A Recruiting No-No

Not many days go by when I don’t get an email from a recruiter “asking” me if I know anyone who would be interested in an HR position at so-and-so company. I don’t mind these emails, particularly since they are sent privately and I don’t have to respond. To be honest, I sometimes (rarely) forward them to one of my HR friends who may be looking for a job, but most of the time they end up deleted. No harm, no foul.

Today, however, was different. Today I received an email from a company called HRWorks. The recruiter of said email extolled the virtues of working for Home Depot, how this was an “exciting time” for Home Depot, blah blah blah about Home Depot. The email then informed me that I was to respond with my resume and the best times to be contacted. Fairly innocuous so far, yes? Well, I then noticed that this email was addressed to 117 people (myself included) in an open cc:

This pisses me off to no end. I get way too much spam as it is and although I work on a Mac, I’m sure there are many of the 116 others who are on Windows machines that can get easily corrupted and expose us all to email sniffing viruses.

And what about the professionalism here? Of the 116 others, there were many with anonymous email addresses, but there were many more with work addresses. Aside from trying to poach those who are otherwise gainfully employed, there should be a professional courtesy extended to those being contacted by not revealing where they work to others. After all, HR people network a lot and talk even more.

I understand that recruiters often have to rely on strategic tactics, even if some are questionable, in order to fill that impossible req. Many times I will try to help if I can, as recruiting is a large part of HR. But when the quest to fill a job affects me in such a way as to compromise my privacy, then we have an issue.

How does that saying go? Oh yeah, “your right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins”. Otherwise, I’ll start swinging back.