Enough is enough!
Current Mood: Thoroughly p*ssed off! 👿
I’m a member of a technical web design guild. Not long after I joined, I asked if there was anything I could do to help and ended up helping to assess applications for new members. In theory, it’s not too onerous a job as the guild has quite specific entry criteria for developers and my job was to apply them to the best of my ability.
I can’t have been doing too bad a job as I was left to do for over 2 years – during which time, two other people burnt out, one after the other. I stuck with it because I figured I should do something (rather than just sit on my backside which most other members seemed to do) to try to help other developers. And there have been times when it’s been really worthwhile. Of course, there were times when it wasn’t so hot. Getting a load of abuse from the odd person who didn’t make the required grade isn’t exactly fun but, overall, the good outweighed the bad.
Until last week…
Last week, I started to assess another application – even though I already had a further seven on the go. The applicant had submitted a WordPress blog as his main reference. It wasn’t a bad site but it had problems. He had written about the importance of validation yet some of his own pages failed validation badly. He had talked about the importance of using only relative fonts yet had used fixed fonts in at least two places. In short, this was someone who appeared to say one thing but did the complete opposite when it suited him.
However, none of us are perfect, so I spotted a way to give him another chance. The guild admins decided a while back that they wouldn’t accept applications that consisted of just a WordPress blog. After all, WordPress is good ‘out of the box’, so, the theory went, having a WordPress blog didn’t prove a great deal in the way of technical expertise – it just proved you knew how to choose a good blog.
On this particular application, the applicant had submitted a secondary reference site, so I figured I could bring this in as part of the assessment and see if perhaps his ‘problems’ were just blog-related. Unfortunately, they weren’t. If anything, the second site was even worse!
Still I didn’t reject the application. I mailed him, explained the situation and gave him the usual 4 weeks to either correct the problems or submit something else in support of his application. So I didn’t reject the application. Got that? It wasn’t rejected.
I tend to go through this process a lot. About 1 in 5 of the applicants who are put through this ‘pending’ process get back to me very quickly and they almost all get through the process – usually with some help – within the 4 weeks. The remaining 4 never take it any further – no matter how often they are emailed. I can only assume that, if they don’t get through at their first attempt, they aren’t interested.
Fair enough. So I thought nothing of this application either. Just figured the guy would get back to me if he was still interested.
Only he didn’t. Instead he has apparently been contacting other members of this guild and giving them a edited version of events – complaing that he has been rejected and can they explain this?
Early yesterday, one of these members decided to raise this on an open mailing list – including quoting part of my private email, out of context, on the list.
Gee – thanks! Now I either have to say very little or be prepared to discuss a private individual’s application on a general mailing list – something I don’t feel is even vaguely ethical. What ever happened with a concerned guild member contacting me privately? What ever happened to the applicant contacting me himself as per the mail I’d sent him? And let’s not even get into the ethics of using contacts to try and place undue pressure on what is supposed to be a fair and objective assessment process! Or is who you know so much more important than what you actually do?
Without going into details, I made it very clear, on the list, that this application had not been rejected, that the applicant was mistaken and perhaps he simply hadn’t read his email properly. I replied privately to the person who had raised the issue publically, explained that this was placing me in a very awkward position and pointed out the full contents of the email that the ‘out of context quote’ has come from.
I never did get an apology for what I consider to be a severe breach of netiquette but I did find out that the ‘out-of-context quote’ came directly from the complaining applicant (who still hadn’t contacted me). However, by now the damage was done. Words that I had never said were now being placed in my mouth on the mailing list and no one appeared to be even listening to what I had to say – let alone supporting me in any way, shape or form.
I was asked to send yet another email to this applicant clarifying that his application hadn’t been rejected “in case I hadn’t made it clear in the first place”. I wonder how all of the other applicants I have dealt with over the years managed to understand me then? Neverthless, I did as I was asked. The second email, sent late yesterday, reiterated no less than 4 times that his application had not been rejected, asked him twice to please contact me and also asked to please not use other guild members to intercede on his behalf.
Still no response…
Then tonight, yet another guild member starts asking why this application was “rejected” and I’m asked again to explain.
HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY IT? THE BLOODY APPLICATION HASN’T BEEN REJECTED!
I’m now beginning to wonder why is happening? Could it be that someone has a bruised ego because he didn’t just walk through a fairly stiff application process and is now out to cause as much trouble as he can? In other words, is he deliberately editing the truth and canvassing other members in an effort to force his way into this guild because he thinks he has a god-given right to be a member?
Hey – the world has all sorts and that I can live with. What I can’t live with is the fact that other guild members who have, apparently, been quite happy to trust me for over 2 years should suddenly stop listening to me, believe I have some sort of hidden agenda, am not to be trusted and must account for myself. All because of someone they barely know who either can’t be bothered to read his own email or who is deliberately out to cause trouble.
Frankly, if they think they can do a better job that I’ve done, they’re welcome. I’m out!
