Company Issues Apology Over Alleged 'Rudest Rejection Email Ever'

The job seeker shared a screenshot of the rejection email on Reddit. The email lacked salutations at the beginning or end and did not offer an explanation for the rejection.

The process of finding a job can take a toll on you, mainly because it involves lots of effort and rejections. An American job seeker was left stunned after receiving what he termed the “rudest rejection email ever” from a regional non-profit organisation. The North Carolina-based company sent a brief rejection to the job seeker, who subsequently shared it on Reddit, inviting criticism from the public. The organisation has subsequently apologised for the abrupt email, attributing the incident to a system malfunction.

The job seeker shared a screenshot of the rejection email on Reddit. The email lacked salutations at the beginning or end and did not offer an explanation for the rejection. Instead, it contained a single word: "Decline."

Upon sharing the post on the social media platform, the Reddit user expressed disbelief, stating, “In all my years, I've never seen a rejection letter, so... I don't even know what to call this. Uncourteous? Rude? Unprofessional??" The post garnered significant attention on the platform.

The post garnered over 54,000 upvotes on Reddit, accompanied by numerous comments. The overwhelming response criticised the company for its unprofessional and excessively abrupt communication style. The post gained such widespread attention that it reached the attention of the company mentioned, prompting them to issue an apology to the job seeker.

 The company apologised to the Reddit user and wrote, “We recently learned of a system malfunction with our online recruitment software where it automatically sent out replies to applicants for some openings with the single word "decline." We are very sorry this error occurred, as it does not represent who we are or how we treat people. All applicants should be treated respectfully throughout the recruitment process, which includes receiving an appropriate, polite response with the outcome. We sincerely apologise for this mistake and believe we have found the source of the problem so this does not happen again.”

“Apparently my original post made so many waves that it reached the company, and I got sent this earlier today. Some of you sent me screenshots that you received the exact same email, and I know some of you reached out to the company itself to talk about it, so thank you all for that lol It's good to know that it's technical error,” the user wrote along with a picture of an email received from the company.