A job rejection notification

[ck4829]

Let's say one receives a boilerplate email or letter (usually email) that says "We have reviewed your application and credentials and, unfortunately, we are not moving forward with your job candidacy at this time. Best of luck in your job search." or something to that effect. This one is copied from one of those many emails I received years ago, other people may recognize this email as well, lurkers too. And I can honestly say, receiving this over and over again when bills were piling up and at a time when I was a new young adult trying to make my own life was truly dehumanizing. Today, I am employed at a place where I am loved and it's a thing I love doing, but it was a struggle back then and there was something I touched on in my own head a while back and I am very glad I did and today it's something I wish to fully articulate...

The person who sends those kinds of emails is usually white and/or male. (Full disclosure: I am white and male myself)

The person who originally designed it was probably white and/or male.

The person who made the ultimate hiring decision to hire not-you was probably white and/or male.

The person who knows you are applying to this job, it may even be a minimum wage job with zero benefits that you are genuinely willing to do and may actually be (over)qualified to do (yet you still need to eat), but said you are not worth the time or effort to employ or train was most likely white and/or male.

I know I've never received this email in Spanish or any dialect thereof and I never received one that said "Best of luck in your job search. Allahu Ackbar." I doubt anyone else here, at least in the US, has received it either.

But somehow it's the immigrant's fault or the ethnic minority is behind it all, right?

[wasupaloopa]

1. Very many jobs I have had were at places with women HR magagers who send out those letters. I think

other than the sole proprietors I've worked for the majority of my employers had women HR managers.

There was a time in the eighties when there was a push to hire women and minorities. I lived in San Diego and was unemployed.

I was looking for accounting positions. Almost all the job ads that I looked at had this at the end, "We are an equal opportunity employer, women and minorities are encouraged to apply."

I knew as a white male that I did not have much of a chance to be hired for those jobs. I worked as a temp for Accountemps during that time. As a temp it did not make a difference who you were as long as you could do the job you were placed.

Now I realized at the time that in the past I was hired over women and minorities because I was a white male. I could understand why the need to hire more women and minorities but just the same it placed a burden on me that I never had before.

I eventually got through that time. We lost our house and went down hill fast. It was the lowest time for my wife and I in our marriage.

I actually thought that we would be homeless and went to places where homeless people were to see what life would be like.

That was thirty years ago and things turned out ok for us but that time was a real struggle.

It taught me a lesson about how anyone would feel if they were discriminated against in hiring. That was my turn to live through it.

[3catwoman3]

2. Women are perfectly capable of sending...

...letters like that, and worse.

In 1975, I applied to my own alma mater's nurse practitioner program. I had been one of their stronger students, and had gone to work at my university's hospital, where I had quickly been made the charge nurse for the 3-11 shift on a very busy pediatric unit.

I fully expected to be accepted to the program.

I was stunned when I got the reply from the program. They simply mailed my application back to me with a big red stamp across it that said - REJECTED. No nice little let-you-down-easy note about not having sufficient room in the program at this time, blah-blah-blah.

When I called to inquire about this, I was told they wanted diversity in the group of 10 students (they didn't mean ethnic, because there wasn't any ethnic diversity where I was), with various ages and different levels of experience. The different levels of experience apparently included none, because one person accepted to the program had just graduated from my university and had not yet worked as a nurse in any capacity. Her dad was an MD, and was on the hospital board.

The woman I spoke with then suggested that I apply to a program in a nearby city, with this explanation - "Sometimes they take our rejects."

No class at all. I seldom donate to my alma mater.

[Amishman]

3. I've never received a rejection notification

If they weren't interested I never hear anything

[ksoze]

4. These letters are boilerplate for a reason

HR's job has become one of defense in a more litigious workplace. Any official communications with candidates will usually be crafted to avoid any openings for disputes or EEOC violations. Unfortunate, but a fact of life today.

[FLPanhandle]

7. +1

[snooper2]

5. The professional HR community is dominated by females, but don't let that stop your false narrative.

keep on truckin' with it! This seems to be one of those threads where the OP won't respond though...

[Wounded Bear]

6. The racial/sexist component aside...

one can link the comment/line to something we've all heard in the movies. It's often used just before the bad guy whacks somebody. You know the line, say it with me:

It's not personal, it's just business.

Yep, you're not a person, just an inconvenience worthy of the best canned bullshit dismissal line. When they changed the name of the department from Personnel to Human Resources, the writing was on the wall.

[SweetieD]

8. Hr departments are disproportionately white female actually. But I get what you are saying.