Rant: Employers who don’t reply
Employers who don’t reply When my employer decided to mark my fiftieth birthday by ending my contract without warning, explanation or thanks, I found I was in the job market for the first time in years.
It’s been a soul-destroying experience. Most employers don’t let you know your application has been unsuccessful; one expected me to work on a trial basis,
gratis, while they decided if they liked me. As I explained, I’m a little old to be an intern.
I then applied for a reporter post at a well-known company and received an email from a senior editor asking me when I’d be available for interview. I wrote back with a few dates, waited, and waited, and wrote again, asking if they still wished to see me. Back came the answer: no thanks.
Even more outrageous are the employers who invite you to interview and then go quieter than Harvey Weinstein’s diary. Like the Westminster think tank that advertised for an editor. I attended an interview and it seemed to go well. Then, after weeks of radio silence, I contacted them – to be told I’d been unsuccessful.
I then had an interview for a job editing insurance magazines – in Australia, with visas for me and my family. I seemed to click with the interviewer. After a month looking at Sydney estate agents’ websites, I contacted the company, to be told they’d hired someone else.
SMALL DELIGHTS
Ththe original Ppears s soap: it its smell, its shape, the h honeygold gleam of light piercing its heart. Shame on Unilever for messing with it. SARAH DRURY, Devizes
Readers are invited to send in life’s small delights. Email editorial@theoldie.co.uk
Rudest of all was the production company advertising for assistant script editors for a soap I won’t mention, aimed at tweens, set in Chester. Informed they liked the cut of my jib, I was invited to a ‘workshop’ in Liverpool, which meant splashing out on train tickets, hotels and taxis, to sit in a room with a load of adolescents making up implausible plot lines.
Another month passed. After sending yet another email, I was informed I’d been unsuccessful. I’ve never been so happy to get a rejection. As a fairly experienced writer who still retains some vestige of pride, why would I work for an employer so lacking in courtesy that they can’t even be bothered to turn me down? MARK PIGGOTT