Folks on here often seem to have good observations on job related issues so…

I applied for a job and got email notification that my application had been received.

Then nothing for a while so I got in touch to see what was happening. Turned out I had been offered an interview which I had missed. They claim to have emailed me notification but nothing came to my inbox or spam folder. I’ve gone through the organisation’s complaints procedure and they say they have investigated it and found that they did send an email and the fault must be on my side but will not share the evidence they have of that. They claim this discharges all their obligations and that the matter is now closed.

Obviously they’ve appointed now so I’m not going to get a job out of it but as I’m unlikely to be applying for another job with them I’m somewhat inclined to be a bit bolshy about this and keep pressing them to provide the evidence or come clean if it doesn’t exist. It’s a public sector organisation and I have the option of now taking it to the relevant ombudsman.

Thoughts?

Yeah, go for it.

It’s a public sector organisation and I have the option of now taking it to the relevant ombudsman.

Thoughts?

Public sector you say then go for the relevant ombudsman etc in a bureaucratic way. Some incompetent people either typed your email wrongly or are making things up.

What exactly do you hope to gain from pursuing it further?

What exactly do you hope to gain from pursuing it further?

To be honest I’m just inclined to be a bit of prick about it because I was disappointed to miss out and the complaints procedure has been a pretty frustrating experience.

I think you’re overthinking it. Other jobs are available and if they’re fibbing to you then you probably wouldn’t want to work for them anyway. They’re not obliged to tell you that they’ve thrown your CV in the bin.

THe public sector systems can be a bit crap. My wife applied for a job at my work, but never heard anything, not even a ‘no thanks’.

They’re not obliged to tell you that they’ve thrown your CV in the bin.

They certainly didn’t do that because there’s a record on their system that I’d been invited for an interview.

They’re not obliged to tell you that they’ve thrown your CV in the bin.

Public sector? I suspect they are.

THe public sector systems can be a bit crap. My wife applied for a job at my work, but never heard anything, not even a ‘no thanks’.

One of our departments (public sector) recently advertised a post which had previously been advertised a year ago. The recruitment agency sent through 6 applications that had been received by them but not forwarded to us the year before.

I guess if no one complains the systems don’t improve.

To be honest I’m just inclined to be a bit of prick about it because

Perhaps if less people felt so entitled, there might be more time/money/people to do the job better rather than messing about with self confessed “pricks”?

You said it, I’m just quoting.

Do you have filtering on your mailbox (provided by your ISP or mailbox provider) before it gets to your inbox? Plusnet, BT, Sky, EE all do this. Even gmail does it.

Do you have filtering on your mailbox (provided by your ISP or mailbox provider) before it gets to your inbox? Plusnet, BT, Sky, EE all do this. Even gmail does it.

All the other emails from them came through fine. And surely if emails from a fairly large public sector organisation are getting blocked by internet providers prior to inbox or spam that’s an issue for them too?

Perhaps if less people felt so entitled, there might be more time/money/people to do the job better rather than messing about with self confessed “pricks”?

Let me rephrase that as I’m not inclined to let them get away with incompetence/poor systems/messing people around. If they’ve done what that say then all they need to do is supply the evidence and I’ll shut up and go away.

If there’s nothing to gain, I’d be inclined to just let it go and focus my energies on the next job.

However, if you simply must demand satisfaction then you should, at the very least, challenge their HR Business Partner to a duel with pistols.*

It’ll save everyone valuable time and will be just as productive in the long run.

* If you can slap one of them with a glove, all the better

You gain nothing by chasing this. A lot of appointments fail before start date, what if they might want to come back to you or are about to advertise a better position? Labelling yourself as a prick just black lists you.

PP has it.

MrsMC had been offered a job that got withdrawn halfway through the online application form – apparently a system cock up. They emailed her a hard copy of the part completed form to finish, so sometimes persistence pays off.

Apparently my promotion across to a full time role in another civil service dept is on hold due to Brexit uncertainty. So that’s £10k a year* Brexit is costing me 🙄

*Allowing for the extra hours as well

My wife applied for a job at my work, but never heard anything, not even a ‘no thanks’.

You put her application in the bin, didn’t you?

No good will come form it and you will cause yourself a load of stress.

Go and ride your bike and enjoy the day

You’re inclined to force people through a box ticking exercise that will result in an outcome that is of zero benefit for anyone involved and waste some time and money?

You should just have put that on your CV.

Go to the office and demand to be interviewed.

I might be mistaken but I think you can give feedback on companies application and interview process on Glassdoor?

I might be mistaken but I think you can give feedback on companies application and interview process on Glassdoor?

Poor email communication.  Cads and bounders. No chance of future employment but honour was satisfied. 3/10. Would duel again.

No good will come form it and you will cause yourself a load of stress.

I think I’ve come round to this viewpoint.

To start with I was pissed off about missing out and tried to seek an explanation/solution. But then I got sucked into this strange, faceless, corporate complaints procedure which I never asked them to start. At no point could I actually speak to a person and it’s ended up with rulings, and emails with people quoting procedures and policies. This is not a world I like or am familiar with and I think continuing to pursue it will just mean more of the same.

It seems clear that the main purpose of the system is not to find solutions or improve service but to make complaints disappear or fizzle out through frustration and fatigue. In this regard it has been very effective. The other purpose of course is so that they can say ‘we have a complaint’s procedure’.

One to chalk up to experience I think.

GDPR subject access request should tell you everything you need to know, no?

Email is not a guaranteed delivery mechanism but this:

“To be honest I’m just inclined to be a bit of prick”

Sounds to me like they’ve dodged a bullet tbpfh.

Sounds to me like they’ve dodged a bullet

A valuable skill when you’re duelling with pistols.

“To be honest I’m just inclined to be a bit of prick” Sounds to me like they’ve dodged a bullet tbpfh.

A lot of people extrapolating from this comment to some fairly negative character judgments. All I meant was that I’ve been messed around and that I was willing to put a bit of effort into holding them to account for that.

The other purpose of course is so that they can say ‘we have a complaint’s procedure’.

This I reckon. Unlikely to be there to dissuade and ‘fizzle’ peoples niggles as if found to be the reason by regulators they would have a world of pain. These sort of setups are known to have things well documented which is where all the red tape comes from.