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Is Silence the New "No"?
Ten or more years ago, if you were looking for a job, promoting a product/service, seeking advice/help, or for some other reason you were contacting people you didn't personally know, and they were unwilling or unable to hire, buy from, or assist you, they would commonly respond with some form of explicit polite refusal. "We appreciate your interest in Acme Corp. but we regret to inform you that at this time..." Nowadays, though, it seems to be a common complaint among job seekers, salespeople, researchers, and others, that explicit negative responses to their inquiries are increasingly rare. Many also further observe that the younger the company or person contacted the more likely that this will be the case. They await a response for some amount of time and eventually conclude that the answer was no and move on. Or, with a sort of sad optimism they wonder if their email ended up in a spam filter, or if their voice mail was accidentally deleted, and maybe they try again, perhaps using a different email address or phone number, before giving up. It would be easy to say, and it may indeed be true, that this is happening because people are all much busier than ever and, when there is no concrete obligation or reward, they simply can't find the time to respond; they have to draw the line somewhere. But, is that the only reason, or is there more to it than that? Is it a social/cultural trend? Another case of the "coarsening of discourse" more often referenced in relation to politics and comedy? Or are there different reasons in different cases, e.g. easing of accountability requirements in hiring versus increasing aggressiveness of sales tactics, etc.? What is your experience, either as the one making such inquiries or as the one responding or not responding to them? Is silence the new way of saying no?
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10 Answers
There is an old saying "silence is golden" how we interpret this varies from person to person, if you feel you have a very good chance at a possible position send another resume, chances are they may have not recieved it.
However in todays market it is possible that there may be an unwritten rule not to respond, elements such liability, risks, etc come to mind.
Interesting question Tim. My guess is that companies respond with silence either because they don't have the time or systems in place to respond or because they don't feel it's necessary to respond for legal or other reasons. I tend to think that silence is simply the universe's way of telling me this isn't a company/position that is a good fit at this moment. That or they lost my application.
Thank you both for your responses. Employment hiring is one context, but what about sales and research? I hear nearly as many complaints from people in those areas as from job seekers.
I have experienced the very same situation in my job search. Recruiters and HR Professionals contact you if there is an initial interest. As your candidacy progresses, they seem to be more enthusiastic about your fit for the position. However, once your candidacy is eliminated, you can wait days, weeks, even longer to hear from them. Maybe they assume that if they avoid you, you will go away... Some people have said that with the large volume of responses from candidates, there is no way that an employer could respond to everyone. I can accept that explanation for the initial screening. However, when you are a finalist of among two or three candidates, how difficult is it to respond to each candidate in a timely manner?
It's tough keeping up with the amount of resumes/emails crossing my desk. I am committed to ALWAYS sending a response to the initial inquiry/resume so each candidate knows his/her resume has been received; however, unless someone has interviewed with me, I don't send follow-up correspondence.
We used to always say that silence was acceptance, evidenced by the lack of an alternative, objection or a response in the negative. These days though, I'd expect the lack of response is a thoughtful legal position for so many reasons.
That is such a sad statement...
From the number of emails that I send that remain unanswered, I would have to agree that silence is the new No! and a very rude one too!
I don't believe it's one issue but a combination of many. I learned early on in my search campaigns to send all emails read receipt, you'd be surprise how many e-mails don't even get opened, that's one issue. The second one is the overwhelming number of resumes that HR departments have to process, they don't have the right systems in place, again, something they could do, however, if you're always fire fighting, then there's no time to plan.
Another reason is simpler that the previous two, just a plain old lack of professionalism.
What many organizations fail to note is that although you are a job applicant, there's a greater chance that your a customer and we know what the story is on customer dissatisfaction, you tend to share your bad experiences with your friends or even better on social media.
Based on my experience I would summarize it as simply incompetence. Many HR departments are poorly organized and tend to employ incompetent individuals. I see this often not just in the area of recruitment, but in other aspects of HR.
I always find it particularly galling that they are too lazy to set up an automated response on a computerised system (which most large companies use now) to say something like; "We have recieved your application, and are currently shortlisting for the position. If you have not heard from us by x date, then you can assume you were not succesful. Thank you for your interest in working for Y company, and we wish you every success in your search for the right position."
How hard could that be exactly?
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