The Method of Madness

On the Internet, everyone is an expert. I’ve come to realize this from being on Twitter and roving around the HR and Recruitment social media space, and this disturbs me.

One of the most important things to me is authenticity, which goes hand-in-hand with truth and other qualities like it. Authenticity is important to building an audience and building credibility, but I’ve witnessed a lot of people building authenticity and had myself thinking, “How in the world can they be doing this?” I thought about it, cursed a few times, had a beer, and then it came to me. Well, really, it just came to me, but whatever.

Community. In other words, these “authentic” people (Bloggers, Tweeters, what-have-you) have essentially found others willing to agree with their ideas and opinions. In this world of social media, those folks are also (usually) willing to reshare the content. And so the cycle goes, turning into a self-sustaining circle jerk of like-minded personalities that does nothing but recycle and re-hash the same content and ideas.

Cliques, anyone? My, how little changes from high school…

The next step, of course, is the “community” self-styling itself as a collective of experts. This works, by the way, because of how “authenticity” is constructed; it’s akin to a virus, really. And bingo: you’ve got a load of bullshit coming down the pipeline, probably 2/3′s of which is more self-serving drivel to position the community as experts, and the other 1/3 consisting of the recycled content.

So in the beginning of my post, I singled out the HR/Recruitment social media space. My bottom line opinion about it is just what I’ve written here: a bunch of self-styled (and self-rewarded) influencers who do more collective hot-air blowing than any real change. I can’t even count how many blog posts, Tweets, and statuses have reflected and condemned some of the worst HR practices – discrimination, bad decisions, etc. – and yet, I’ve seen nothing remarkably changed about the industry by all of these “influencers.” So, again, my contention is that their “influence” stops as soon as it hits the computer screen.

And so the illusion of expertise. Expertise on a subject goes beyond just knowing it and talking about it. Expertise would have you effectively sharing these ideas to enact meaningful change. If these “influencers” can’t produce meaningful change in the industry they purport to represent, the only thing they’re influencing is other people’s perceptions of them.

Sorry, I’m just not that into you.

Discriminating against the unemployed. Since when did this make sense?

Apparently it does to some people. The Huffington Post featured an article on a company who noted that the unemployed need not apply in their requisition. This sparked a fairly heated debate on there and several reactions across the blogosphere, and this is what I’ve gleaned:

1. Most recruiters are morally sensible enough to know that not hiring someone based on employment status is dispicable;
2. Those that do justify it are douches and tools of the highest order;
3. Somehow, this all has to do with something financial (wee ha, huge surprise);
4. Somehow, this will lead to a disparate impact case. I would hate to be that hiring manager.

I can’t wrap my head around this at all. Maybe it’s because I’m not a recruiter – or maybe I’m just not this stupid – but what does employment status say about a person, especially when so many are unemployed right now? This is infuriating, depressing, and just plain pathetic all in one. It’s maddening to know that there are recruiters out there who would literally not even look at my qualifications because I was laid off. Are you saying the only talent worth employing is the kind worth stealing?

There are those recruiters that tow the line of “Well, it’s what my client wanted, and it’s not discriminatory so…” This line of thinking didn’t work in Nuremberg, and it’s a boat of bullshit here too. Recruiters, have the common (and ethical) sense to tell your client that disqualifying unemployed people is probably a very bad idea. Do you want to be that company or that recruiter? You reap what you sow, folks. If you aren’t willing to help people, and choose to hide behind policies and bureaucracy, don’t tweet your tears when you’re unemployed and nobody wants to help you.

Thank you to the recruiters, hiring managers, and others who understand that for many of us, unemployment wasn’t a choice or something that came about due to bad performance. It’s good to know that there are plenty of good people out there who are willing to help those in their time of need.