Categories
Antiwork

We should be able to bill employers for time on recruitment exercises

I applied for a reasonably large public sector employer. Job is very similar to things I've done before and actually pretty niche. Expected to progress to next stage. First email arrived on the Monday but read so like spam it went to my junk folder but told me to expect a exercise to do on the Wednesday. Didn't see the email, but no big deal exercise arrives on the Thursday and due by midnight Sunday. I spend a couple of hours on it, send it in on time… and get an out of office that the person receiving it isn't back until Tuesday. Email on Wednesday, thanks they are looking at it and will let you know by the end of the day. Then… nothing. Checked online on the application area of their website and 4 weeks later marked as unsuccessful. Previously, I have had at least a knock back…


I applied for a reasonably large public sector employer. Job is very similar to things I've done before and actually pretty niche. Expected to progress to next stage.

First email arrived on the Monday but read so like spam it went to my junk folder but told me to expect a exercise to do on the Wednesday. Didn't see the email, but no big deal exercise arrives on the Thursday and due by midnight Sunday.

I spend a couple of hours on it, send it in on time… and get an out of office that the person receiving it isn't back until Tuesday.

Email on Wednesday, thanks they are looking at it and will let you know by the end of the day. Then… nothing.

Checked online on the application area of their website and 4 weeks later marked as unsuccessful. Previously, I have had at least a knock back from them when I applied for other jobs.

This was for a role with a £50k-80k range, and I'll already in a similar role in the middle of that, so by my rough maths this was about £60-70 of my time.

To get nothing. No feedback, no decline, nothing. And this is a well funded public sector organisation.

Why do no senior people in these organisations understand that this is all part of the package to attract and retain people? The daily actions matter, not just the pay, term and conditions.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *