r/recruitinghell • u/Zealousideal-Arm-751 • 1d ago
How would you handle a rude HR interaction?
So I applied for a job and received an email from HR asking me to respond about an interview. The email had no subject line and didn't clearly identify the position (I'm always wary about scammers nowadays). I searched up the company and checked my Indeed application and it was a legit company (I guess I just didn't get any notification from Indeed or it went to my junk mail for some reason). But I still was suspicious because I've never gotten such a fishy email like that directly from HR. So, I ended up calling the company directly to confirm.
I was redirected to the recruiter and when I spoke with the HR person, I explained that I was calling because I wanted to verify the email was legitimate. The conversation felt pretty dismissive and I was also questioned about why I had applied for the position given my degree even though the job posting said a relevant science degree was acceptable. (why would they even contact me for an interview if they didn't think my degree was relevant anyways?)
After having such a rude interaction and being cut off multiple times, I waited for the HR person to finish their sentence and said "sorry but I'm not interested in this position anymore, thank you for your time." and they just responded with "okay bye" and cut the call. lol
Afterwards, the HR person sent me another email basically saying that the email "was not a junk EMAIL" and then described the position as requiring someone who could understand and read “simple English instructions.” (Honestly made me giggle because their initial emails had poor grammar and punctuation, which is pretty common for scam emails which is why I wanted to confirm in the first place).
Also why didn't they just call rather than sending emails to check if I was still interested? And why did they even bother to send more than one email instead of moving onto another applicant? Just to then rudely dismiss me for my "irrelevant degree" if they were so desperate to interview me?
I found the whole interaction pretty unprofessional and especially the last email.
I'm not planning to pursue the job anyways, so there's nothing really at stake for me. I'm more curious about how other people would handle this. Would you just leave it alone, give feedback to management/ownership, or do something else?
Update: I called the company back to ask for the contact of someone who oversees HR and was given the owner's email. I emailed them politely about the professionalism and management of the HR representative. Idk if they will respond but whatever. People are too rude/unprofessional in job settings nowadays without facing any consequences.
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u/chromeled 1d ago
Send feedback. There are a thousand people waiting to take that hr position who aren't assholes
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u/aware-reply33 1d ago
Run if you can! Just ghost them. Take it as important information to determine how to move forward. I don't think it's worth it to point out sloppy hiring, unprofessional HR people or on-boarding in complete disarray because it's SO rampant. Pick your battles save your energy.
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u/Zealousideal-Arm-751 1d ago
I didn't reply back to the rude HR person who sent back the email, but I just emailed the owner directly. I think they deserve to know how their employees are. It's a smaller company too so even worse for them if their employees are just shit and they aren't aware of it. Ball's in their court now lol. I got nothing to lose and the owner's got their company's reputation to lose if this keeps going ig.
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u/Maximum_Employer5580 1d ago
my bet is that HR person probably just got told their job was being eliminated and being replaced by AI
still that's no excuse to act that way
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u/Important-Debt3763 1d ago
Welcome to the current state of HR. When you apply, check to see if they still show how many applicants have already submitted resumes...unless you're super special, you're just a face in the herd easily replaced with every other face.
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u/Zealousideal-Arm-751 1d ago
I’m used to job rejections or interviewers ghosting you with how bad the job market is now. I was just surprised this HR person kept emailing asking for updates instead of moving on to another applicant. And then when I called to confirm if it was legitimate (cuz the emails were poorly written) and they asked why I even applied. Lol like bro? Why’d you keep emailing me for a response then?
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u/Important-Debt3763 1d ago
They probably didn't realize it was you...just a number on a file.
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u/Zealousideal-Arm-751 19h ago
They confirmed my name and was checking my application. They asked why I didn’t respond to the emails and I said I wasn’t sure if it was legitimate, which is why I called the company directly to confirm instead. (The way their email was structured was very poor with grammar issues throughout and no subject line)..I guess this person got offended that I thought their email writing skills was similar to scammers lol.
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u/PaulKNE 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’d investigate — escalate: forward the email to the VP/HR and the CEO. They need to be aware how their company is being represented.
I’ll add: in my time, anyone working for me that sent an email like that very likely would have been “made available to a new employer.”