For all the people claiming that this is likely to end in a lawsuit where is your evidence? Do you have any actual cases where a company was sued because they gave legitimate feedback? How much money did the company lose because of this suit? How many lawsuits are there per rejected candidate? Do you know the text of the laws that specifically address this?
How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
31–40 of 84 posts
Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
#32Legal problems aside, I love this philosophy.
One of the things I hate most about the current interview process is that I take time off from work to do phone screens, maybe a whole day to do an onsite, and in the end I get these empty letters.
I'm always trying to improve myself, so having no feedback leaves me feeling bewildered. To be honest I don't know if I bombed the coding question. I came to an answer, maybe I had a couple hints - but was that it?
Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
#33The reason many places don't do this is not so much to avoid feeling like an a-hole but to avoid accidental liability. There are so many things you can't say or ask in an interview, that a lot of companies that are big enough to have an HR person or department will require a very generic rejection letter just to be sure they don't provide grounds for a lawsuit.
Avoiding a lawsuit is as easy as not citing illegal reasons for not hiring someone. E.g. “You’re a woman,” “you’re Indian,” “we’re uncertain how your disability will effect our workplace,” or “you’re too old.” (Or their codeword equivalents.) I think the author is just being civil and I commend him for it.
No. All you have to do is interview someone in a protected hiring class, and then say something in the rejection that contradicts or is in any way inconsistent with anything you have said or the candidate can claim you have said. Litigious candidates don't have to play to win the lawsuit, either; they can play to settle.
Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
#34The reason many places don't do this is not so much to avoid feeling like an a-hole but to avoid accidental liability. There are so many things you can't say or ask in an interview, that a lot of companies that are big enough to have an HR person or department will require a very generic rejection letter just to be sure they don't provide grounds for a lawsuit.
That's a reason why it is better to tell the candidate on the phone instead of in writing.
Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
#35How about the opposite?
A company I turned down a job offer for has been contacting me every about every three months asking if I had changed my mind.
I just recently told them to please stop contacting me and I'll contact them if I change my mind in the future.
It felt a bit assholish asking them to stop contacting me like that, but I can't decide if that's just my personality having difficulty with it or if there was a better of way of telling them "No".
Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
#36Many of the comments below talk about potential legal liability from rejecting a candidate in an inappropriate way. Would someone care to clarify the sort of problems that can arise?
There are a lot of problems that can happen.
For instance if you complain about hygiene and the person has a medical condition that causes them to stink (don't laugh, this happens), you can be sued for discrimination. If the person had a thick accent and you didn't want to hire because of the communication issue (I've seen candidates rejected for this reason), they could decide that you're racist and sue you. If the candidate is older and you say a wide variety of things (that they are over-qualified, their skillset is dated, poor cultural fit, etc), you can be sued for ageism.
The upshot is that it is virtually impossible to figure out what comment will hit a hot button. And there are a lot of legitimate reasons to reject someone, which aren't illegal, that they can take as evidence of discrimination.
Even if it is an open and shut case that you're going to win, they can still make it cost a substantial amount of lawyer's fees. And you, personally, don't benefit from telling them this, so there is no percentage in going there.
Or so every HR department in the USA will tell you. And every lawyer they get advice from.
Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
#37The reason many places don't do this is not so much to avoid feeling like an a-hole but to avoid accidental liability. There are so many things you can't say or ask in an interview, that a lot of companies that are big enough to have an HR person or department will require a very generic rejection letter just to be sure they don't provide grounds for a lawsuit.
Avoiding a lawsuit is as easy as not citing illegal reasons for not hiring someone. E.g. “You’re a woman,” “you’re Indian,” “we’re uncertain how your disability will effect our workplace,” or “you’re too old.” (Or their codeword equivalents.) I think the author is just being civil and I commend him for it.
Sure, those reasons are pretty obvious. If you want to familiarize yourself with the main reasons, check out the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Q&A/FAQ page at http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html
If you haven't read it, I really recommend spending a few minutes reading it. It doesn't just apply to the hiring process and there are cases for drug use, religious accommodations, acting on genetic information (really), etc.
I can certainly understand why people would prefer to send a generic rejection letter rather than list reasons, any of which may or may not trigger some clause in one of the relevant laws.
Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
#38If 1 in 1000 candidates would sue you, causing $100k in costs for a drawn-out legal battle, then your practice has a very expensive expected value, but in a way you won't notice until shit hits the proverbial fan.
Point taken, but with the given numbers it wouldn't actually be that bad. If you interview thousands of candidates, then paying an amortized $100 per candidate is not too much. If that is what it costs to give people a good impression of your company, it might well be worth it.
Oh god, that's the worst deal of all time. A hundred bucks for the possibility that a rejected job candidate will say something nice about the rejection process? Put that hundred bucks into making your product better so people will talk about that, or improving working conditions for your existing staff so they'll talk about that, or hiring a PR company, or any of a million things before a lawsuit.
Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
#39This sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen to me.
Only in the United States.
Re: How to reject a job candidate without being an asshole
#40One time I got a rejection letter from a company that included a list of reasons that people are usually rejected. One of the reasons was spelling or grammar errors in their cover letter or resume. As it happened, this letter that they sent out contained both a spelling error and a grammatical error. In retrospect, this was perhaps a little too snarky, but I wrote back to them and pointed this out. They contacted me…
Did they happen to mention that the position had become available as a result of your email?