Yesterday the Truro Daily News reported on the story of a landscaping company in Elmsdale that used a funny ad to attract hundreds of applications for jobs as labourers and supervisors.
The ad on the Facebook page of Elmsdale Landscaping included the following hilarious paragraph:
“Please do not apply if you oversleep, have court often, do not have a babysitter everyday, have to get rides to work later than our work day begins, experience flat tires every week, have to hold onto a cell phone all day, or will become an expert at your job with no need to learn or take advice after the first day. Must be able to talk and work at the same time. Must also remember to come back to work after lunch.”
Those words, with minor variations, have been used in countless jobs over the years.
A construction contractor in New Zealand used it last spring to find a labourer, Gertie’s Tea Room in Dorking, England used it in April last year to find wait staff, a residential painting company in Halifax used it last August looking for painters, an IHOP at the Seattle Tacoma International Airport was using in February, and Jan’s Pizza Village in Westfield, Indiana used it Nov. 2015 to find “good quality people”.
Other posts on the Internet indicate the meme may have been around as far back as 2008.
Laura Coupar vice president at Elmsdale Landscaping told the Truro Daily News Thursday that the Facebook ad had brought in lots of resumes for the Elmsdale company.
“We have over 200 resumes right now and we’re going to start and sort through them,” she said. “Some people didn’t think the ad was funny but those kinds of people probably wouldn’t do too well here anyway – we all have that same sense of humour.”
Coupar could not be reached for comment on Friday.