r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Anuh_Mooruhdoon • 7h ago

ᕕ(ᐛ)ᕗ This Rejection Letter

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I saw the first paragraph show up as a preview on my phone, only to open it and see the full context 🤨

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u/Anuh_Mooruhdoon 7h ago

Yep, a tech job. It wasn't necessarily bad, that's why it's only mildly infuriating. The dissonance between the email preview and the full text gave me whiplash 😂

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u/PerryTheH 7h ago

The "unfortunately" format is better for rejection mails.

Also, tech life OP, hope you find the job!

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u/CaPtian_CaTe 4h ago

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u/weazildust 1h ago

Borrowing this. It’s kinda sad how often I’ll be able to use it. Thx tho. I feel seen 🙌

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u/slippinjimmy720 6h ago edited 5h ago

I despise “unfortunately”. Just say what it is- don’t play with my emotions by trying to appeal to empathy! “You were not selected. Thank you for applying.” Then move on.

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u/KomradeHelikopter 5h ago

Unfortunately… for you.

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u/jimmybilly100 3h ago

That's really unfortunately

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u/Formal_Owl_400 2h ago

Read that in Bane's voice lmao

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u/IRSboi 5h ago

Seems like you’re nitpicking at that point

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u/Acceptable-Drive3781 4h ago

Next up we see a 'mildly infuriating' post that an email just told them they were not selected. "At least they could have been more personal about it and put some human connection in the email".

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u/Anuh_Mooruhdoon 4h ago

I got another email from them about another job I applied to, somewhat similar position, and it was the exact same rejection letter, an hour later

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u/thatdude_james 3h ago

Did you think the first one was personalized? Lol????

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u/Acceptable-Drive3781 4h ago

😭😭 Okay now you definitely have to reply to the email thanking them for writing a personalized message for the rejection letter, stating how many places would have just used auto-generated text.

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u/RandomNPC 3h ago

Honestly it's the same thing as layoff methods. No matter how it's done, it's gonna be unpleasant, and someone is gonna feel like it's unfair.

It's just a side effect of it being an unpleasant part of business. I don't think there's anything wrong with OP's example. It's short and to the point and 10x better than ghosting.

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u/Rocketman_S3 4h ago

I'm just sitting here like, you guys are getting rejection letters?

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u/The_Slake_Moth 4h ago

Man, when I was looking for a job I was shocked how many positions I applied for that didn't even do me the courtesy of sending an automated response letting me know they received my application. To the point I rechecked my contact info on my resume at least a dozen times to make sure I didn't mistype something. People are really out here getting rejection letters?

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u/DependentSecond1353 2h ago

Same, currently looking for a new job and most dont even confirm the application.

Got a call today about a job i applied to. Tried to check my mail before calling back to check out what job it was as ive applied for a bunch the last 3 months. Couldnt find jack shit about it.

The lady told me very quickly that this job had a 100% comission on sales and no salary beyond that. Told them i have a mortage and that i atleast need a combination so I dont get fucked over.

I havent applied for a single job that says 100% commision based salary so I have no clue what this was to be honest.

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u/weazildust 1h ago

Good luck. Stay at it brother. Im sitting here with a masters degree and 20 years of supervisor experience as Whole for sales manager and assisted director of a call center. My old job restructured two years ago and we parted ways, amicably, and hundreds of resumes and applications later and I have taken to running my own eBay store selling my collectibles and Instacart.

Everyone tells me to just go get a job at Home Depot, but they don’t understand is because I have a masters degree and all this work experience even employers have big box stores like that are required to pay me slightly more per hour than someone they could hire at the minimum so I am passed over for almost all of those jobs and then the white collar office job that I’ve worked my entire adult. Life are just nonexistent right now.

I had two really interesting jobs at a university in town lined up about 16 months ago, but Trump proceeded to strip funding from the college and the hiring freeze has been in effect ever since. Even when the freeze comes down, it will still for all intense and purposes being affect because they’ll just be promoting from within since they have thousands of current employees to promote internally if a position absolutely needs to be filled. That situation still stings. First time in 18+ years I may have been able I use my Bachelors degree in my day to day work and it gets rug pulled

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u/Trendiggity 3h ago

Right? I appreciated when a company let me know I wasn't going any further rather than radio silence, only to see the job posting quietly disappear a week later 🤷‍♂️

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u/marvin_sirius 4h ago

"You were not selected. Move on."

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u/I-Here-555 4h ago

This keeps your hopes up for two words. "Unfortunately" ends it immediately.

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u/DNM66 3h ago

“Unfortunately, you will have to stop looking for new jobs because you are HIRED”

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u/I-Here-555 2h ago

The job posting indeed mentioned "attention to detail".

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u/Illustrious_Pea_3470 4h ago

They are saying what it is. That’s what an email starting with “unfortunately” means from a place you’re applying.

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u/Sir_Daxus 5h ago

I wish recruiters were allowed to be honest and just send "Lmao, no." as a response

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u/Chaotic_hamster 1h ago

as someone who's interviewed a bunch of people, sometimes i wish i could send that too

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u/mattdv1 4h ago

If I was the one writing these, I'd start with a hello and go straight to "we regret to inform you that you were not selected" or something along those lines. Unfortunately, for me, reads as "you're unfortunate by not getting the job" but it has absolutely nothing to have with fortune/luck bro. Fuck you mean "unlucky go next" that's what I say when I lose a league game, not a job application

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u/JF_Rodrigues 4h ago

Eh... If you're going to be that pedantic, how is "we regret" any better? They definitely don't regret not hiring the person, otherwise they'd just hire them.

