Call it the luck of the Irish, yet, Mayor O'Shaughnessy, Mayor of all the people in Cityville really had no idea what he was setting in motion. It was the day he first 'officially' invoked the word LUCK at a Council meeting.
It is a day that will live in infamy!
Council had just finished the business of the day when the Clerk, on cue, looked directly at the Mayor and asked "are there any other matters to discuss?" O'Shaughnessy, a short and rather portly man, waddled to the mike.
The Mayor drew himself to his full height, placed his pudgy hands on the podium peered over his glasses and took a studied sip of water, then, he ahemmed a couple of times to get everyone's attention.
In his very best "mayors" voice, he announced "We are going to try our LUCK at advertising. We (really meaning he) believe that putting an ad in the paper and a posting the position on a few web sites is the cheapest way to find our new Town Manager".
Council immediately bought into the idea of cheap LUCK. They trusted the Mayor who always carried a rabbits foot, and who was well known for frugality. It was said he could "hang onto money like gum to a picnic table!"
That's when the "unseen forces" went to work.
Most people probably don't know this but when career ads are printed in papers and posted on web sites it's the Leprechauns - all members of The International Luck Workers Union 1726 who fiddle with the words and position the ads to make certain they are 'just so' for maximum affect.
As soon as the ad runs another special team of Leprechauns goes to work leaving newspapers open in strategic places, like bathrooms. They whisper in ears and nudge others awake sometimes even at night. They are known to secretly re-start computers at peculiar times. They also arrange for 'pop ups' to open at certain job sites, until finally they have done their magic and the word gets out to all the people on their list.
And who are those people on the Leprechaun's list?
Well, according to history Leprechauns have a mandate. That mandate can be found right there in the original letters patent of the International Luck Workers Union 1726.
If you don't believe me you can see it for yourself anytime you like... it's a matter of public record. We have reprinted the salient part for your convenience, but every public library has a copy. Written 100 years ago, it goes something like this:
Heretofore and forever hereafter, all people shall know by this document that we the Leprechauns, keepers of all creative thought when it comes to career advertising make oath and say as follows:
It is the unemployed and unhappy, the disgruntled and down hearted who shall be, and are, and always will remain our main focus of concern.
We will also make sure that no one who is happy, employed or both will ever reply to a Newspaper ad or job posting.
Signed In the presence of witnesses this St Patrick's Day the 17th of March 1910
Chief Leprechaun O'Pat
~
Meanwhile back at Cityville the resumes began pouring in. "This is great!" said the Mayor as he watched the mailman struggle with a big bag of replies.
Temps had to be hired to keep up while regular staff worked overtime just trying to read all the curriculum vitae. They even had to buy extra larger in-baskets to handle all the paper.
"It was really LUCKY I thought about advertising" mused the Mayor ....then he started to read some of the applications.
His face turned red and he almost burst a gasket when it was discovered there wasn't a decent candidate in the bunch.
"This can't be!" raged O'Shaughnessy," do you mean to tell me that we spent 12,000 bucks on advertising not to mention all that overtime for this stack of worthless paper?"
The Mayor who had an intuitive grasp of the obvious quickly calculated that this was a little more than half the cost of hiring a professional who would guarantee the results.
To make matters worse advertising comes with no warranty at all!
That day Mayor O'Shaughnessy e-mailed and called Bruce Malcolm at Ravenhill Group, 1-877-830-0500, which is exactly what he should have done in the first place proving you don't have to lucky to be smart!
'Depend on the rabbit's foot if you will, but remember it didn't work for the rabbit.'
R.E. Shay
D.
