Offer of Employment

So, today I get an Offer of Employment Letter faxed to me. Actually, I asked for it to be faxed to me so I could look it over before going in to sign it. Good thing.

The majority of the letter was no big deal. It stated the pay rate, the starting date of the position, certifications I would need to prove I had. I also would have to pass a background check, driving record check, drug test, and physical agility test. But, what it said was not an issue. The issue was what was missing. In the ad on their web site there was mentioned a $3000 sign-on bonus. I had also asked the Operations Manager prior to applying if I would be eligible since I was a prior employee (not a current employee). She said she believed so. Please also note that this service is extremely short staffed and would likely hire any medic they could right now. So, I called and talked with the HR person.

I had two questions:

1. Where is the sign-on bonus?
2. Is there any way I could get the medical benefits moved forward from the normal 90 day waiting period?

Later in the day, I was told that the 90 day period was a corporate-wide rule and she would not be able to move it. So, I explained the costs involved with renting the CPAP I just received and that I would not like doing that out-of-pocket without getting the sign-on bonus. I figured the 90-days rule would not change but I figured it would just strengthen my request for the bonus by asking. Well, the jury is still out on the bonus, they said they needed to contact the corporate office...

The whole thing that makes me nervous about this is that I felt like I was talking to a used car salesman the whole time. They kept asking me to come in sometime today and sign this letter. They asked multiple times and tried to get me to commit to a certain time. I never did. I said I needed these issues addressed first. That seemed to be an issue with them because Monday was a holiday and so the HR person would not be in until Tuesday. What makes it really odd, my agreed upon start date is October 11th. So what’s the rush? Just did not seem right to me to rush in and sign this so fast.

What am I not being told?