What are recruiters' 5 biggest pet peeves with travelers?

I'm not asking this to stir hard feelings. I like to keep as much of a harmonious work relationship as I can between the "holy trinity" (traveler/recruiter/facility). Since travelers are never in the recruiters office, we never hear the gripes and peeves. Here is your chance to get the word out there. Fire away.......

LOL....okay, but you asked.

Honestly, it's a very tough and stressful job, (just like nursing or therapy) and you're workign with a lot of variables that can change at the drop of a hat. Since our business is working with people, there's no textbook way to work with a nurse or therapist...each situation is different and warrants a different recruiting style. Here are the biggest obstacles in a recruiter's life.

1. Travelers that don't return phone calls, emails, or texts for a day or two...ESPECIALLY when a perfect job just opened up. Once the call is returned, the job is closed, and sometimes the traveler thinks I was pulling a bait and switch. I understand that healthcare professionals are working with patients during the day, and you don't have the luxury of always being an arm's length from a phone....but, I'm (personally) available during business hours or on my cell in the evenings. I have had a few travelers who felt weird about calling me at 7 or 8 in the evening on my cell to give me an update, but I would rather know something after hours than know nothing at all. Plus, it's really exciting to walk in the doors here first thing in the morning with news, it makes the day run a lot smoother and faster for us.

2. Travelers that assume we're making thousands per week off of them. I promise, I am not driving a BMW to work. If you saw what the average travel recruiter makes, you'd be glad you decided to go ahead and get that degree in your field.

3.  Travelers that have a severe dislike for recruiters or agencies, and treat everyone associated with the agency poorly because they feel we are pushing our way into a market as a middleman. The main thing to remember is that agencies allow you to have your finances organized during tax time, we provide worker's comp and liability insurance, we organize licensure processes for all 50 states in order to put you on the right track, we go out and find the positions/housing/locations for you, so the only thing you have to do is conduct the phone interview and let us know what you want to do. Sure, you can make a lot more money if you work directly with a facility as a 1099 contractor, but if any of you have gone out and contracted, you know just how nutty this industry is....ESPECIALLY at the HR level of a major SNF chain or hospital, or with the IRS and filing your 1099 at tax time.

4. Travelers that don't tell you what they REALLY want. Sure, I can look for something in northern California for you, but I have had searches where I have lost candidates to locations halfway across the country from their target. (One big example was a candidate that wanted TN randomly accepting a position in WI.) If there's something out there that would change your mind or you would consider, we will gladly go to work for you to find it, but we can't work on what we don't know.

5. This is the big one - travelers that have equal (or no) loyalty to any and every agency. One of the biggest allies you can have in this marketplace is a recruiter who will fight for you. If you open yourself up as a free agent and take positions from whoever calls you at the right time, (while ignorning voicemails from your current agency earlier that day about the same job) then you're encouraging this marketplace to become less and less professional on the staffing agency side. If shady tactics work, then companies will start employing shady recruiters who will make those tactics their policy. Granted, I understand things are competitive, but if you will leave me after a year and a half for 25 cents an hour more, why would I push my account managers to find you a perfect fit?

Sorry that got a little long-winded, but like I was saying, it is a stressful job....hahah.  

In response, I would love to ask - what are your top 5 biggest pet peeves with recruiters? My job is to understand travelers, so I would love to have that peek inside your brain.

Thanks for the honesty Luke! We really appreciate it! It sounds like you work really hard for your travelers. I commend you on being willing to take after hour calls!

I can only speak from my own experiences about my my personal peeves, I'm sure there are others that may feel the same though. So here we go in no particular order.


1) Recruiters that don't return calls. You are our only life-line to the company for which we work. When we can't reach you during business hours, we feel "cut-off". I Don't expect you to be on-call 24/7 or keep an additional company cell phone on you (however that would be great... for us at least). 

