Candidate publishes sloppy rejection letter
Thrillist Media Group is a digital media company with a popular website geared towards men that emphasizes food, drink, and technology. Sounds like a cool gig. Journalist Megan Mester must have thought so too when she applied for an Assistant Editor position with the company. Things took a sour turn when Thrillist Media responded to Mester with a poorly worded rejection email.
The email had some pretty serious grammar issues and Mester took it upon herself to respond to the rejection email by correcting it, emailing it back to Thrillist Media, and subsequently posting it on Twitter for all to see. Ouch. Thrillist Media Group has yet to respond publicly on the matter.
Her post (below) has received mixed reviews. Some find her persnickety reply hilarious. The application process is tough and receiving such a sloppy response for a job requiring the very skills lacking in the company email would be annoying. On the other hand, at least she got a reply. That’s more than most get.
On the left, rejection letter from @Thrillist re: my application Editorial Assistant. On the right, my response #IJS pic.twitter.com/YrB4rS5LvF
— Amanda Mester (@caneye_kickit) January 9, 2015
Media companies should “take pride” in their communications
There are others who wonder if Mester would have responded the same if the email had been offering her the job. Mester has spoken out to ABC News about the email saying, “I wanted to share it because of the humor and the irony of it. I don’t see anything detrimental about encouraging an organization to instill pride in their employees in terms of how they respond to others. It’s important to teach grammatical rules, especially if you’re in a media company.”
This opens up a whole host of questions regarding grammar and style usage in our new age of communication. If you understand the message the writer is trying to convey, does a grammar error really get in the way? Technology is designed to move quickly and communication is often short and to the point. With things moving so swiftly, there will not be someone behind every company email examining each line with a fine toothed comb. There will be errors.
It’s never a good look to publicly insult someone’s intelligence over grammatical errors in an email. It’s also important for companies to know that they will be judged if they send out such sloppy writing. What do you think? Did Mester take it too far or did Thrillist Media Group deserve the grammar hammer?
