelings before. I tried for a year, year and a half. After a year or so I started looking for a new job. And this led to something else and so on which brought me back to school, which helped me realise I should be a prof. So if I hadn’t met my boss, who just wasn’t helpful at all, and hadn’t gone through those tough times, all of my good fortune would never have happened. Sometimes you need to lose yourself to find yourself.

The day I resigned – what a story…. I call the $17,000 letter. I go to the VP of Human Resources. He’s a good friend, asks me what’s going on and I said I’m here to resign. He then gave me a look – a look that your brother or someone important would give you if you’d just broken a huge trust. A “How could you?” kind of look. So he asks me why I’m resigning. So I was diplomatic and said I got a better offer somewhere else. He asked if there was something missing here and I said “no, it was just a better offer”. I should have given him a list of all the challenges and made suggestions as to how to best resolve them.

Then the VP asked - “So why didn’t you come and talk about it?” When he said that, it opened my mind. I had never even thought about going to HR for help and guidance. He could’ve helped me, it just never occurred. So anyway he says “I’m really disappointed, but I understand. But it’s interesting timing, because tomorrow I was going to announce that we’re closing this division, and invite you to move to new location, either full time in Toronto or temporarily in Arizona. If you didn’t want to go, you could have half a year’s severance pay.” So a half years’ severance was about $17,000. So I said to him “Can I have my letter back?” and he said no. So I shook his hand and left, told all members of staff, and found out I was the only one in the entire company not to get the severance. No one wanted to move, so people took a couple months off, bought a car, whatever they wanted. But when I look back at it I now see it was best for me to have moved on even without the severance pay.

Would you recommend this job?

Well, one thing I believe in, is that if you’re offered a job, take it. If it works out, good. If it doesn’t, good. In every job I’ve had; I’ve learnt many things about values, discipline, people, etc. All the bad jobs, I’ve learnt more. Even though it’s harder to admit I couldn’t handle it and I’m wasting my time, there’s something about serendipity. You don’t know that one meeting you had a year ago could open a door to a possibility you wouldn’t ever know existed. So I guess I was very fortunate that I’ve been able always learn from the situation I have been in. and I can attribute that to my good education/.

In the end, I believe that is what a good education prepares you for…constant learning, striving and never giving up.

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