2) Fake "emergency on-call" recruiters. It's really bad to think that we have a safety net that isn't really there. Any time I have had to use these people, they seem to be nothing more than live answering machines, their common response was "I'll leave a message for your recruiter to call you tomorrow." Honestly, if it could wait till tomorrow, we would just call TOMORROW, or call and leave a voicemail on your work phone.

3) Dishonest recruiters. Catching a recruiter telling me a lie makes me categorize them slightly lower than a sleazy used car salesman. Not only do I refuse to work with the recruiter or company in the future, but I go out of my way to make sure everyone knows the situation and I try to prevent anyone from ever using them if at all possible.

4) Recruiters that "withhold" pertinent information about money. If there are bonuses with stipulations..... Let us know about the stipulations. If we don't get the bonus even if it is our own fault (but we didn't know the stipulation UP FRONT) we feel that we were cheated and that the stipulation was "made-up" after the fact.

5) I believe the worst thing a recruiter can do is play the "best buddy" until they get you to sign the contract and then don't want to help you with anything or even act like they know you........ that is until its time to renew a contract.

Ooops, sorry Luke, I'm guilty of your #1 pet peeve!!  I'm also PARTLY guilty of #5.

1) I am one of those that feel REALLY bad about calling after hours.  I usually don't get the message until after hours anyway. I THINK "I'll call him first thing in the morning."  By then,  I've totally forgotten. By the time I think about it again,  I'm in the middle of patient care. 

In hindsight, it's better to leave a message after hours then to forget to call. I apologize and will be more mindful of phone calls from now on

5) I am a very loyal person.  I feel like I'm cheating on my recruiter if I talk to another   HOWEVER, different companies seem to have different positions at times.  If I don't have a lot of options in an area, I'll call around (i.e. check a website) to see what else might be available.  It's not like I have 10 recruiters and who ever talks to me first gets the contract.  That's not the case at all.  I talk to 2 people to see who has the best options for that area.  I'd rather just stay with one company if only it were a perfect world.

Kevin - I have another to add to your list:
 
6) Unethical Recruiters.  I've had people call me and ask what assignment I'm on.  If I cancel with my current company and go with them, I could make so much more an hour.  No thanks!! You're a dirtbag, I can already tell.  I've also had recruiters call me AT WORK to convince me to leave my current job as I could make so much more $$ with them.  Again...dirtbag. 

I think it's unethical to call someone at work to try to "steal" them.  The same goes for trying to "steal" a job from another company.  I'd rather make less money and have a recruiter who has some integrity.

PEEVE - - - -  Sneaky recruiters

Happybuterfli's post about recruiters calling to try to "hi-jack" her, reminded me of this......

As I have mentioned in other postings, I have a buddy that is a recruiter. I often ask him about "less than honest" practices by shady recruiters. He basically made me feel like an idiot when he pointed something out to me. Mainly because I had been unknowingly guilty of it more than once. Let me ask everyone; Have you ever received this call? More like HOW MANY TIMES have you heard this call?.........

Recruiter)   Hey,Sally traveler! How are you? Its Ricky recruiter from the worlds greatest travel company.

Traveler) I'm great Ricky, how are you doing?

Recruiter)  Things are going great at work. I was just calling to touch base with you and see how you were doing. So are you on contract right now?

Traveler) Yes, I am.

Recruiter) Oh? Which agency did you go with?

Traveler) Super-duper Agency Inc.

Recruiter) Really, Where at?

Traveler) General Hospital in Mobile, Alabama

Recruiter) Great! What are you doing at the hospital and how are you liking it there? Are there a lot of travelers there?

Traveler) It's nice. They've got me on the cardiac floor working 7P-7A. I'm working with 3 other travelers on my shift.

Recruiter) Thats good to hear. Are they paying you well?

Traveler) Pretty good. $35 an hour and I got a $1500 completion bonus coming.

Recruiter) Well thats wonderful.  When are you going to be done there?

Traveler) End of April

Recruiter) I'm glad to hear things are working out well for you. I want you to keep me in mind when you get ready for that next contract, ok? You know we'd love to have you working with us and I'm sure we could make it worth your while. I'll talk to you later. Bye.


