Just this morning, I learned that I didn’t even get an interview for the same position I used to have at my last last employer.
A few minutes ago, I sent this message to the entire executive staff at the institution:
Dear XXXX Leadership Team,
I was astounded to learn that as far as XXXX’s Human Resources department is concerned, I am not sufficiently qualified to merit so much as an interview for the very job I performed, at XXXX, for 8 years (see the email below this). There is almost no detail of that job I do not know thoroughly. There is no one on planet Earth who is better qualified for that particular job.
In retrospect, I shouldn’t be surprised at all. XXXX has been charging full tilt into a chasm of mediocrity for several years now. XXXX is clearly pursuing a policy of eliminating the more skilled and knowledgeable staff and replacing them from a vast pool of unskilled, inexperienced, ignorant, and in particular, cheaper labor.
I have spent most of my career in the not-for-profit sector of American business, in large part because there was and is a sense of shared mission and service among the people in it. We feel we are contributing to something more important than widget production and bean counting.
If you wished to move XXXX in the direction of being another soulless corporate entity, complete with a workforce of easily replaced machine-like cogs, congratulations. You have succeeded admirably. I think this represents a terrible outcome, but what do I know? You may all be dancing for joy, and it may be all for the best that someone like me, who clearly doesn’t fit in with the new realities, is gone.
In case you’re wondering why I’m writing this letter now, it’s quite simple. I was laid off by XXXX, I am still unemployed and anxious to find another job, and certainly fearful that expressing my true opinions about XXXX would eliminate whatever chance I had. After having applied for this and several other positions, it’s clear to me I have no chance whatsoever. In some ways I find this a liberating realization.
I have had some personal interactions with more than half of you folk on the leadership team, and I think you know that I’m not a particularly grumpy or sour person. But watching XXXX’s downward spiral has been like watching a puppy develop rabies.
I can also tell you that I have a great many friends still at XXXX, who are of course fearful of their own futures and unwilling to speak unpleasant truths. But the feelings I’ve expressed here are very widely shared, so to whatever extent I am speaking for my former co-workers and saying what they dare not say, I am proud to do so.
Wishing you all the best but not expecting much from you, I am,