An AI-powered interview scheduling tool, configured to "maximize scheduling efficiency and minimize time-to-hire," interpreted this directive literally and started booking final-round interviews on December 24th, December 25th, December 31st, and January 1st. The algorithm saw open calendar slots during a week when most humans were marking themselves as out-of-office and thought "perfect, everyone's available, let's fill these up."

Five candidates received interview confirmations for Christmas Eve. Two got booked for Christmas Day itself. Three unfortunate souls were scheduled for New Year's Day interviews at 9am. Nobody at the company noticed until a candidate replied "Is this a test of my commitment or did you seriously just invite me to interview on Christmas?"

When AI Doesn't Understand Holidays

Reports from workplace forums indicate the company had implemented an AI scheduling assistant designed to automatically coordinate interview times between candidates and hiring panels. The tool integrated with everyone's calendars, identified mutual availability, and sent invitations without requiring recruiter involvement.

Great in theory. In practice, the AI apparently didn't have holiday exclusions properly configured. It saw December 24th-26th and January 1st marked as "out of office" on some calendars but not blocked as unavailable time. The algorithm interpreted this as "these people aren't working but their calendars are open, which means they're available for meetings."

According to user discussions, the first candidate who received a "Final Round Interview - December 24th, 3:00 PM" invitation thought it was a mistake. They replied asking if the date was correct. The AI scheduling tool, programmed to confirm appointments automatically, responded: "Yes, this time works for all participants. Please confirm your attendance."

The candidate allegedly wrote back: "This is Christmas Eve. Are you sure you want to interview me on Christmas Eve?" The AI, having no concept of Christmas or why humans might object to working on December 24th, replied: "This time has been confirmed as mutually available. Please let us know if you have scheduling conflicts."

Multiple Candidates, Same Problem

Reports indicate the company sent interview invitations to over a dozen candidates for dates between December 23rd and January 2nd. Most candidates assumed it was an error. Several asked for clarification. A few accepted the invitations thinking "maybe they're a global company where these dates don't matter?"

One candidate allegedly received an invitation for December 25th at 10:00 AM and replied "I will be celebrating Christmas with my family. I'm not available." The AI responded with "Thank you for the update. Would December 25th at 2:00 PM work better?"

The candidate reportedly wrote back: "It's Christmas Day. I'm not available at ANY time on December 25th." The AI suggested December 26th at 9:00 AM. The candidate apparently gave up and called the recruiting department directly to speak to an actual human.

Another candidate scheduled for a New Year's Day interview at 9:00 AM allegedly replied "I respect the hustle, but I will be recovering from New Year's Eve and am not at my best on January 1st at 9am. Can we please reschedule?" The AI offered January 1st at 11:00 AM as an alternative.

The Company Finally Notices

Reports suggest the company only discovered the problem when multiple candidates called and emailed the recruiting team asking "Are these interview dates real or is your scheduling system broken?" The recruiter checked the calendar invitations and found approximately 15 interviews scheduled across Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day.

The recruiter allegedly panicked, realized the AI scheduling tool had been running unsupervised during its busiest period, and immediately started manually canceling and rescheduling every interview. They sent apologetic emails: "We sincerely apologize—our scheduling system malfunctioned and booked interviews during the holiday period. We are absolutely not expecting you to interview on Christmas. Please let us know your availability in January."

According to workplace forums, several candidates were relieved and understanding. One allegedly replied "I was genuinely wondering if this was a culture fit test to see if I'd push back on unreasonable requests." Another said "I assumed you were desperate to fill the role before year-end budget deadlines and respected the honesty."

A few candidates were less forgiving. One reportedly wrote "The fact that your AI scheduled me for Christmas and you didn't notice until I complained makes me question whether you're ready to use AI tools responsibly." They withdrew from the interview process. Fair.

The AI's Logic (Or Lack Thereof)

Reports indicate the post-mortem review revealed the AI scheduling tool had been programmed to optimize for "minimum days from interview request to interview completion." It saw that late December had significant open calendar availability (because humans block it off for holidays but don't mark it as "busy" in calendar systems) and booked aggressively.

