Has an employer ever handled your application so badly you decided not to work for them?

[ThatArtfulCoralFinch]

I’ve been applying for jobs recently, and some of these employers don’t half mess things up. I take this to say a lot about what they might be like to work for. Have you ever had an employer mess you about so much during the application process - being disorganised, uncommunicative, or even disrespectful - that it completely turned you off the idea of working for them?

Did you write them off as a potential employer, or did you give them a chance anyway?

Many years ago I applied for a role in a company that handled printing. Went to two interviews for this role and never heard back from them - a few months later they contacted me saying they had another role come up and again, I had two interviews with them and never heard back.

The worst bit was when I went out one night and they were all there on a work's do. The people who had interviewed me - four times. I said hello as I walked past their table and they blanked me.

About a year later I had got a new role and one of my responsibilities was to look at our print supplier. And yes, our print supplier was this rude company. I changed supplier - probably cost them a £10k contract.

Yes, the person who was handing out drinks at the group interviews made a racist comment. I flagged it and was told it was "just how they are, a different generation" - I left immediately. I was shocked anyone stayed tbh. Lucky escape they folded 9 months later.

I travelled a couple of hours for an interview. I was left for 2.5 hours waiting, and then they told me the person I was supposed to be meeting wasn't even in the country. They pulled someone else in to interview me, offered me the job on the spot. I wrote a letter (this was about 25 years ago) turning down the offer, i.e. so don't bother sending me any paperwork. There is just no point in considering a position if you've been treated like this.

I applied for a role at an organisation and got down to the final stage. The process was absolutely awful, comms terrible and took so long that I decided I didn't want to work for them. They gave it to the internal candidate in the end ans I was relieved !

My firm's recruitment processes are quite bad in that there are so many layers of red tape to get approval to make an offer that often by the time we make an offer to a promising candidate they've already had other interviews elsewhere and been made (or sometimes have already accepted) and competing offer. It's infuriating but I have no control over the policies though I have complained many times.

I did once go to an interview at a firm where the guy who was meant to be interviewing me had forgotten I was coming. He was openly irritated and flustered, showed me into a room and snapped "I can only give you a few minutes" and then barked some questions at me. He than left and called a colleague to take over. The colleague seemed nicer at first but then peered at my CV and said "did you realise you've made a mathematical error?" (in the percentage split of my work types). I was a bit thrown and apologised. He then got up and said HE had to get in with his work day and called a third colleague in to complete the interview. She was OK but quite honestly told me that everyone there started early (before 8am) and hardly anyone left before 6.30. (I had a child at nursery and had to do either drop off or pick up so those hours were just not possible.) Final nail in the coffin was that she told me that there were a lot of socials with "rough and ready" type clients and I would need to be prepared to accept "banter" and similar (I assume she meant groping) and be willing to "laugh it off". No thanks.

After the interview I checked the "error" in my CV and there actually wasn't one so either my interviewer made the mistake or he was testing me to see if I challenged him. Arsehole. I was not made an offer and was mightily relieved, not that I would have gone to work there anyway after that debacle. A friend later went to work there and handed in her notice after 3 months. They were a bunch of nasty bullies apparently so my experience was quite reflective of that.

Yes, I went for an interview at Dyson in the 90s, I think they were based somewhere like Chippenham at the time. I arrived in plenty of time for my interview and an hour after it was supposed to have started, I was still sitting in reception.

I got up and walked out, explaining to the receptionist that I couldn't stay any longer. I just felt that they had a total disregard for my time and knew it wouldn't be a pleasant place to work.

Not an application, but I had a first day and week from hell as the HR woman and the training woman were just so awful. I am an adult and good at what I do, the HR woman changed stuff on my work declaration i.e. no disability to a yes. I have AuDHD, it’s not a disability to me, and demanded that I sign it as she has no experience with ND people, as if that’s somehow my fault. The trainer spoke to me slowly so that I could understand and I quietly told her that when I was reading for both my degrees that the lecturers didn’t speak slowly. I stuck the role for a week and a bit and left with no job to go to. The last straw was them explaining to me that Excel was a spreadsheet system. Yes. I know that. I felt like asking if they would like me to train them on it as they couldn’t sort a pivot table between them.
The trainer woman and the team manager woman just mucked about so much in those 7 working days, that I had no confidence in them, the team or the company. It’s been a long time since I have been made to feel stupid for 7 hours a day. I wasn’t sleeping at night, I had anxiety all day and when I used my inhaler at lunchtime, in the lunch room, I was told ‘oh so there is something else wrong with you then’. I put my week’s notice in that evening and never went back.
I have now got a new job. Old job actually, after a random conversation with an old team manager and would I like to come back and be on a hybrid contract. No interview, no form filling, just start Monday and they’ll worry about forms, over coffee, then. Work bag is packed.