So what just happened? Did the recruiter just call to touch base, be nice and see how you were doing? No, They were fishing for new facility info. They learned the following: General Hospital in Mobile, AL is using travelers through Super-duper agency. The traveler is making $35/hr on a cardiac floor and getting a bonus. They know there are at least 3 travelers just on that one shift, on that one floor. And your contract is coming due in April.

This info is passed to someone else at the company and the hospital gets a call from the new agency telling them They can get better nurses cheaper! The next agency will be paying their travelers $33/hr and you may find that YOUR contract renewal didn't go through and that your current agency doesn't have that contract anymore................or for some reason you have to take a pay-cut to stay there, or wont get another bonus. 

Why so? The worlds greatest travel company used the info YOU gave them to under-cut their competition (your current company).

Kevin

The last peeve just made my day. I've seen that happen a lot. The good news is, unless a traveler is fairly new, they usually pick up a jerk fairly quickly:)

I get frustrated a lot of times as an account manager when i get a call from one of my travelers saying the very same thing. "Someone called me at work today and the front desk said it was my travel company so I picked up...it wasn't you..."

That is so irritating. Fortunately the person that happened to is very loyal and super awesome so it was no biggie.

It's getting rough out there man. There are a lot of agencies. There are a lot of travelers. It seems to be turning into this little mini war of where to go and what to do on both sides. People are getting sneaky and sometimes take it to an extreme (i.e. calling into your place of work) but don't get flustered and waste a lot of time on it. Seriously, like I said before you can usually pick up on a jerk fairly quickly. I know I can. :) (YES I have passed on a few travelers who have called demanding in a very rude manner and who have actually said "STOP TALKING. DON'T CARE. FIND ME THE JOB OR GET THE BLEEP OFF MY PHONE" They called ME! LOL)

Back to jerks.

Recruiters for instance...
If you call them the second time and they can't remember your name or what you do? JERK. They are overloaded or just unorganized. They SHOULD (if they have invested time in your interest) keep your file close...and know your name.

If you try to tell them no thank you you're happy where you are and KEEP getting calls? JERK.  They have you on a list of callbacks and don't care that you're already good to go. On the other hand, if they say "Well is it cool if I call back in a few weeks?" Trust that. They will.

Yes, jerk is a hateful term...and sometimes it isn't just the agencies that are jerks. I've come across a few travelers who have seriously scarred some recruiters. But honestly some of the people in this industry don't understand that travelers pretty much trust their lives to us and vice versa. Luke is right. We're not sitting at solid gold desks roasting marshmallows over a pile of burning $20s. I do have a lot of Happy Meal toys on my desk, but that's about as fancy as it gets...and far from the point. We invest a lot of our lives into making sure the travelers we work with are happy.

Now that I have rambled for what seems like an hour...I'll just say this. The business relationships between the recruiter and the traveler should be much simpler and a lot less like a scene out of Braveheart.

HA HA HA @ "The business relationships between the recruiter and the traveler should be much simpler and a lot less like a scene out of Braveheart." Hilarious!

Great dialogue Travelbookers!  I agree with all the comments.  Some are dirtbags...some are JERKS...but not the ones I work with.  Professionalism and loyalty really are worth quite a bit.  It's about having a business partnership with you recuiter and staffing company.  Act professional and everyone benefits. 

Speaking of professionalism...anyone have an opinion on NATHO?  It's the National Assoc. of Travel Healthcare Organizations.  It's a new organization designed to set standards for the travel industry.  Some travelers think it's a smokescreen of propaganda.  The concept seems good to me but there are so many issues to consider.  Healthcare Travelbook is a member, but we are NOT a staffing agency, so these issues do not affect us. 

What's your take?

 http://natho.org/newsletters/NATHO%20Quarterly%20Newsletter%20-%201st%20Quarter%202010.htm 

It's my opinion that NATHO is a crock. They are non-profit (which is easily scammed). Who oversees NATHO? What real authority does NATHO have? If you don't abide by their rules what? They won't list you on their site? 

