Unhappy at Work? Try Selling Your Boss

March 7, 2008 — -- Sick of your boss? Sell him.

Seriously.

A new advertisement from an online recruiting company suggests that disgruntled employees would do well to cast off nasty superiors by referring them to jobs at other companies. A successful referral, according to the ad, would result in a cash reward for the employee.

"Who hasn't thought about getting rid of his boss?" said Dr. Andreas Koestler, the chief executive of Yello PTE, the company behind the promotion. "That would be a new way of actually making money getting rid of your boss."

The ad, an animated viral video released earlier this year on YouTube, Google Video and other Web sites, is for Yellojobs.com, a job listings Web site based in India and Thailand that allows users to recommend jobs to others. (Yello PTE is a parent company of Yellojobs.com) If someone is hired as a result of a user's recommendation, the user is compensated for his efforts with cash.

The video is targeted at an Indian audience. It begins with Prakash, an animated character aggravated by a boss who barks orders with grating frequency. Things looks dismal for the put-upon man until a light bulb appears over his head (literally) and a light techno soundtrack foreshadows the happy times to come: Suddenly, Prakash is typing furiously at his computer. Shortly thereafter, his boss receives a phone call, smiles and bids Prakash good-bye. After he leaves, Prakash pulls out a wad of bills and counts them with glee.

The ad, which was produced by the marketing company Regalix, tells "a nice little story that you might want to laugh at," Koestler said. But chuckles aside, Koestler said he believes it is possible for people to use the Web site to find new jobs for their bosses.

The ad doesn't quite tell the whole story. Watching the video alone may lead a user to assume that a referral can be made anonymously and that your boss will never know that you had a hand in that sudden, grin-inducing recruitment call. Not so — potential recruits are first invited to apply for a job in an e-mail that also names the person making the referral.