A year on the internet is akin to 5 years in print or gossip, and it’s cached forever. Think twice before you spew venom. Public affairs, customer service, marketing, stewarding clients and dinner parties are dances of diplomacy. Burn one person and they’ll vent or bad mouth you to everyone and every forum available. She lucked out, and I wish us all more composure when the situation presents itself.
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ATTS

Nevertheless Matt, I have a question for you. Was she blushing when you first met? I can attest that she was beet red when she read to our restaurant manager and me your reply to her e-mail for the intern position. As she continued, our jaws dropped when she read her response to you for the typo. We couldn’t believe it!!! So UNLIKE HER, but we laughed because we know how hard she’s been searching, and how frustrating it is. We weren’t laughing at her, or her response, we were just dumbfounded, and then when she read your response to meet her…OH MY WORD!!! We were beside ourselves.

For those voicing a negative opinion, “to know her is to love her”, and I not ony know her, but I work with her and she has never come across like she did in her response. She serves many guests; the young and old, and in between, like “the movie queen”.

She deserves this opportunity. No, if she was “corrected” in the work place she would not lash out - there are no red flags for this girl - she would take it with a grain of salt and welcome any constructive criticism. She has been an absolute joy to work with and a wonderful hard working young lady (all of our guests love her!).

I’m so very happy that you have given her this opportunity to show what she can do in your assignment. If nothing more, you have given her a challenge and that is what she needed, not to be “deleted”.

Thank you, sincerely!

Oh, and by the way, if you’re looking for an administrative assistant, I would love to send you my resume.

P.S. Mario - maybe you and Joe should raise your tips a little for all the time you sit and tell us your stories; it won’t help make ends meet, but you you wouldn’t be bickerin’ over pennies. :}

While I might’ve been moved to use the incident as a “teachable moment” for this poor young woman, I wouldn’t hire someone who couldn’t keep her cool under the slightest pressure. (I shudder to think what happens to her diners if they dare point out that she got the order wrong!)

And with all due respect to the crazy-making effects of burnout and exhaustion, I wonder if there isn’t a little more pathology at work here. I’m no clinician, but in my world, it’s not “spunk,” it’s just bad behavior to go on the attack when someone offers legitimate (if critical) feedback. It’s not self-righteousness talking here; my business just doesn’t need the disruptive, counter-productive emotional drama this person would likely bring to the office. Interpersonal dynamics at work are complex enough, thank you.

With some feedback, perspective, maturity and maybe a little more humility in her toolkit, I’m sure she’d get her “second chance” — with the next employer.

Well, that’s what they say, anyway. In case you can’t read the text above, it’s telling you that researchers at Cambridge University have concluded that it doesn’t matter what order the letters of a word are; as long as the first and last letters are in the proper place, you can scramble the rest of the word however you like, and it’s still readable.

I would never, in a million years, write an email like that to a potential employer…or anyone, for that matter. Therefore, I am apparently not the right candidate for this position. I am really disappointed because I am extremely interested in entrepreneurship, and specifically online startups, and MyPunchbowl looks like a particularly fun place to work. However, I’ve come to realize that getting a job (or an internship) is a matchmaking process, and apparently we aren’t really a match! I really like that you were willing to give this girl a second chance, though, and that you could appreciate her spunk. I can see how she could turn out to be a fantastic intern, and I wish you the best of luck. Also, thanks for the tip - I’m going to try to spunk up my heading lines from now on!

P.S. If you happen to change your mind and decide to try out an uber-polite perfectionist, please keep me in mind. : )

However, thinking that this applicant would actually be hired after blowing up - albeit via email - at the ‘boss’ still amazes me. I like Barbara Hart’s discussion from the perspective of a hiring agent. She is almost completely void of emotion regarding the hire, something most employers are not. I do disagree with her use of the term “rules” as it pertains to applying for jobs. There are no set rules, but customs - and these customs change over time and across industries and cultures.

However, no matter the custom - this spunky applicant was out of line and would not have made it passed my door. If hired at this company, I would stay on my toes and wear body armor.

One thing I am doing is offering to speak to local college classes to help educate them about the best way to apply for positions. Either the colleges and universities are not teaching this, or the students don’t “hear” it when they do. If more business owners and managers took the time to talk with the students (or unemployed groups), perhaps more applicants would understand the rules.

“We’ve all been there . . . When you are in a good heart and mind space, life feels like an enternity of making love on a sun-denched window sill beside a life-sized old-fashioned brass key that, um, well, that unlocks all the past pains in your heart, setting you free to love absolutely everyone around you. Like when you’re drunk.”

Testament - Practice What You Preach