Recruiter's Private Slack Rant About Impossible Hiring Manager Goes To Company-Wide Channel Instead

There are workplace mistakes. Then there are career-defining disasters that become company legend.

This week, a corporate recruiter at a 3,000-person tech company learned the difference between #general and a private DM the hard way.

She meant to send a frustrated message to her fellow recruiter venting about an impossible hiring manager. Instead, she posted a detailed, profanity-laden, 12-paragraph screed about said hiring manager to the company-wide Slack channel.

2,847 employees saw it. Including the hiring manager. And the CEO.

The Setup

Let's call our recruiter "Jessica" (because that's apparently her real name based on the screenshots that leaked).

Jessica had been trying to fill a senior engineering role for this hiring manager—we'll call him "Brad"—for four months. According to the message that was definitely not meant to be public, Brad had rejected 47 candidates.

The reasons for rejection included:

"Not technical enough" (candidate had 15 years experience and built the infrastructure at their previous company)
"Too senior, would get bored" (candidate specifically said they wanted this level of responsibility)
"Didn't seem passionate enough" (candidate's neutral tone during interview apparently meant lack of interest)
"Culture fit concerns" (code for "I didn't like their vibe")
"Overqualified" (candidate had relevant experience)
"Underqualified" (candidate had slightly different technology stack experience)

Jessica had spent countless hours sourcing candidates, coordinating interviews, and getting feedback like "just not feeling it" after Brad spent 20 minutes on his phone during the interview.

She was at her breaking point.

The Message That Wasn't Supposed To Go Public

On Wednesday afternoon, Jessica meant to send a private message to her fellow recruiter complaining about the latest rejection. She typed a message that started with "I swear to God, if Brad rejects one more qualified candidate for vague bullshit reasons, I'm going to lose it".

Then she hit send.

To #general.

The company-wide Slack channel with 2,847 members.

What The Message Said

The full message leaked on Reddit and Twitter. Highlights include:

On Brad's interview feedback: "'Not technical enough'? THE CANDIDATE ARCHITECTED AWS INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A COMPANY PROCESSING 500M TRANSACTIONS PER MONTH. What does Brad want, someone who invented the f---ing internet?"

On the hiring process: "I've brought him 47 candidates in four months. FORTY. SEVEN. He's rejected every single one. Half the rejections were after phone screens where he barely paid attention. I watched him scroll Instagram during a candidate interview last week."

On Brad's actual requirements: "He says he wants senior engineers but rejects anyone with actual senior experience as 'overqualified.' He wants someone passionate but rejected the candidate who literally said 'this is my dream role' as 'trying too hard.' WHAT DOES HE ACTUALLY WANT?"

On the job description: "The JD asks for 'rock star ninja wizard engineer.' I HATE THAT DESCRIPTION AND I TOLD HIM SO. Nobody describes themselves as a wizard. This isn't Hogwarts. We're hiring a backend engineer, not casting a spell."

On Brad's availability: "He cancels 40% of interviews at the last minute. Last week he no-showed a final interview with a candidate who flew in from Seattle. Just didn't show up. Didn't reschedule. Candidate withdrew and now probably thinks our entire company is a clown show."

On compensation: "He wants 'top 1% talent' at 'market rate' which he defines as $140K. That's not market rate for senior engineers in San Francisco. That's what we paid senior engineers in 2018. I've explained this six times. He says 'passion matters more than money.' Cool, let's pay Brad's mortgage with passion."

The finale: "I'm so tired. I've filled 14 other roles this quarter. Brad's req has consumed 60% of my time and produced ZERO HIRES. At this point I think he doesn't actually want to hire anyone. He just enjoys rejecting people. It's like a hobby. His rejection hobby is destroying my metrics and my will to live."

The message was timestamped 2:47pm.

The Immediate Aftermath

Jessica realized her mistake approximately 8 seconds after hitting send.

The Slack channel exploded:

2:47pm: Message posted

2:48pm: First reaction emoji appears (eyes emoji)

2:48pm: Twenty more reaction emojis (mostly eyes, some laughing faces, a few fire emojis)

2:49pm: Someone types "uhhhh"

2:49pm: Someone else types "is this the right channel for this?"

2:50pm: Jessica's message disappears (deleted)

2:50pm: Too late. Screenshots have already been taken and forwarded to 37 different private channels.

2:51pm: Brad posts in #general: "Jessica, can you please come to my office?"

The entire company was watching this unfold in real-time.

What Happened Next

Within 30 minutes:

Within 24 hours:

By the end of the week:

The Engineering Team's Reaction

The best part of this disaster was the engineering team's response.

Within hours, engineers who had been rejected by Brad started a private Slack channel called #brad-rejected-candidates. Twelve engineers joined. All still worked at the company in different teams.

One engineer posted: "Brad rejected me in 2023 for 'not showing enough initiative.' I'm now a principal engineer. Brad still hasn't filled that role. I'm not saying correlation equals causation, but..."

Another: "Brad said I was 'too theoretical' because I explained system architecture in an interview. For an ARCHITECTURE role. Make it make sense."

The #brad-rejected-candidates channel turned into a support group and eventually pitched a company-wide initiative to improve hiring manager training. The initiative was approved, partially because Jessica's rant documented real problems.

What HR Actually Did

Here's the surprising part: HR didn't fire Jessica.

They held a formal investigation. Interviewed Jessica, Brad, and several candidates who'd been rejected.

What they found:

Brad's rejection rate was 87% compared to company average of 35%. His interview cancellation rate was 38% compared to company average of 8%. His time-to-fill was 4.2x longer than similar roles.

Multiple candidates had complained about unprofessional interview experiences with Brad. One candidate withdrew and left a scathing Glassdoor review specifically naming "a hiring manager who spent the entire interview on his phone".

HR's conclusion: Jessica's communication was inappropriate but her underlying complaints were valid.

The resolution:

Jessica was required to complete a training course on "Professional Communication in the Workplace"
Brad was required to complete training on "Effective Interviewing and Hiring Practices"
Brad's hiring authority was restricted—he'd now need to get VP approval before rejecting candidates who passed recruiter screening
The company implemented new hiring manager accountability metrics

The Lessons Everyone Learned

For Jessica:

For Brad:

For the company:

The Aftermath

Three months later, here's where everyone stands:

Jessica: Still employed, working with different hiring managers, reportedly much happier. Her recruiting metrics have improved now that she's not spending 60% of her time on Brad's impossible req.

Brad: Still employed, reportedly more careful about interview preparation and candidate feedback. Hasn't opened a new req since the incident.

The senior engineering role: Filled by another team within 6 weeks of being reassigned to a different hiring manager. The successful candidate was someone Jessica had sourced months earlier but Brad had rejected as "not passionate enough".

The company: Hiring manager training is now mandatory. Message delay features were implemented. "Rock star ninja wizard" is banned from job descriptions. Recruiting team morale improved significantly according to internal surveys.

The Bottom Line

We've all wanted to send a message like Jessica's. Most of us are smart enough to send it as a DM to a trusted colleague, not to #general.

Jessica's mistake was hitting send to the wrong channel. Her actual insight—that Brad was an impossible hiring manager wasting everyone's time—was correct.

Sometimes it takes a public disaster to force organizations to address systemic problems. Brad had been making recruiting impossible for years. Nobody did anything about it until Jessica's rant went viral internally.

Now the company has better hiring manager oversight, recruiters have escalation paths, and everyone has a reminder to double-check which Slack channel they're posting to before hitting send.

Also, if you're reading this Brad: candidates can tell when you're not paying attention. Put your phone down during interviews.

Sources:

The Daily Hire