Job Worry

twiggy86

Hi,

I started in a new role last month however at the interview I was told that I would be spending some time working in the hr department (the job I applied for wad not hr related), I have no experience in this field but thought any new experience is a good thing.

I've been doing fairly simple tasks until recently, this week I've been asked to look after regret responses to unsuccessful candidates. I sent out loads of letters and while I felt horrible sending them, I could handle it. However one person rang for a response and she hadn't been chosen. It broke my heart to tell her, it wasn't helped by the fact that she was a really lovely woman and couldn't stop telling me how excited she had been to hear back and had been waiting on the post every day.

It's really affected me, I'm dreading going back to work, I'm just really worried I'm not cut out for the hr related tasks like sacking people or telling someone desperate for work that they didn't get the job. I'm more than capable of performing the position I actually applied for though!

I really just wanted to ask other people that have to do this regularly, do you ever get used to it? I'm not sure I can tbh, I cried all day after I spoke to her, I'm a serious sap!!

Thanks for any responses!

Tails142

Have some courage, if you don't do it someone else will. At least they're getting regret letters, some companies don't even have the courtesy to send those out.

Do it as best you can and keep in mind that there could be someone else doing your job like a robot or even worse relishing giving people bad news, at least you're feeling compassion for the people, try to work out how to do it best for them.

Mr. Loverman

I agree with the above.

Sending the regret letter is actually a nice thing to do. Most companies don't bother. So think of it positively - you are helping people move on with their job search.

You won't have to fire people too often, and if you're working for a decent company, you will almost never be unfairly firing people. So make sure you work for a nice place.

Don't give up yet.

pow wow

HR very often don't make the hiring/firing decisions and most people know that. You're not deciding these people are unsuitable, you're merely relaying a decision outside your control that has already been made.

What Mr. Loverman said it true, in this market it's increasingly rare to get any kind of response to applications at all. There's far worse news people can get than that they didn't get a job, and you're being courteous in giving them the news rather than leaving them wondering.

Mrs OBumble

twiggy86 wrote: »

I cried all day after I spoke to her, I'm a serious sap!!

I've thought about this overnight before posting .. but am convinced it's worth saying:

In general, HR is emotionally tough: you mostly won't be involved in a situation unless there's something going wrong and lots of conflict. And even the nicer bits like recruitment and payroll have their hard-ass moments. So one of the personal characteristics that HR people need is a high level of personal resilience.

So you might be right, and HR might not be for you. (Solution: talk to your manager about how long you're going to be doing the HR stuff for, and how you're keen to get into the other aspects of the job you applied for.)


That said, if you're so affected by something so simple (and as others have pointed out, relatively nice), then you should see your doctor about it - feeling down for 30 minutes after a conversation like that is normal, crying all day over it is not, and may indicate a stress problem that will be a lot easier to sort out if you address it now.

twiggy86

Thank you for all the replies, I've taken all your comments on board and have a much better perspective on things. I do agree that it's a positive thing that the company acknowledge all applicants and was very pleasantly surprised when I found this out. I'll approach any future situations from this point of view. Hopefully I can toughen up a bit too!! I realise there's much worse things than not getting a job, thank god I'm not a doctor.

Mrs O'Bumble , Thank you for taking the time to respond, it's certainly given me something to think about. Although I have always been an almost overly empathic person even I was shocked by the severity of my reaction. I think because I was only recently out of work myself I may have hit on a nerve for myself. I'll keep on at the work for now reminding myself of all the points made by other posters when I'm in this situation again, but if I react as strongly again I'll have to talk to either a doctor or my manager.