Employer - Work experience request - was I too rude

gibson123

LittleVoice wrote: »

As you have taken time to post here, perhaps you could also take the time to contact the FE college and let them know how one of their students has behaved.

Perhaps she thought there would be a separate form to complete as she wasn't looking for immediate employment. Your initial reply might not have made it clear that it would be the same process - unless you do happen to have separate forms available on your website.

What is your role in the organisation? How did she get your email address? That probably meant she had some initiative to get moving on finding her own work placement but clearly the communication deteriorated to the point that she wrote herself out of a place with your organisation (or any other where she behaved in the same way).

Totally agree that communication deteriorated so quickly.

The link I provided sends her to a web-page with the title - student work experience.

You can go to our website and find it independently under "students" " "work experience" "training"

I am quite senior, my e-mail signature shows my seniority, we are an organisation that feel strongly about supporting young people and we freely make our e-mail addresses available to colleges and universities with an invitation for students to contact us if they want help with their studies. We do things like mentor students doing thesis in our subject areas, help get work experience in our departments and generally give career advise etc. This is of course not our core business. This girls application would have been returned to me for consideration and feedback.

I will certainly be contacting the college, I am just annoyed that I responded so negatively.

gibson123

Whitewing you have it in a nutshell, I certainly did descend to her level and it is so unlike me, I am very annoyed, but I think apologising or saying I welcome her application would send out the wrong message.

hcb42

Does the site work with any modern technology e.g. Ipad/Iphone etc?

I would find the statement about not helping unless disabled, and the following statement a little bit antagonistic tbh, I totally agree individuals should be able to complete forms on their own initiative, equally giving support and assistance is just courteous.

gibson123

hcb42 wrote: »

Does the site work with any modern technology e.g. Ipad/Iphone etc?

Not sure will have to check

I would find the statement about not helping unless disabled, and the following statement a little bit antagonistic tbh,

We receive lots of requests, we set up the download because we do not have time to answer every request by downloading, saving and then attaching application forms, we just send a link directly to the page, so the student can do it themselves. We know that some software that disabled people use does not read the download properly so we are happy to help in this situation.


I totally agree individuals should be able to complete forms on their own initiative, equally giving support and assistance is just courteous.

Yes I agree about the discourtesy, but I did think I was being helpful, the link went straight to the information and instructions already provided, to do the same by e-mail would mean me cutting and pasting or typing it all again.

gibson123

sorry hcb tried to answer in your quote the technology defeated me.

KiKi

I think she was very rude indeed. However, I would never have responded with that last email, in the interests of the reputation of the organisation you work for. She's a petulant and very immature student; you're a professional in a senior role!

KiKi

1940sGal

I don't think you have anything to worry about. She was clearly in the wrong. Clearly it never occurred to her that in the time spent exchanging emails, she could have just downloaded the form, filled it in and sent it back.

The way she put herself across was absurd and childish. She was being petulant and lazy. The way you reacted was perfectly natural.

If that's how she conducts herself, she'll be lucky to get a job anywhere.

Don't sweat the small stuff. She's one forgettable blip on the radar and should the exchange ever come up, no one in their right mind would think she was in the right.

zzzLazyDaisy

I would have binned the correspondence after her 'there is nothing wrong with me' remark.

You told her what she needed to do, she couldn't be bothered, or couldn't work it out - either way she was rude and clearly wasn't particularly interested in making a good impression. Why waste your time?

But hey - it's easy to be smart after the event. You're human and she caught you on a bad day. It's done. Put it down to experience. You are in a senior position so you must have had worse things happen in your time.

dizzyrascal

To the OP.
You should definitely feed this back to the college and ask for the Careers Advisers or tutors to speak to the group in question.
This girl clearly needs to be especially advised but the college should make a point of explaining to all those that want work experience, that companies don't have to provide it. They also need to get the message through that having good manners pays, being rude does not!

jamiecg

dizzyrascal wrote: »

To the OP.
You should definitely feed this back to the college and ask for the Careers Advisers or tutors to speak to the group in question.
This girl clearly needs to be especially advised but the college should make a point of explaining to all those that want work experience, that companies don't have to provide it. They also need to get the message through that having good manners pays, being rude does not!

Although I agree that the girl was out of order and my reply may have been a bit harsher than the op you have to ask yourself did the girl contact op directly or through college, if directly then by contacting the college could in theory be classed as data protection and lack of confidentiality as the girl may not have advised anybody she was applying for the position, just a thought