A good few years ago now, building developers, interview process was chaotic but even that did not set me up for the first day from hell. I was covering maternity, lady was at a mat appt, 9am I started, 9.15am sales director literally screaming at me to give her the sales figures! I got up and left.

That afternoon the Sales Director turned up at my home with flowers and literally begged me to give her another chance. I went back the next day and was gone again by lunch time as her behavior was exactly the same.

I heard thru the grapevine she was fired a few weeks later.

They called on my local landline, they knew I lived in a different county and still asked if I was interested

No. I wasn't

I went for an interview that had a practical task and I was given a desk in the main office to complete it.

Everyone there was muttering and moaning, about the boss, about the workload, about other departments - everyone was miserable and stressed.

No thanks.

I applied for a job several years ago. I worked in a very niche area which required several formal qualifications. The employer, post interview but before job offer, asked me to bring in my certificates to prove my qualifications. They were insistent on having the originals which I was nervous about, however as they were a huge, international, well known company I assumed they would be safe. So I duly left them.

And then I never heard from them again! I called, emailed, sent a carrier pigeon but to no avail so I eventually deposited myself in their reception and insisted that I was not leaving until I had my documents. They told me that I hadn’t left any! Oh my gosh it was so bloody stressful but after three hours they eventually admitted they had lost my documents.

I had to replace them at a cost of about £300 and I debated taking them through the small claims court to get redress, however in the end I left it as I knew the net result would still end up with me being out of pocket

This was many years ago and I still hate the company - if I ever see or hear their name I have to immediately tell whoever I’m with what happened. Maybe I need to get over it now 😄

Late 90's, I applied to a job I had seen online and was invited to interview with The Recruiter first. When I got there they said that the job had been filled but would I consider working for them instead. I said that I hadn't considered Recruitment but if they told me more I might. The David Brent wannabe then lambasted me for not showing more enthusiasm and said that he had a good mind to "rescind his offer". He then dragged in several young men and told them to tell me how much they had earned last month.
Dickhead finally said that he HAD decided to offer me the job BUT I would need to wear skirts and not trousers (like I was at that moment). At that point I left telling him that I would wear skirts to the office if he did.
They actually had the balls to send me an official offer letter a few days later.

Yep, a school. So many red flags and being repeatedly told that it had to be that way 'for the kids'. I left a few months later. I should have listened to the red flags.

My first ‘proper’ job for an energy company but I did actually accept the job!
The job title was ‘Energy administrator’ but they were also hiring for ‘call centre operative’.
I applied only for the admin role, and at the interview specifically asked if the admin role involved any phone calls/call centre work as I was not remotely interested in doing that, and was told 100% definitely not- it was purely internal admin. I then made it clear yet again that if it was call centre work I was not at all interested. Again I was reassured.

I was then offered the job, contract said ‘energy administrator’ and I also asked for clarification yet again and again was firmly reassured.

Turned up for training (2 weeks long) and was in a mixed group of people with lots of different job titles, the training to begin with was just general about the energy industry - things they wanted us to know but not job specific. I was getting red flags but ignored them, I finally asked the trainer and he said no everyone is training together etc etc no matter what job role within the company.

Then at the end of the two weeks we were split into two groups, and taken up to the call centre floor, all put on the phones and computer systems with no actual specific training on how to use either. We were told this was our team manager and off we go. I obviously at that point asked for a meeting with the team manager, and they tried to delay and shrug me off, I however refused to sit at a phone until I had spoken to the manager. I explained that I was told numerous times it was not a call centre job, I was supposed to do internal admin only, and my job title was energy administrator and she admitted that there were 4/5 job titles for just the same call centre role and no difference between them and that in 6 months if I was still unhappy we could schedule a meeting to review then and then she shooed me out of the door.
At that point I walked out of the building and I was so upset/angry!

I wish I hadn’t ignored earlier red flags but I was young and actually took people on their word, they were unprofessional right from the application onwards so I wish I had trusted my gut!

Yep, I had one ask what my dad and husband do for a living. Cut that interview short.

What's your specific example, OP? As people are sharing theirs?

@ThatArtfulCoralFinch

I went for a job that I really wanted and I thought was a great match for my skills.

I was given an interview time of 5:20pm, which I thought was odd as it was rather late and if they've been interviewing all day they would probably be rather fatigued.

