For Keswick resident Adam Squires, landing his next job ended up being a far more arduous journey than he imagined.
Squires had thought he had a warehouse job lined up at the new Loblaws facility in East Gwillimbury, after receiving what he said was a verbal offer with an expected email follow-up. After leaving a job of 13 years, he then found out the offer was not real — and ended up out of work for months.
Squires said he has finally landed a full-time warehouse job in Aurora with Flow Hydration and is now working to bounce back.
Squires recounted his story in December, left jobless after attending what he thought would be his first day at Loblaws, only to discover he had not actually received a job. Squires found himself in a dire situation and his life turned upside down after leaving a good job for this one.
A Loblaws spokesperson said at the time it does not make verbal offers in its hiring practices, there was no verbal offer in this case and the situation was due to a “misunderstanding.” The company expressed sympathy and said they reached out to the career help company Job Skills to have him to apply to another position in the Loblaws network.
Applying for other Loblaws positions did not work out for Squires, who spent months unemployed, he said. But after difficulty, Squires said he landed a position he is happy with, warehouse work similar to what he expected with Loblaws.
“It’s a really good place,” Squires said. “I’m doing very well there.”
“It was a rough couple months. I was putting out applications everywhere,” Squires said. “Everything ended up working out. I’m at a great place.”
Still, he said he yet to move on entirely after the Loblaws ordeal.
“I just don’t want this to happen to other people,” Squires said. “My goal right now is to get my bills caught up and everything first. Then I’m going to be talking to a lawyer.
Squires said he has had people reach out to him experiencing similar things in the job hunt process, adding he may explore a legal recourse.
“All I care about is what I lost in the process,” he said. “It was a terrible thing that happened … I just want to right a wrong. That’s what I want to do, and I don’t want anybody else to go through (that).”
“I’m taking it day by day right now,” he said. “Just get myself out of this hole first and move on with everything and go from there.”