An Aussie recruiter has shared some of the shocking excuses Gen Zs have given to get out of job interviews.
Founder and managing director of employment agency EST10, Roxanne Calder has seen a wilder range of reasons for backing out of interviews from younger Aussies.
One of the more egregious cases was a potential employee saying they couldn’t attend because their pet fish had died.
The job applicant claimed that ‘flushing it down the toilet … (was) too upsetting’ and had to back out of the interview at the last minute.
Another Gen Z cancelled 10 separate interviews through Ms Calder’s company because their grandmother had suddenly passed away.
Others couldn’t attend interviews because it was ‘too nice a day and too sunny’ or because they were ‘scared lighting will strike’ during a storm.
She’s also said multiple candidates claim to have been into a car crash- an excuse used by the same applicants to other recruiters.
While the excuses may be comedic, it could spell disaster for their future employment chances, according to Ms Calder.
Recruiters are growing more ‘frustrated’ by Gen Zs backing out of interviews at the last minute with ridiculous excuses such as being too upset after the death of their fish (stock image)
She warned they could be worse off during a cost of living crisis, which has dried up the job market across Australia.
Ms Calder said her and other recruiters were growing more ‘frustrated’ by Gen Zs only texting or emailing to cancel an interview and never calling ahead.
‘Typically it’s not because they’re not interested, it’s because they can’t be bothered, they’ve lost interest and it’s too much effort,’ she told Yahoo.
Having spent time reading resumés and screening applicants, the recruiter added it’s best to just ‘be honest’ and cancel as early as possible.
Ms Calver believes the sense of apathy from younger Aussies stems fatigued by the Covid pandemic, economy and high cost of living.
Founder and managing director of employment agency EST10, Roxanne Calder (pictured), said it is always best to call ahead and cancel an interview as early as possible
Ms Calder said she’d had many candidates claim to have gotten into a car crash, after a fellow recruiter shared this text exchange online
‘It’s dangerous because the more people that act like that and the more we accept it and think it’s OK, then the more it becomes the new standard,’ Ms Calver said.
‘That’s the part that I worry about. I don’t think it’s healthy because it creeps into other things if we think that’s OK.’
Another recruiter, Superior People Recruitment head Graham Wynn, was similarly shocked by a helicopter parent trying to sit in on an interview with her daughter.
He had to tell the mother she couldn’t attend after the mother had tried to stay to ensure her daughter ‘said the right thing’.
He said the mother was only getting in the way by trying to help in the interview, and she wasn’t giving her daughter the skills to stand up for herself.
Others have reported the act becoming more common, with parents more likely to tag along for jobs in hospitality.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk