All technology and no manners

IT’S amazing the technological world we live in nowadays.

There are e-mails, mobile phones, webcams, texts, voicemail... even our home phones can now take messages and play them back to us later.

Communication has become so easy it’s no more than a minute’s work to get in contact with loved ones or business associates, no matter where they might be.

I am therefore puzzled at the lack of response I’ve been getting from various employers and job agencies over the last number of months.

I have a mobile phone, a house phone, an e-mail address and my home address, the details of which are on each CV that I send when applying for jobs.

And yet, out of the scores of wasted stamps posting these CVs, and wasted time typing cover letters for each e-mail sent, I have received barely a handful of replies from these ‘modern’ employers.

I am now forced to ask whether all this new technology has brought about the downfall of something far more vital: plain old etiquette.

It seems to me the more ways there are of getting in contact with people now, the less likely it is to get a reply from them. It is so disheartening to spend so much valuable time printing out CVs and posting them, and then not to receive so much as a courtesy note to decline your application.

Shame on all those business people and recruitment agencies who don’t even have the manners to answer an e-mail from someone honestly desperate for a job.

If highlighting this issue makes even one employer re-evaluate their recruitment methods, then maybe my time has been well spent.

Celia Lyons

Curraghboy

Youghal

Co Cork