The president of NATHO is also the president of Emerald Health Services (a travel agency),  the "board " consists of heads of other "Large" traveler companies.

So are they going to police themselves, police the smaller mom-n-pop companies, or police the travelers????????

Who's best interest are they REALLY concerned with? The traveler's, The facility's, or the Agencies?

I SMELL A SKUNK!!!!!!!!  (several actually)

Copy/paste the link at the top. Scroll to the bottom and see who is on the board. There are NO impartial parties.

Wes, you should send Rebecca to the Staffing Industry Healthcare Staffing Conference in Chicago Sept 21-22 !!!!!! Have her get the inside scoop on things!

Here is the list of NATHO board members for those that didn't want to copy and past the link in the above post

  



I would also like to give a special thanks to our board members for all of their hard work with NATHO:

 

Allison Beer      –        RN Network

Bobbi Henson   –        Medfinders

Cynthia Kinnas –        Clinical One

Jonathan Ward  –        Cross Country Staffing

Kris Cannon      –        On Assignment

Steve Wehn       –        AMN Healthcare

 

Thanks for your time and I look forward to seeing all of you at our upcoming annual meeting in Chicago.

 

 

-          Mark

 

 

Mark Stagen

President, NATHO

CEO, Emerald Health Services
  

Thanks Kevin for the link.  I have actually met Mark Stagen and Cynthia Kinnas.  I attended the NATHO membership meeting last summer as part of the Staffing Industry Analyst - Healthcare Summit in D.C.  Your point of view is interesting and one that I have heard a few times before.  It's great dialogue.  I can personally attest to the professionalism of Cynthia and Mark.  Trust me, I was the ONLY traveler at the conference last year. It's an executive level conference.  I recall some of the topics from their meeting.  One in particular:  funded a study of the true cost of hiring travelers vs. full-time staff.  Their study showed that while travelers APPEAR much more expensive, when comprehsive costs are considered, they are ACTUALLY about the same or less than full time staff.  So their efforts seem to be to advocate for the travel industry.  Their discussion during the meeting seemed very genuine.

Since this is an open community, and dialogue is healthy and helpful, I will invite NATHO to join the discussion.  Any other travelers have an opinion?  Any recruiters have an opinion?

 I will admit, I know very little of NATHO other than what I have read today. I'm just VERY weary of large corporations combining forces in order to regulate "THEMSELVES". 

I guess it goes back to a situation I stumbled upon years ago. In this one city there were 2 very large hospitals. They would hold an annual meeting between the CEO and Boards of both hospitals. They would discuss various community issues such as having "Set dates" for what they called "Primary ER of the day" and group community health fairs etc.  

I happened to find this out because someone had "leaked" the written "minutes" of the meeting. What disturbed me the most when reading the "minutes" was that the CEO's both agreed on what nursing salary caps would be, and that neither hospital would do more than a  $0.25/hr across the board raise that year. This would keep hospital "expenditure" down and would keep employee turn-over between facilities to a minimum.

Basically they conspired to keep nursing salaries low and not give any major raises to nursing staff so that they would not leave one hospital for the other. Essentially stopping competition for nurses at both hospitals and SCREWING THE NURSING STAFF OF BOTH HOSPITALS AND "CONTROLLING" A MAJOR PART OF NURSING EMPLOYMENT OPTIONS IN THIS CITY.

So yes, to this day I am a bit skeptical of big corporations banning together to screw the "little man".  When you put too many CEOs in a room there is bound to be at least one greedy one, if not more.  I mean just look at the regulators that were supposed to be policing the oil rigs..... gifts and money started passing hands and the oil companies were right back to doing whatever they wanted.

Competition is GOOD. It benefits the facilities and travelers and makes agencies work to stay on top. It has brought about competitive pay between companies, "day-one" insurance coverage, retirement packages, and other benefits, all to try to get and keep the travel nurses.

