Have you ever been turned down for a job for a stupid reason

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tweety_fan
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05 Feb 2010, 7:53 pm

I have seen articles about employers not wanting staff that are in their 20's (or Gen Y's) because they are seen as unprofessional and lazy.
The thing is there are people in every age group that are like that.
and there are good staff in all age groups.

these articles annoy me.

have u ever encountered problems at work because of your age, or some other stupid reason?



Nan
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05 Feb 2010, 8:32 pm

I was turned down for a job because I was a woman and therefore, I was told, I'd be taking a job away from a man who "really" needed it.



caramateo
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06 Feb 2010, 12:06 am

I was turned down for a job because the manager didn't like the equipment that I had used before.



zer0netgain
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08 Feb 2010, 9:07 am

The more supply there is than demand for jobs, workers will find themselves turned down for a multitude of stupid reasons. We hear more about them because employers won't tell the truth lest it risk getting them sued.



RhettOracle
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08 Feb 2010, 5:16 pm

I got turned down for a job at CompUSA because I was "overqualified." I took that to mean that I was nearly 40, and I had experience working in the real world as opposed to catering to the whims of a teenager who has just been given his first taste of authority. So they probably did me a big favor by not hiring me. It wasn't too long afterward that the company went out of business, and I would have been out of a job again.



Inventor
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09 Feb 2010, 3:09 am

This company does not hire birds with a lisp!



ADoyle
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10 Feb 2010, 4:00 am

Here's an article from my local paper about people with disabilities having a harder time getting jobs in this recession.
http://www.presstelegram.com/business/ci_14355950


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Electricbassguy
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22 Feb 2010, 1:24 am

I've never been given a lame reason. Usually just generic rejections sent out en masse, or a personal note that still doesn't say anything about me.

I do suspect with a recent job interview that the receptionists didn't like me.



Aeryn21
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22 Feb 2010, 8:29 pm

Not turned down for a job, but fired for one. In addition to my old bosses lying about my performance record (saying I was consistently poor when they themselves signed evaluations stating how wonderful I was), they actually listed "excessive sighing" as a reason to terminate me. Yes, that exact wording. I take a lot of deep breaths sometimes because I get fatigued easily, and apparently all that "sighing" meant I had a bad attitude. :roll:



gsilver
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24 Feb 2010, 6:28 pm

While I've never been given a stupid reason to not get a job, I've never been given a reason, either.

Generic responses have been from, "while your qualifications are impressive" for a technical support job (background: I've been working with computers my whole life and had an Associate's degree in networking at the time; my brother was an alcoholic. Guess who got to work for the company?), to the vague not meeting their criteria, to no reason at all.



psychohist
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24 Feb 2010, 11:23 pm

Nan wrote:
I was turned down for a job because I was a woman and therefore, I was told, I'd be taking a job away from a man who "really" needed it.

Was this recently? I thought that attitude went out with the 1950s....



LiendaBalla
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25 Feb 2010, 1:06 am

I have seen some businesses act stupidly. Too many places have cliques, and I don't like work place cliques! Where I used to work there was this deli shop that had only hispanics, and a group named Sanitors, that hired a hispanic or two, for their already totaly hispanic group, and denied 20 blacks. Sorry but yeah, that looks a bit racist, in my oppinion. Kind of stupid, given how immegrant based my country is.

Most times, I have met over judgmental managers. They don't want someone whoes capable and sufficiant. Despite the fact that's all they need to start with. They want hirees that WOW their useless selves, for some pointless, emotionaly needy reason. "If you can't makes friends with me in two seconds or less, you are a complete moron who can't speak at all." BS! I don't know if I am mistaken or not, but... uhm.. did the requirement to be social go from just "must have social skills" to, "must have excellent social skills", to "must have extrodinary social skills"?

I was fired once for "Not being able to do the load". I was a dishwasher who could do her load better than the kid that was quiting. I didn't go to two of their Christmas parties, deliberatly, and was pestered with this question "Are you sure you don't want to go?" "Yes. I just started, I don't know anyone."
"Are you really, really sure! You might want to go."
Going was not a requirement at all, but the little waitress bothered me three or four times for two nights about it. I wasn't a waitress that had to handle customers. I wasn't the cook who had to communicate with the snooty waitress. I wasn't the manager or the store owner who had to talk to everyone. I simply washed, dried and put away things. How exactly could I not do my job



JoeR43
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25 Feb 2010, 11:11 am

I have to say that there's almost no such thing as a stupid reason to not want to hire people. Obviously there are laws against discrimination, but it takes a lot to prove that from just a jobhunting process (how do you know someone else just isn't better, for example? Or interviewed better?).

I remember once at an interview, the owner of the place actually told me someone had told them they were a transexual on their cover letter, and he didn't bring him (her?) in for an interview. They should have the right to employ those they like, hence interviews.



Nan
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25 Feb 2010, 11:49 am

psychohist wrote:
Nan wrote:
I was turned down for a job because I was a woman and therefore, I was told, I'd be taking a job away from a man who "really" needed it.

Was this recently? I thought that attitude went out with the 1950s....


1980s.

I did get turned down for an apartment in the 1990s because I was divorced, too.



Wogar
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03 Mar 2010, 5:04 pm

I was turned down because, apparently, I was "too smart to work [there]." :!:


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FreeSpirit2000
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07 Mar 2010, 7:30 pm

I have not because i am going to school full-time right now, that is why.