Unprofessional employers

Today, as I was searching for jobs, I ran across a troublesome exchange on the Denver Craigslist. On Sunday, a new Colorado automotive newspaper had posted a job ad, looking for writers to cover automotive events. Today, someone posted an ad containing a highly unprofessional response that they had received from the employer. Since I have no doubt the well-intentioned warning will soon be flagged down, I am reposting it here:

Here is a response i got from this "company". NEVER work with such a$$holes!!

Motorsports Marketing group wrote: You knowwwwwwww what, I HIRE & FIRE F#CKING IDIOTS LIKE YOU-HELL I EVEN HAVE A FLUNKYEEEEEEEE LIKE YOU TO WIPE MY A$$,,,, PR!CK. Is this all you have to do with your life. Do you even have a F#CKING real Life ?? You are pissed because you can't make it in the real world ? Do you have the Balls to come to my office & tell the owner that to his face ???? I doubt it You pimple faced f#cking idiot. This company has been around for over 20 years without you & will be here long after you F#CKING croak. & by the way, Does the SO in John so Stand for Sh!t head. So why don't you check the spelling here & write it down & then shove it up your a$$. You were not even invited to reply to this. And also the job has been filled with a reserve of over 40 applicants. so F#CK OFF. ----- Original Message -----

I'm sure most of you are in shock right about now, as I was after I read this. (I censored it myself, in case any of my readers view my blog from work; all those profanities were otherwise certain to get the attention of whoever monitors employee Internet usage!) I cannot believe any decent publication would lower themselves to this level. I can't imagine what the applicant might have written to earn this type of response, but regardless, the employer ought to hold himself in high enough esteem to conduct himself professionally at all times.

It is my opinion that the applicant probably commented on the ad's bad spelling and grammar, either as an attempt to demonstrate his superior writing skills, or just to be a smart aleck. The ad was rather poorly written, with "Writer's for New Automotive Newspaper" instead of "Writers for New Automotive Newspaper," and several capitalized letters in inappropriate places.

It is also quite possible that when this applicant sent in his resume, he found out that something about the job was questionable; whether that would be the pay rate or another aspect of the job, I don't know. He may have responded in shock and more than a little self-righteous outrage, and got this email in response.

Regardless of what the applicant said or did, the employer's behavior is completely uncalled for. Interestingly, although the employer claims the company has been around for over 20 years, the ad's title reads "New Automotive Newspaper." In my opinion, neither the ad nor the response read like a company that has been in business for that long (or will be for much longer).

As I've mentioned before in previous posts, when I see glaringly stupid spelling and grammar mistakes in an ad, my defenses automatically go up - I've often found that's a sign that there is something less than ideal about the job, whether it's low pay or a possibility of a scam. And as far as I'm concerned, any employer who would respond with such fury (and so many profanities) is not apt to be a very good employer.

The moral of the story, in this humble freelancer's opinion: if you recently applied to write for a Colorado automotive newspaper (or - God forbid - got the job), you might want to reconsider your involvement with the company!

Update:

I posted on Craigslist to find out what the original email was, and I was correct: he corrected the spelling of the ad's title. Definitely not anything deserving of the type of response he received.