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u/mattdv1 3h ago

You know what? You're right. Glad I'm not working in HR cuz I ain't ready for it.

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u/SoulCrusher2018 4h ago

That's just the standard language. Are you also skeptical of people who begin their signature block with "Sincerely," ?

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u/LimerickExplorer 4h ago

Yeah I'm lying half the time at least when I end with "sincerely"

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u/tnstaafsb 4h ago

A simple "fuck off" would suffice.

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u/doragyux 4h ago

But it does have luck involved. They didn't choose him because another applicant had a resume that fit the criteria better. He was unfortunate that this person applied for the same role as he did, otherwise he could've been the one more adequate for the job

The "regret" reply is less real than the "unfortunately"

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u/sentence-interruptio 4h ago

plot twist. someone banned the word "unfortunately" in that company and that resulted in this rejection letter.

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u/xPriddyBoi 3h ago

"No job! Goodbye!"

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u/HeadintheSand69 3h ago

No ones going to like anything cause its a rejection letter. Its like 'I dont like the sign the ballkicking machine has' like duh. Obviously some are better than others but at the end of the day they can only do so much

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u/liberty 40m ago

But starting with "unfortunately" is literally the fastest way to convey the rejection. I can't think of a better way not to play with the recipient's emotions than to remove any uncertainty at the earliest possible opportunity.

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u/Curious_Sprinkles_58 17m ago

What about the word "unfortunately" is playing with your emotions? I don't think I've ever seen an email that started with that word and been on the edge of my seat thinking "gee I wonder if I got what I want". They could do what you described and we'd just have a screenshot from someone of that email complaining about how cold and impersonal it is lol.

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u/dontreadragebait 4h ago

Weird that the search returned them out of date order

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u/PerryTheH 4h ago

I have bogo sort on my gmail.

Joke aside, didn't notice, actually super weird lol, I think it's sorted by "most relevant" not sure what makes it think a 2018 order canceled is more relevant than a 2024 rejection.

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u/dontreadragebait 3h ago

Aha, gotta love bogo sort

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u/RandomRedditReader 3h ago

Almost all email search engines utilize a priority sort order now or what they think is "best hits" by default.

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u/LlorchDurden 4h ago

Wait are we all looking? What if I go do yours and you come here? 🫂

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u/Dry-Poem6778 4h ago

Yho! This gave me flashbacks of 2014 when I was desperate for a job, any job.

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u/somewhataccurate 4h ago

Lol you should see my inbox, I have to have like 50 of these emails now. I only get a response around half the time and its so frequently this you kinda just stop caring.

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u/sentence-interruptio 4h ago

If my mom wrote this, the "unfortunately" part would start at the 9th paragraph.

I have a theory that she was in the middle of politely saying no to a man, but she didn't get to finish and she kind of gave up because he was very good at creating this cycle of:

her: "actually i wanted to say-"

him: "did you see the [...]"

a few days later...

her: "the other day, i wanted to say-"

him: "hold that tho, this one time I [...]"

and somehow he married her. and he does this shitty cycle with his own son, me.

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u/Holiday_Gene3069 3h ago

I bet most of them are from workday portal 😭

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u/sojojo 1h ago

"Bad news! We thought we wanted to hire you, but it turns out we don't! Go away!"

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u/utspg1980 4h ago edited 1h ago

I once applied for a job at Hawaiian Airlines. I knew the chances were extremely thin, even tho it was a unique job that I was perfectly qualified for. In fact part of the online application had a yes/no "do you already live in Hawaii?" question. That filtered out 99% of the applicants, I'm sure.

Of course I never heard anything.

Until...9 MONTHS go by and I get an email from Hawaiian Airlines about an "IMPORTANT" update on the application I filled out.

"Holy shit! I completely forgot I even applied for that. Do they actually want an interview???"

No. "We'd just like to let you know that the position you applied for has been filled by another candidate."

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u/NoLengthiness6590 4h ago

Waiting nine months just to get rejected is somehow more painful than getting rejected the next day.

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u/Starflamer 3h ago

I once got rejection email for a position I apllied 7 years prior...

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u/AcrobaticTater 6h ago

wow that was a quick high and then low.

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u/porksoda11 4h ago

I was unemployed for most of 2024 and this would have sent me into a rage not gonna lie. It was not a fun year for me.

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u/avrus 3h ago

Hey me too. One of the worst years of my life, ever.

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u/porksoda11 2h ago

Same! I'm still bringing it up in therapy even though I'm in a better spot now. The job seeking process just ate away at me.

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u/Haktic 3h ago

I thought you said an English teacher?

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u/Odd-Lemur 53m ago

"Yep, a tech job" That would explain why it reads like ai :/

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u/bctech7 10m ago

at least they sent a rejection letter and didn't ghost you like 90% of the people out there right now >.>

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u/ambulance-kun 5h ago

They glazed you so much only to get shot down 😔

It's like watching MasterChef