July 28, 2010

Friday, 01 February 2002

Mr D Paul
(address redacted)

Dear Mr Paul

VACANCY REFERENCE: 52600 WEB PRODUCER REGION: GLOUCESTER

Thank you for submitting your application for the Web Producer role located in Gloucester.

I am now writing, with regret, to inform you that your name has not been placed on the shortlist of candidates to be invited for interview. I am sorry if this is disappointing for you.

We heard about your previous Internet projects and, quite frankly, you scare us.

You may also like to note that calling our head of human resources a "skank ho" does not gain you any plus points when being shortlisted for a position.

Yours sincerely,

Hilary Oliver

p.p. Sandra Hahn
Recruitment Advisor
BBC Recruitment

I'm going to play devil's advocate here and say I understand some of this recruitment advisor's wariness in considering this gentleman for a position. Clearly a person who would call a complete stranger a "skank ho" without knowing for sure the individual's degree of skankiness or indeed if said individual engages in prostitution (human resources managers earn upwards of $70K a year, but some people just have to have their cake and eat it too) could use some work in the people skills department. But I do believe that the "quite frankly you scare us" line was a bit much. The internet is all about artistic license. If it wasn't for the emotionally interesting, we wouldn't have Super Mario incest slash fiction or nude Simpsons fan art. Why do you hate art, Ms Oliver?

Globally we are in the grips of an unemployment crisis. Hundreds of thousands of bright, creative individuals are without work because some hiring managers can't keep their personal biases out of the office. It needs to stop, and it needs to stop now.

it's said trust is like a broken mirror : you can mend it → still, the cracks would be noticeable.
not only trust is like this : people are exactly the same. All of us are full of cracks and gaps, more or less visible through the knots and sutures of our wounds.

no matter what we do, or how we heal, we are never the same.
from a positive approach - we could be seen as rough gems, always polishing ourselves.
now, from a negative aspect: we'll never be able to fully give like the first time...and so on, we'll never manage to offer a whole of oneself; instead, we'll offer a hole, which could, or could not be filled.