This manager says she won’t hire someone if they don’t send a thank-you email, and Twitter is on fire
The job search is a grueling, hellish rite of passage. When you’re submitting resume after resume to online job portals only to get radio silence in return, it often seems like there’s an unspoken set of arbitrary guidelines governing which candidates actually get called in to interview. And a recent Business Insider article frustrated current and former job-searchers alike when one hiring manager wrote that she doesn’t hire candidates unless they send her a thank-you email.
The article in question was published on April 5th by Jessica Liebman, the executive managing editor at Insider Inc. In her piece, Liebman explained that—after hiring for 10 years—she believes that managers shouldn’t offer a job to candidates who don’t send a thank-you email. Her reasons were twofold: It usually shows that a candidate wants the job, and it’s a way to separate “good eggs”—i.e. polite and organized people—from the rest of the field.
"To be clear, a thank-you note does not ensure someone will be a successful hire," Liebman concluded. "But using the thank-you email as a barrier to entry has proved beneficial, at least at my company."
Hey, I wrote something! … I’ve been hiring people for 10 years, and I still swear by a simple rule: If someone doesn’t send a thank you email, don’t hire them. https://t.co/NWXB1ozNgr
— Jessica Liebman (@jessicaliebman) April 5, 2019
It didn’t take long for Liebman’s story to go viral…and for Twitter to pick it apart.
Do you send a personal thank you email to job applicants who perform unpaid labor, like a writing test, but fail to get the position? If not, why does gratitude only run in one direction? Genuine question!
— Mark Joseph Stern (@mjs_DC) April 7, 2019
false
These employees will be creating value for your company, it’s you that should be thankful. No wonder people leave after few months, sounds like a toxic work environment where only the yay sayers are accepted
— Marijam Didžgalvytė (@marijamdid) April 5, 2019
What if…. the person doing the hiring is the one who should write a thank you email! As in, thank you for your unpaid time and labor. Thank you for going through this process with us with no guarantee of hire. Thank you for considering sharing your skills with us, which we need
— Chris Stedman (@ChrisDStedman) April 8, 2019
so do you send emails to every applicant who interviews to let them know that they're not moving forward? I'm not even asking you to reject every application you receive, just anyone who you talk to. curious.
— Caryn Rose (@carynrose) April 6, 2019
Meanwhile, others pointed out that you can’t really tell much about a candidate from a thank-you email.
Seriously though, this sounds problematic. Insofar as it's a recognized social norm to send a thank you note, it'll be a meaningless formality, hopeless for distinguishing good candidates. Insofar as it's not, you should infer *nothing* from the fact that someone didn't send one!
— Simon Rippon (@SmnRppn) April 5, 2019
While I believe in sending thank-you notes (not really a millenial thing but boomers like them), this policy of yours instantly raises red flags on my end as a hypothetical employee. Do I want to work for someone who values adherence to their personal social norms over my skills?
— K (@_blondemamba_) April 5, 2019
“ if they don’t send a thank you email don’t hire them” because that’s more important than kindness or productivity or job fit
— 🗽Sydette Cosmic Dreaded Gorgon 🇬🇾 (@Blackamazon) April 6, 2019
Others argued that this could unfairly discriminate against people of different social backgrounds.
This is an arbitrary bit of gatekeeping that is both culture- and generation-specific. In doing this you’re also gong to skew results to people who act and think like you, thereby decreasing intellectual diversity on the team. A thank you is classy, but not a disqualifier.
— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) April 6, 2019
As well as the wonderful message it sends to anyone struggling with communication in any way. Isolation, depression, anxiety, autism, … There are millions of affected people who might do their best in all aspects, but who don't have the natural habit to send a thank you note.
— Sébastien Vercammen (@sebvercammen) April 5, 2019
(Another rant I might turn into a blog)
Hidden rules are are horrible way to gatekeep.
"The candidate didn't send a thank you email, so we won't hire them!"
"Did you tell them that was a requirement?"
"No. It's just good manners!"
WTJF?— Terence Eden (@edent) April 6, 2019
A good example of how institutions create litmus tests that have nothing to job with the job being applied for, but nevertheless disqualify those who don't have a very specific type of cultural job training https://t.co/sy5nWwUrJE
— Astead (@AsteadWesley) April 7, 2019
Even Alison Green, author of the popular job-advice blog Ask a Manager, disagreed with the idea that thank-you emails should be mandatory.
Hard disagree. And it'll discriminate against candidates from backgrounds where they don't get this kind of job search training, which has nothing to do with skills & ability to excel on the job. I like thank-you notes but making them a requirement is a terrible practice
— Ask a Manager (@AskAManager) April 6, 2019
The backlash to Liebman’s article was so severe that she wrote a follow-up article to clarify her position. In it, she admitted that Insider has hired people who didn’t send thank-you emails and suggested that readers think of such an email as a “final pitch” rather than just a thank you.
What are your thoughts on this one?
