Old Fashioned?

Yes, you're old fashioned. You expect social amenities and graceful human behavior. Both of these qualities still exist, but they are rare. In today's marketplace, don't expect a potential employer or head hunter to respond to anything, be it email, US mail or voice mail. They received your message. They aren't interested.

What happened? Bill Clinton is what happened. NAFTA is what happened. Outsourcing and illegal aliens, they happened. A drop in demand for your services is the bottom line to what happened.

I make my living, such as it is, as an applications developer. In 1998 through 2000 my phone was ringing off the hook. Every single resume I sent out received a reply. Even if the client wasn't interested, they sent me a polite reply. In 2001 all that changed. One head hunter was so rude and conceited that I seriously considered driving to Chicago, hunting him down and adjusting his attitude with a baseball bat. Another head hunter, a man that I had done business with for years, finally took time to explain the new office policy I was experiencing. Don't respond unless the person has something you want. Otherwise, ignore them completely.

So, you see, that's what is going on these days. I don't approve, and I will not practice this conduct myself, but that's what is happening.

Good luck in your search.

I agree that to a large extent common decency or what I call common courtesy has certainly lapsed over the years. No generation or people are perfect, but I still notice differences. For example, it used to be that everyone pretty much drove around the speed limit, stopped at read lights, and used their turn signals. In the "me first generation" it is indeed "me first" on the road and to he** with everyone else! It happens often that people speed ahead of you only to get infront of you so that they can stop and make a turn! Yesterday, a car in front of me used their turn signal to change lanes. I thought it was odd. Other common courtesies that have disappeared include saying "please" and "thank you"; calling people by titles such as "Mr. and Mrs." Dressing up for special occasions such as church, public ceremonies, and parties seems to have gone out the window as has listening attentively to speakers. Being on time to events is no longer in vogue but the disruption this causes is fully complemented by those who leave early. Other common courtesies that seem to have disappeared: parents who can keep their children under control and who even care if they are causing disruptions to those around them; companies that actually have "people" that can really help you when you call them as opposed to multi-level trees; and now the latest piece of rudeness seems to be talking machines at the gas pump and local fast food drive-thru blaring advertisements at me and asking me to purchase items. If I'm not important enough to talk to in person, then why should I respond to a machine?

Why does it seem as if the age I live in is ruder than the previous? Perhaps it has always been just as rude but I just didn't notice it--rude people never do. Perhaps it is because generations as of late have never really suffered and have never really had to learn to work together and help one another as did previous generations?

The 21st century certainly does not have a monopoly on rudeness, but I still appreciate a touch of common courtesy and decency now and then.

The 21st century certainly does not have a monopoly on rudeness, but I still appreciate a touch of common courtesy and decency now and then.

You ARE old fashioned, but you are correct, and you deserve a reply...even a well-crafted politically correct FU letter is better than 0. Feel better? Good. Now the lesson here is the following: Increase your skill-set, i.e. value to a prospective employer, and start networking and marketing yourself. And yes, (some) headhunters (really) suck!

We may bewail the lack of "common courtesy", but maybe that is the result of our present day marketplace. If a company wants to fill a position wouldn't it make sense for them to look for someone to fill that position? If someone is trying to run a business as efficiently as possible would it make sense to reply to every request for employment (when they have no position to fill), or e-mails (that can be the source of viruses)? We may wish the world were more "civil" but we all benefit from efficiencies in the marketplace. If it were a "tight" market for labor or skills then I bet that businesses would be more "polite". Since it is a "sellers" market (selling our labor or expertise) we are the one's begging for an opening.

Perhaps it is because generations as of late have never really suffered and have never really had to learn to work together and help one another as did previous generations?

That's an interesting observation. For a while Fortune 1000 and larger companies were sending their employees to team building camps and forcing employees to participate in team building exercises. Somehow, I don't think the idea of a team building camp would have received a lot of support in the 1950s.

ilovetoledo - I think you've expressed this very well...

Let's not forget WHERE we are. I've never received such poor treatment from prospective employers and agencies than I received here in Toledo. Rude or dismissive behavior was the norm. I would have been better off NOT hearing from such douchebags.

Remember, this is the area where the BBB held a seminar on business ethics and literally had small businessmen SCREAMING at them for their temerity to even suggest ethics had a place in business. Too many people in Toledo are either scumbags or desperadoes just trying to pump you for cash. It's a cultural sickness from the top to the bottom.

Welcome to bean counter communism. Time is beans.

Charlatan, what is "bean counter communism" mean? Are we living in a "communist" society, and therefore have no truck with a middle-class notion of "civility"?

Things could be worse... I sent my resume for a position as the assistant to the director of a not for profit theater building in Toledo. I went for an interview-a seven hour interview!!! I listened to this guy talk about himself for seven solid hours!!! I thought I had the job (I mean seven hours...). I never even got a reject letter!!! Talk about rude...