Anyway I arrived, waited quite a while and was eventually called in. The guy greeted me with 'oh we didn't know you were coming'. I felt absolutely cut down. Then he had to rifle through all the papers to find my cv/cover letter and had to read them then and there.

Presumably there was some admin error (I wasn't on his list, I should never have been offered an interview, the time on the email was wrong, who knows?)

But, man!, to be told 'why are you here?' at the start of an interview is not exactly how you get the best out of people!

I didn't get the job...but it had probably already been offered to someone.

I had a friend, when we were young, got a call from a job application. Super excited, first proper job etc. I watched her in excitement but was confused and then she told me what the guy on the phone said.

Apparently because she had a "foreign" name, she was told she'd have to do an english language type test to confirm her level of English. She's British and uk since birth.

She said he asked "can you speak a good level of english? We need you to do an x test before we can continue with your application" or something.
She responded with "can you read, my application listed all the schools I went to and education level - all in the uk".

He allegedly called her rude or whatever and needless to say, she didn't get the job and nor did she want it.

It wasn't the primary reason I declined their offer but after being completely ignored post-interview at a (so called!) professional, huge international company for a senior role they then emailed me SIX MONTHS later with a 'Congratulations! We'd like to offer you the role' message.

Funnily enough at that stage I was already several months in to a different (better) job, and hadn't been hanging around desperately for half a year for their answer!

I went for an interview for NHS. The manager kept me waiting over forty minutes even though they were just upstairs. I did take the job as I needed the money but the manager was generally awful. I was glad to leave after a couple of years.

I was once cc'd into an email from the employer that had all the applicant's email addresses listed in the cc box.

I did raise it as an fyi but heard nothing back. It didn't happen again. I took the job

Day one and first item of training - the importance of GDPR when communicating with clients/families/agencies. I shit you not....

I had similar. When I was last looking for a job, I had a choice to make career path wise. I was contemplating branching out into a different sector and had a first interview with the person that would have been my immediate line manager.

I was then invited back to a second interview with her boss and he wasn't nice. I decided mid way through the interview that I wasn't going to take the job even if it was offered, and was going to stick with my original career pathway, but I was annoyed that I didn't heard anything from the recruitment agent.

I'd already been offered another job through a different agent, so didn't chase it up, but I was really surprised when, 6 months later, the recruitment agent called me about another job.

He actually started the conversation by telling me I hadn't got the previous job and I replied "well on the basis that it was 6 months ago and I hadn't heard anything more, I'd kind of assumed that!" then added a "I've actually been in a new role for the last 3 months" and he sounded genuinely surprised! Idiots!

Looking back now it was definitely the right decision, so I'm pleased they were so shit!

This was my first job that I actually accepted because I didn't have a choice (nearly 15% unemployment in the country). I went through several interview stages including 2 written task and an in-person interview at the end with the company's in-country CEO. He made me feel very inadequate and asked about things that - as I later found out - were completely irrelevant for the job. He specifically did this to make me feel that I was actually lucky to get the job and to offer the lower possible wages. I was very young, out of uni and he made my confidence hit the rock bottom. I was shocked when he told me that I was hired, he shook my hand, told me to call him by his name and said he will 'Give me a chance'. As I later found out, they really struggled to hire anyone. I was paid 20% less than I asked for, given what I asked for after 9 months and stayed 4 years in the job. It was extremely stressful, repetitive and generally awful with some truly horrible people. I was glad when I left.

yes this has happened to me.

was offered a job which would have been a pay rise of £1000 a month. Ideal.

it was a tmporary position, with a chance of becoming permanent. But, for the extra salary and devlopment opportunity I was prepared to take the risk of leaving a permanent job for a temporary one.

After 8 weeks they still hadn't completed their end of the routine paperwork so I withdrew my acceptance.

Could just imagine what it would have been like to work with such a level of incompetence/disregard in my management. No thank you!

Not me, but my partner was a contractor at a large Bank for a number of years on a day rate and was laid off during COVID as were lots of others. After 18 months or so on furlough he thought he would look for something closer to home as he had got used to not commuting to London daily.

He applied for a job locally, told them his rate, yes yes that's great 4 interviews , skills tests etc weeks of process, when can you start, we'd be lucky to have you etc. It was a drop down in skill level but the trade off with not commuting made it a great deal.

The contract came and it was for £35k, less than a quarter of his day rate salary which he wasn't expecting as an employee but he had told them all along he would be looking at low six figures and the recruitment company knew this.

No wonder they thought they were getting a bargain! Fortunately shortly after things picked up again at the Bank and they rehired him, work from home. The other company have ceased trading.