Unification often leads to the downfall of competition. If they all agree to unanimously drop a certain benefit such as day-one insurance, for example. Who is this benefiting?  If this DOES lead to a unification of the bigger agencies..... I'm not saying that more money WON'T be made.... I'm just saying it won't be made by the TRAVELERS.

I read an article that may shed better light on the situation of control or regulation by only one entity.

A government professor of an Ivey league college had a heated debate between his students about the "benefits" of socialism. Socialism is essentially the elite few controlling the masses of people, while having the masses working together for the benefit of the overall population. The professor set out to prove that socialism is a failure.

He proposed, to the entire class, that instead of each student receiving an individual grade on his/her exams based on their own merit, he would; Instead he would average ALL the grades for the weekly test together and thats what everyone would make for that particular test grade.

The first week, the students that rarely ever studied were thrilled. They hardly did any studying and still made 82% on the test.  The ones that studied really hard were upset because they only made 82% instead of their usually higher grades, because the slackers low grades pulled their averages down.

As the weeks went on the test averages dropped significantly..... 75%, then 61%, until eventually the class average was 30% on the exams.

What happened? Competition was removed. The ones that rarely studied didn't try any harder because they were "riding" the better grades of the harder working students. However, the students that USED to study harder slacked-off because they didn't see the point in working hard to keep their grades up, when the slackers were pulling their averages down anyway. 

The professor proved that by removing competition, you also remove the incentive to strive to better ones situation. He stated, "Socialism may work for bees, but it never works for people."

He, of course, passed everyone that took his class till the end of the semester.

I am sure that the current NATHO members could defend their participation in the organization very well.  I have asked them to respond to this forum post.  But, in the meantime, what do non-NATHO companies think of this?  Why would you NOT join?  Please give us your feedback.

Hello! I am actually one of the founding members of NATHO and serve on the board so I wanted to respond to you. NATHO is a newer association (less than 2 yrs old) so I understand there are questions about it.  It is an association (first of its kind) for travel healthcare staffing firms.....most trades, industries, and other groups have some type of association---as you know the ANA is for nurses and pantravelers is for travelers, etc.  I can assure you it has no evil intent and certainly traveling healthcare professionals will only benefit from its efforts.  It is made up of companies of all sizes, large and small--approximately 50 members at present..........the basic criteria are that they must be Joint Commission certified and must be in the business of offering travel contracts (vs per diem for example)----so we could focus on travel industry specific issues. NATHO was formed so we had a forum to communicate with each other but also mainly to raise the standards in our industry. I have been in the Travel industry since 1989 (started as a recruiter) and I have seen a lot............great companies, and some not so great that have tarnished the experience for hospitals and travelers.........and made all travel companies look bad in the process. This might even be why some of you are suspect of NATHO's goals--since you have perhaps had a bad experience with a travel company. Some of the specific things we have done so far have been to educate members on how to offer a legal per diem (tax advantage) plan as there was (and still is, though its improving) a ton of abuse in that regard...........putting travelers at risk for IRS audits.  The Traveler Cost Study will definitely benefit travelers. During this recession, many hospitals have cut back on travelers due to a perception that "they are too expensive". This independent study, being done by KPMG, will do a detailed analysis and comparison of the true and full cost of a permanent employee vs. a traveler---accounting for things like advertising costs, recruitment manhours, benefits, orientation, payroll taxes, and many other things that go into a permanent employee that are often overlooked. Ideally, this study will help break that perception and open up more and exciting travel contract opportunities for everyone.  I could say a lot more, but know these posts should be brief so I do not put people to sleep, so if anyone has any othe specific questions or concerns about NATHO please ask and I will be happy to answer them. All the board members volunteer their time and its been a bit of work----we would like to think we are working towards bettering our industry and I definitely want to hear feedback if you do not think that is the case. 

