And on the flip side...

So it's 10:40 PM at night and although I took a few minutes to blow off some steam about today's idiot, I am actually up this late to send reject notes to some people I phone screened recently.

And you know how most candidates respond to this?

With surpise (that someone bothered) and appreciation (that, again, someone bothered). I get the sense that a lot of my counterparts don't bother so much. I, of course, lose sleep if I tell someone I'm going to do something and then don't.

Anyway...I can't really blame my counterparts themselves. We're generally working under a lot of pressure to produce and since it's the client (not the candidates) who pay the bills, guess who gets all of our attention. And quite frankly, were I not generally riddled with guilt, I would probably much rather - per my friend's exhortation today - JUST TURN OFF THE LAPTOP at a decent hour. But I TOLD these candidates I'd do something so I am trying to do it.

I just wish that we could build decency into the system. (See also: tilting at windmills.) You know, like it should be built into my work hours this time to circle back to people who took the time to talk with me. It shouldn't be something I have to do on my own time.

But whatever.