Clueless Coffee Drinkers and Rude Recruiters

A friend and I were talking the other day about how common  rudeness has become. He told me about a woman standing next to him in Starbucks who elbowed her way into a seat, seemingly unconcerned with whether doing so invaded anyone else’s space, and I told him about the driver who tried to mow me down while I was crossing the lot at Macy’s.

Then we both shared stories about a favorite  pet peeve—recruiters and hiring managers who invite job applicants to interview for positions and then just disappear. With them you get no “thanks, but no thanks” email messages or letters. You get nothing. You get silence. You get the sound of crickets.

My friend and I have hired people, so we know what it’s like. We know it’s no fun sending out rejection notices, especially when you have to say no to someone you really liked but who wasn’t quite right for the job or for a more sensitive reason—like her workplace personality assessment tests showed she probably wasn’t very truthful with her responses. But, we also know that it’s plain rude to invite someone to speak with you about a position you need filled and then leave that person hanging. A quick email with the standard “You’re great, but we’ve offered the position to an applicant who more closely fits our needs” is all it takes, and it’s not that hard.

Yes, even this guy deserves a follow up.

I’ve heard stories of recruiters receiving hundreds of responses to a single ad, and I wouldn’t expect someone in that position to respond to every inquiry sent. However, everyone the recruiter or hiring manager interviews (whether via telephone or in person) deserves a follow up. And, sadly the norm has become to leave that person flapping in the wind. It’s unbelievable, really, and absolutely lacking in common courtesy.

Career advisor Alison Green of Ask a Manager admits that this “bad interviewer behavior” gets under her skin. She regularly gets questions from frustrated job seekers complaining about insensitive interviewers who just don’t get back to applicants. In fact, Green got so many complaints she created the You-Suck-As-An-Interviewer Automatic Letter Generator. The “automatic” feature is now defunct, but you can still click on the link and read the letter.

If you’re a recruiter or hiring manager who’s made a habit of this practice, I sure wish you’d stop. To quote Green, your candidate deserves better, and this behavior makes you and your company look really unprofessional.

If you’re a job seeker who has encountered this type of behavior, take heart. It probably had nothing to do with you. Some people are just rude. And apparently they’re getting more rude every day.