Ill-mannered people (28 January 2004)
For many people, applying for a job is not the most pleasant experience.
Writing letters of application and sending rather intimate details about yourself to strangers is not exactly something unemployed people look forward to.
Employers may respond to your application, for instance that had expected someone with a driver's licence, or someone who has worked in the kitchen. You may dislike the fact that you have not been selected, but at least you know why.
Some employers don't even take the trouble of sending you a letter of rejection. When the candidate inquires after a few months, he just hears someone else got the job. "Oh, didn't you receive our letter?" (that the bastards never sent ..)
That people reply to letters or messages they receive is not as obvious as you might think. If you try to get in touch with cable company UPC because of the poor quality of your tv reception, it seems to be almost impossible to reach them. They never seem to have heard of email, and when you try to phone them, the chances are great they'll let you wait for ages at your expense.
But it's not only big companies that show such blatant lack of good manners. About ten months ago I offered to have my game three-letter-lingo placed on the so called Scrabble page.
I received a message from a certain Jeroen Kramer that I first had to correct a few irregularities in the program. Consequently, I repaired the program, sent him the corrcted version ... and never heard of him any more. Even after my repeated inquiries I never received any response. Does the Scrabble Page employ autists, or what?
But curiouser and curiouser: last week I received a message from a certain mr F. Scheer (a Philips employee), who had acquired an old chess computer. Did I know where he could get the manual?
As I know how difficult it can be to find these manuals, I spent about an hour scanning the original manual, cutting the copies to size, compressing and sending them. If you would bet that I received any confirmation from mr Scheer that he had received the copies, I'm afraid you'll lose your bet. I even wrote him two more messages, but no response!
People working with computers are used to the option of ending a process with the cancel button. Could computers deform some people to such an extent that they think the same mechanism also applies to their social contacts?