Omg, kevin...your question and answers with the recruiters is what I get ALL the time, Sounds sooo scripted. What does it matter what company Iam with. Sometimes if i call new company iam interested, that's the first questions they ask me "SO, what company are you with". What the heck does it matter..... And what facility are working at.Once again, what the heck does it matter!!!!

I don't get it, had my contract cancelled, manager told me about it, but you think my recruiter called me to inform of this. i called him and left a message. (on a Fri afternoon). That's one of the reason I am leery about recruiters among other things. I ask for a certain rate, they say have to talk it over with their manager, then they say "OK" comes out to be basically what I have been making with another agency---trying to low ball me. It sucks... Then talk to other travelers working with the same company but different recruiter, making more than me...

I would like to stick with one agency, but I now of course, one agency does not have all the jobs.

My question is: Should I tell the recruiter what I want as far as (how much I want or need  to make with and withhout housing provided, etc...) Or should I allow the recruiter make the offer to me regarding an assignment. I get very confused when it's time to negotiate--smooth talkers, but then get frustrated when I find out someone is make more than me.

thanks for the post

Diane, thanks for telling me about this site...will need to take some time to read through all this!

I think Luke answered this question quite well upon first read.  Diane, you are right in that it can feel like a car shopping experience on both ends.  As a recruiter, I hate the sales side of things...I prefer to give my best offer up front and I see no point to going through the negotiating to make an extra dollar an hour on a traveler.  I view the recruiter/therapist relationship as a partnership...my job is to bring service and expertise to the table. 

That being said, I want trust and honesty from the travelers and candidates I work with...but I have to give it to receive it.

David Proffitt
Triage Staffing

Good point David.  It's all about mutual respect.

Thanks Wes!

Bottom line, recruiters need travelers in rehab (at the moment and it will change at some point) more than a traveler needs a recruiter.  But as the market gets tighter and more and more corporate with more vendor management, having a relationship with a good recruiter becomes more vital.  I have seen bill rate come down at least 10% as an average in the last 3-4 years.  Reimbursements (Medicare) continue to dwindle and I can promise you hospitals are not going to absorb this...make money while you can and know that in 5 years it could be PPS all over again (I hope not though)!

David

"Who's best interest are they REALLY concerned with? The traveler's, The facility's, or the Agencies?"
 "SMELL A SKUNK!!!!!!!!  (several actually"
I couldn't agree more!

I am guilty of using one company and then jumping to another. I most always offer to let the current company I am working for find me a job before I am searching outside of the current arena.

I think companies need competition.... I also think they Recruiter's get too comfortable, sitting there comfortable at work or sleeping in their own bed, not lugging their stuff up and down stairs, across country, driving in miserable weather....they forget what it is like if they ever knew...

Since I have started traveling,  the travel world  has changed alot. Vendor management has taken our pay and not theirs... I don't believe it for one minute that the companies are taking much of a financial hit...not like they want us to believe.. They may not have the jobs that they had but I believe they pass the loss on to the traveler..
The other thing I see is companies taking nurse's to court...when I read of a company suiing a nurse I write that company off. Won't even consider using them. I know there are nurse's that jump ship but I also know of companies that will send a nurse to a hospital that they know is a problem ..These companies don't know that many of us know one another and we do talk about hospital's and recruiter's/companies. Not everything is posted anymore.  

Pet Peeve, a recruiter or company not backing a nurse when they are in a bad situation...they need to remember "we talk"....

Another pet peeve, is a recruiter that is not available or no one answer's the phone when you have traveled miles, hundred of miles and get to an assignment and the housing sucks....

Housing is a make or break deal for me. It needs to be clean, safe, bug free and some place you wouldn't mind taking your mama or wife...

Pet peeve.... recruiters' that talk to me like I just fell off the turnip truck yesterday... especially when I give you a resume' that shows travel assignment's for the last 10 yrs..

Oproomrn@yahoo.com...

Kevin,
Excellent point about the phishing phone calls at work.  I always hang up.  Who wants to work for a recruiter that will bother you a work?  Along the same line, we have all been asked to fill out paperwork by companys before even interviewing for a job.  From what I've heard, once the paperwork is complete the dream job has been filled.  Think about how valuable the information on a traveler's resume is before you start filling out all those applications.  It is a juicy list of facilities that take travelers.

