Have We All Become Passive Agressive?

What has happened to common courtesy? Perhaps, like common sense, it never really existed. As a nation, the United States has gone from aggressively rude to passive aggressively rude, at least to my way of thinking. Emily Post is a distant memory and certainly the act of saying thanks, but no thanks has been subsumed by the cold shoulder.

I have noticed this most in the hiring process. Rather than telling you, after hours of phone calls and round robin interview sessions, that you do not fit their requirements or you are not what they are looking for, employers today tend to just stop answering your emails or your phone calls. And the same is true with recruiters who thought you would be perfect for the position. And it is not a cost factor. Sure, in the old days, it would cost you the price of a stamp, and the paper and probably some poor soul's typing time to send out a rejection letter, but in 2010, how hard is it to send an email? How complicated is it to do a mail merge and hit send?

But this sort of attitude no longer seems constrained to the hiring process. With the increase of interconnections and people looking for something to do, volunteers seem to be crawling out of the woodwork, and willing to do the job. And I support this. But if you are one of those that are being replaced by these eager new faces, a simple note saying thanks for all your help or, we are moving in a different direction would be appreciated. This would solve two problems. First, it would allow the people that have been doing a job for you to move on to other things, or it would allow them to find out just what you want them to change so they can continue to help you out, assuming that you want them to continue to help you.

So I am making a note right now to write up a Thanks for applying but ... letter as I start into the process of finding a new employee for my team and to collect the email addresses of those that have applied so I can do a mail merge once the successful candidate has joined us. And I encourage you, if you are in the position, to do the same thing. It does not take much, but it is much appreciated.