Boss Responds to Online Backlash Over LinkedIn Post Slamming Job Applicants

A chief operating officer at a video game development company has hit back at criticism over a LinkedIn post he wrote slamming a group of applicants for a recent job opening at his firm.

Jibreel Ameen, from Pakistan-based game developer Broken Diamond, reeled off a list of excuses and problems associated with the 10 candidates shortlisted for the role, alongside his own thoughts on what went wrong.

These thoughts included criticism of one candidate who wished to know the salary attached to the role and another who asked if they could work from home.

"You survived in Covid-19," he wrote in response. "Everything is fine. You should leave your comfort zone now." Another candidate claimed they had an "emergency" and could not attend. However, Ameen said they were later caught "red handed" sharing food photos on social media.

In several other instances, he said it emerged that the applicants had either lied about their experience on their CV or were unable to complete "simple" interview tasks.

Ameen told Newsweek he wrote the post because he "simply wanted to highlight the importance of applicants attending face-to-face interviews so the employer can judge them, their skills and the efforts they put in with their previous company."

However, the post drew an entirely different response after being shared to Reddit's anti work subreddit by a user writing as burkabich, who claimed, on the basis of the post, applicants had "dodged a bullet" by not getting a job there.

The COVID pandemic has brought with it a change in perception around the concept of working from home. A Pew Research Center survey from February 2022 found 59 percent of U.S. workers who say their jobs can mainly be done from home are working from home all or most of the time.

While there was some resistance among some companies, the surge in the number of people changing or quitting jobs last year in a shift that became known as "The Great Resignation", prompted many to reassess these practices.

However, Ameen was keen to stress to Newsweek that the work from home issue was more down to concerns over data privacy rather than any hesitance to move with the times.

Unfortunately, that context was absent from the post shared to Reddit, with users flocking to condemn Ameen's approach.

One user claimed there were "red flags" all over the post with another branding it "embarrassing" and a third writing: "I've worked remotely for six years, will never go back to an office, it has nothing to do with Covid."

Elsewhere, another user summed up the post writing: "Doesn't want to train, doesn't want to tell you the pay, doesn't want to accommodate, doesn't want to accept that competing employers allow WFH, doesn't want to give applicants the benefit of the doubt."

Ameen told Newsweek he had been left stunned and hurt at some of the "abusive" responses to his post and felt many had "misinterpreted" his remarks.

"People jump to conclusions," he said. "They don't know the reality of what is going on. They have no idea what I outlined in the original job description."

He insisted it was simply about showing the difficulties faced in recruiting the right people for the right job and all of the comments made about the applicants in the post were not shared with the candidates themselves, who remained nameless throughout.

"The thing is, people have fake CV's and Resumes," he said. "They mention their experience as something like a senior Unity Developer but then don't know the formula of Square."

"I just posted it on LinkedIn, because it was my experience of hiring people. I truly regret it now."