Wednesday, August 19, 2009

"We Hold All Applications for 6 Months."

I'm sure everyone who has been job hunting in the last year has heard this phrase often, "We hold all applications for at least six months and will consider you for anything that comes up."

Most of us have muttered, "bullshit" under our breath. We knew that those applications were headed straight for the paper shredder.

Today I had proof of such disingenuous behavior from employers.

I had filled out an application for a coffee shop at a major food vender in June. I told the manager that I was going to be a camp counselor for the summer and would be back in August for when the school season picked up and they got busy.

That's when I head the dreaded lines, "We hold all applications for at least six months and will consider you for anything that comes up."

I came back to the coffee shop last week. Reminded the manager that I had already filled out an application and told her that I just wanted to let her know that I was back and ready to work. They called me back and scheduled an interview.

I walked in ready for the interview, when I was told that they had 'misplaced' my application and needed me to fill a new one out.

Misplaced. My Application. Uh-huh. Right. Maybe I should misplace my interview, that would really help me get the job right? Alas, I am only a proletariet, with nothing to sell except my own labor. If I misplaced them, they would simply hire some other poor worker, but they are able to misplace me and there is nothing I can do except smile and compliment their hair. The unfairness of it all should gall anyone with any sense of a decency.

To all the job recruiters out there, treating people like dirt, making the decisions about who gets to live in a nice apartment and who gets to sleep in the ditch, understand that one day, when the movement is strong enough, we will have universal employment in this country. That will be the day scum like you will need to be retrained to do something productive for society.

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