I'm sure my comments here will not win me much support from travelers.  This post was about recruiter's pet peeves and not the other way around.  The tone on this site has been mostly positive, and there is no reason to point out all the negative aspects of the recruiter/traveler relationship...obviously there are several and they cut both ways.  Several years ago, it was much easier for travelers to secure their own contracts with clinics and hospitals and not use a recruiter.  Those days are gone and in most situations, facilities will not longer contract directly.  In fact, it is probably twice as hard for me as a recuiter to get a new contract than it was even a couple years ago.  Vendor management is part of the problem, but this trend will not last forever...there is a natural cycle to all of this that follows the natural evolutionary cycle of markets.  I will not speak for anyone else, but I view candidates/travelers as business partners and not just "my employee."  My hope is that travelers view me in the same manner and not as an evil part of the industry...I provide service and my job is to make the traveler's job easier and be their vehicle to experience these assignments.  By ooking at how we can better work together instead of recruiter versus traveler, perspectives change. 

As for calling into a hospital or office, that is part of the deal.  My time is also valuable...so I hate it when people waste my time, too.  My father is a physical and my wife is a physical therapist, so when I have a reason to call into a facility, it is with purpose.  But there is no other way for me to do my job...I have to use the phone and there is no reason to apologize for it.  Most of the travelers (and potential candidates) I work with have my cell number and I welcome their calls after hours, and I do not treat my job as 8-5.  But I would ask those of you reading this chain of comments to please consider that I have a job to do as well and I am just trying to help people.

I need to use spell check!  yikes

I've noticed a common theme to a lot of the posts on here:

1) Travelers feel that most recruiters are shady - they lowball rates, pocket a lot of money, and are sneaky when speaking with you.

2) Travelers that don't want to work with "salesmen" recruiters because of the above-mentioned issues.


The ironic part of these two themes is that they become a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you approach a recruiter with an attitude of distrust and disdain, you'll unknowingly weed out good recruiters and attract shady salesmen/women. Granted, I know this industry is full of slimeballs - trust me, I've been doing this for 7 years now - but you also have to understand that the industry is full of slimeballs because the industry is making slimeballs successful. Whenever you're looking for an assignment or choosing an agency to work with, it's important to protect your best interests, but assuming that all recruiters are "out to get you" can actually cut off your nose to spite your face. Good recruiters (the ones that pay competitive rates, the ones that dont' play games, and the ones that work with honesty and integrity) tend to shy away from candidates that look at their profession as an unskilled salesperson/slimeball. I personally won't think twice about passing your info on to another recruiter if I feel that working with you will cause me to be less successful overall.

If a candidate doesn't respect his or her recruiter, then the recruiter most likey doesn't respect you. If you're approaching this relationship as a necessary evil, you'll get necessary evil. If you approach the relationship as a partnership, you'll find an advocate. I'm not saying cut out competition or only work with one agency, but keep in mind a recruiter is more likely to ask for another 2 dollars an hour if they know they're fighting for a traveler they believe in.

As far as gathering info on other facilities that use travelers is concerned - why is this shady? Do you not use the boards here to talk about locations you have traveled in? Do you not rate companies and recruiters on this site? Unfortunately, part of a recruiters job is to help his or her company add on new contracts - and in doing so, have more to offer their travelers. Some companies obviously do this in a shady way (lowballing other agency offers and lowering the bar for everyone) but most of the time, we're all working with the same people, clients, and budgets. If I could do my job without gathering info on facilities that use travelers, I would....but you have to realize that we need jobs just as much as we need travelers to fill those jobs....if I have jobs and no travelers/travelers and no jobs, then I'm going to be unemployed. If the medium/small independent companies can't compete with the big agencies as far as contracts go, that's going to drive pay down for everyone involved.

That's just my $0.02...