I must be getting grumpy in my old age, with all of this venting I’m doing! This post really ticks me off. I just wrote a post on Peter Newfield’s Career Resumes blog (I’ve been blogging there for the last many months) titled The Unemployed Will Not Be Considered. WHAT??? It comes from a Huffington Post article of a similar name… go check out Peter’s blog to see what I wrote.
This practice is archaic and out of touch with reality. Do these companies, discriminating against those who are out on the street for no good reason, really think that only looking at currently employed people is going to get them the best talent?
What a fallacy.
The companies listed in the HuffPo article include:
- An “anonymous company” that has an opening posted at The People Place recruiting board. Who made this decision, and why?
- Benchmark Electronics, who defends the policy saying they don’t want to waste their time with unqualified applicants. I get that… but that doesn’t mean you should cut out all unemployed people.
- Sony Ericsson temporarily had this statement on their job descriptions: “NO UNEMPLOYED CANDIDATES WILL BE CONSIDERED AT ALL.” Seriously, what outdated recruiting book did this come from?? At least they removed it once “it was noticed.” (oops, one mark against copy and paste).
- An unnamed restaurant in NJ, looking for an assistant restaurant manager…. must be currently employed.
- An unnamed “top 25 CPA firm” in NYC, same thing.
Judy Conti (who needs my LinkedIn DVD – just look at her Profile!) is the federal advocacy coordinator for the National Employment Law Project, and said some awesome stuff, including (read her comments in the last 2 paragraphs of the HuffPo article):
“In the current economy, where millions of people have lost their jobs through absolutely no fault of their own, I find it beyond unconscionable that any employer would not consider unemployed workers for current job openings,”
I agree.. beyond unconscionable.
