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A man types a message furiously at his keyboard.
The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.
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A lot of times, there is this illusion of separation of the operations of a business. From an outsider's perspective, say, a prospective candidate's, we like to imagine that the business's operations will run in the way that we expect: Nearly divided into their intended work groups.
This job candidate shared how they wound up in a dehumanizing interview process, and after deciding to opt out of the. Feeling a bit disgruntled about the lack of humanity and time wasted, they fired off an email to HR about their experience. And found themselves at the receiving end of an unprofessional response from the CEO himself, who had “somehow” been on the other side of the HR email address.
“Company sent 40 minutes of aptitude common sense survey questions, followed by an invite to an AI interview for an instructional design position," the job candidate wrote in a post they shared, "Hard noped out, but had to respond. Super glad I did.”
They sent their response, which they shared in the first image, and probably expected that to be the end of it. But we were surprised when they not only received a response, but it wasn't the canned HR response you might expect. Instead, the response was written and addressed by the CEO of the company, who had clearly taken personal offense at the candidate's email.
“Thank you for your candid response.” The email they received from the CEO began, “I'm glad you chose not to follow through, as your response demonstrates poor attitude and entitlement.”
It wasn't finished there, though, the CEO went on.
“You were warned of the process at the time of your application submission, which also shows a lack of attention to detail, an imperative skill for this position.” -
The candidate's email can be seen here
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This was the response they received from the CEO
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"Just to clarify, because it's being very fairly pointed out. [Nowhere] in the job description before applying does it ‘warn’ me of an AI interview.' The job candidate later added to their post, after sharing these images. 'After applying, the response email says, "If you're a strong match, you'll receive an invitation for the first interview. You can schedule and complete it at your convenience within 2 days of receiving the invite.' Nowhere does it use the phrase ‘AI interview,’ and even in their FAQ section on Indeed, under interview process, it says ‘Online interview followed by in-person interview.’"
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As we started with this story, when it comes to the illusion of separation between business groups. We often expect inherent division between business groups, along with the built-in distinctions in their goals and business purpose, to lead to a separation among departments such as operations, executives/ownership, and HR.
But the reality, in a lot of cases, for a lot of growing small businesses and larger ones that grew from smaller ones, this is nothing but an illusion. One created for the express purpose of meeting customer expectations and compartmentalizing both customer and employee expectations. The reality is that everything is eventually going back to the eyes and ears of one person, or a few people. But they no longer have to take ownership of challenging moments or mistakes; instead, any employment concerns can be deferred to an “HR issue.” And when they say “we're a family here,” well, that's because it is being run by a family, their family, but you aren't necessarily a part of it.
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In most cases, it looks something like this: the CEO is the founder, the COO was the best man/woman at the founder's wedding, and the “HR department” is a direct relative who is more of a stand-in than anything else, while the founder is still the one making all the decisions. With any other essential original functions of the operation being occupied by close friends and family members, with very few outsiders ever getting “in." And for most areas of the business, oversight by the founder and their inner circle works great. While everyone manages in their own way, some better, some worse. At the end of the day, unless they're an absolute liability of a personality, most people can adapt to management and operations roles well enough.
But due to the sensitive nature of the work and the inherent volatility, HR is somewhat of a different story. It needs to be handled with strict professionalism and distinction. Egos especially need to be set aside, and the personal reactions and perceptions of hiring, firing, and resignation need to be stomached, with a firm swallow, before getting on with it and proceeding with the canned professional approach. And, when the “CEO” owner has access to all of the emails because it's their company, and also feels like any slight against the company's operation is a personal attack on them, it's not uncommon to end up in situations like this one where the veil of the illusion is lifted, and in true Wizzard of Oz fashion, the “CEO” reveals himself, and his ego to have been behind the HR curtain all the while, just as has happened here.
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