This is honestly a new one for me. I thought I had seen most of the shitty things potential employers could do and say to the plebeian applicants who employers deigned to consider for their jobs. But sometimes, even after what has been quite literally thousands of applications and resumes sent out, I can still be surprised.
So… I had applied to Barclay’s Bank, specifically their BarclayCard division (their credit card) for a slightly half legal position of ‘Negotiator’. It didn’t require a law degree, but considering my luck with legal jobs so far, I thought a quasi- legal job would be a nice change from being perpetually broke. Plus, I thought I was a shoe in for the position. I am a lawyer trained in negotiation, and as it happens I am also a certified mediator on top of that. So I was slightly disappointed when I received the rejection from Barclay’s.
But just imagine my delight when I received this in the mail.
Now, I know what you’re thinking… Maybe its a coincidence? I mean, just because some bank that doesn’t have any physical location within several hundred miles of me, that I’ve never done business with, nor had any associations with other than applying to their job, and have literally never received any piece of mail with their name on it prior to this moment, well they could have possibly gotten hold of my name and address… right?
Well, you see, the application asked for references. And as it happened when I was talking to someone on my list of references about how I think BarclayCard used my application to send me unsolicited mail… they thought for a moment, got up and walked over to their desk and produced an identical envelope. That’s right. Barclays didn’t just use MY information to send out unsolicited spam. They used my list of references and also sent out junk mail offers to them too.
Classy.
Edit: Turns out Liberty Mutual does this too… I received a bit of spam mail from them as well and they included the Esq. at the end of my name. Never used that anywhere except on job applications.