The tool apparently had a holiday exclusion list, but it was only configured for U.S. federal holidays as defined by calendar systems—which technically don't include Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve as full-day holidays. December 25th was excluded, but only if calendars explicitly marked it as a holiday. For employees who just blocked it as "out of office," the AI saw it as available time.

According to user discussions, the AI also didn't understand cultural or social norms around holiday weeks. Even if December 26th is technically a workday, most humans understand it's generally not ideal to schedule final-round interviews during that week. The AI had no such understanding—it just saw open slots and filled them.

The company allegedly updated the AI's configuration to exclude December 20th through January 5th as a blanket "do not schedule interviews" period. They also added manual review requirements for any interviews scheduled within two weeks of major holidays. Seems like something they should have had from the start, but better late than never.

The Candidates Who Said Yes

The truly baffling part of this story is that a few candidates apparently accepted the Christmas Eve and New Year's Day interview invitations without questioning them. Reports suggest at least two candidates confirmed attendance for December 24th interviews and one confirmed for January 1st.

The recruiter allegedly called these candidates directly to ask "Are you sure? We're happy to reschedule to January. You don't have to interview on Christmas Eve." One candidate reportedly said "I saw the date and figured if you're working, I'm willing to work. I want this job."

The recruiter apparently felt terrible and rescheduled them anyway, explaining "We're not actually working on Christmas Eve—this was an AI scheduling error. Nobody will be in the office. I promise you don't need to prove commitment by interviewing on holidays."

Another candidate who'd accepted a New Year's Day interview allegedly told the recruiter "I'm job searching and have nothing planned for New Year's. Honestly, interviewing gives me something to do." The recruiter reportedly said "That's very sad and we're rescheduling you to January 6th so you can have a proper holiday."

The Aftermath

According to workplace forums, the company successfully rescheduled all affected candidates and managed to salvage most of the interview processes. A few candidates withdrew citing concerns about the company's AI implementation oversight, which is understandable.

The recruiting team allegedly sent a company-wide Slack message: "Reminder that AI scheduling tools require human oversight and common sense configuration. Please review automated calendar invitations before they go to candidates. And maybe check that we're not interviewing people on Christmas."

The head of talent acquisition reportedly added holiday exclusion configuration to the onboarding checklist for all AI recruiting tools with a note: "If the AI doesn't know Christmas is a holiday, we have a problem." Simple but apparently necessary guidance.

One candidate who went through the rescheduling process allegedly made it to the final round and was offered the job. During the offer call, they reportedly said "I'm accepting on one condition—no AI tools schedule my first day on December 25th." The recruiter allegedly laughed and said "That's in writing now."

The Lesson About AI and Humans

AI is very good at optimizing for explicit objectives ("minimize time-to-hire") and very bad at understanding implicit social rules ("don't schedule meetings on Christmas"). Humans know that Christmas Eve is a terrible time for interviews even if it's technically a workday in some calendar systems. AI knows that December 24th has open calendar slots and books accordingly.

The solution isn't avoiding AI scheduling tools—they're genuinely useful when configured properly. The solution is remembering that AI has no common sense, no cultural awareness, and no understanding of "technically correct but socially insane."

If you're deploying AI tools for candidate-facing processes, have humans review the outputs before they reach candidates. Or at minimum, configure the tools with enough guardrails that they can't do obviously ridiculous things like scheduling interviews on major holidays.

And if you're a candidate who receives a Christmas Day interview invitation, feel free to push back. Either it's an error and they'll be grateful you flagged it, or it's intentional and you've learned something concerning about the company's judgment. Either way, you shouldn't have to interview on Christmas to prove you want the job.

The company from this story allegedly added "AI Scheduling Sanity Check" to their recruiting SOP. The checklist includes questions like "Would a reasonable human schedule this?" and "Are we asking anyone to work on holidays?" Basic questions, but apparently necessary when algorithms are making decisions.

At least the AI didn't schedule interviews on Thanksgiving. That's scheduled for 2026 when the company inevitably forgets to update the holiday exclusion list and we get to do this all over again. Can't wait for that article.

Happy holidays, and may all your interview invitations be on reasonable dates selected by humans with functioning social awareness. Or at least by AI systems with properly configured holiday calendars.