OK, should I be re-thinking my Candidate Care support group? For many years I've been saying that we should be nice to candidates because they-- particularly for consumer product and retail orgs- are also discretionary investors in our company.

The way they 're treated might end up on blogs, on YouTube, on EyeWitness News for goodness sakes. But we should be nice to them anyway because they applied for a position within our firm! Right?

But several things happened that made me re-think this. The first was an interview with someone who crossed the line of pithy professionalism by being a bit too overzealous about the potential job opportunity. I can't really go into details (email me offline for the juicy tidbits) because we never know who might be reading this in bed tonight.

But lets just say that if the applicant was a movie title it may be "I Know What You Did Last Summer" or possibly "Scream!"

The second thing made me laugh and hopefully it will make you laugh too-- Or maybe you're just so used to this that in addition to firing people in the conference room with a third party nearby every recruiter will have an interview buddy -- or maybe we'll be doing the pre-employment screening way before the interview!

Anyway- here's what happened when my good friend Heather tried to have some candidate care in rejecting someone for her job opportunity-- She got the following letter back.


Thank you for your letter rejecting my application for employment with

your firm.



I have received rejections from an unusually large number of

well-qualified organizations. With such a varied and promising spectrum

of rejections from which to select, it is impossible to consider them

all. After careful deliberation, then, and because a number of firms

have found me more unsuitable, I regret to inform you that I am unable

to accept your rejection.



Despite your company's outstanding qualifications and previous

experience in rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not

meet with my requirements at this time. As a result, I will be starting

employment with your firm on the first of the month.



Circumstances change and one can never know when new demands for

rejection arise. Accordingly, I will keep your letter on files in case

my requirements for rejection change.



Please do not regard this letter as a criticism of your qualifications

in attempting to refuse me employment. I wish you the best of luck in

refusing future candidates.

Sincerely,

I know this is New York City but has everyone gone crazy?