Good enough for an Emmy, but not The Container Store

Yahoo News Video ^ | 11/11/2014 | Nicole Duignan

[Mastador1]

Why would this person expect the Container Store to hire a middle-aged Harvard graduate for a retail position? No employer in their collective right mind would do that. There is absolutely no reason for the employer to risk the time and money involved in hiring a person who is likely to bolt for the next better opportunity. It would be a huge waste of time on the part of the employer.

This is exactly why so many people have been dropped off the unemployment rolls and left to rot, because employers just don't believe someone older and qualified(doesn't have to be a harvard biotch)would dane to work at a lesser job. There are a lot of people who just need a job to survive but employers won't take the risk. There are too many young job hunters that can be pushed around, aka trained as the employer wants for way less money.

[dfwgator]

She is indeed. As she says early in her pre-arranged interview .. “I am a member of the creative class”.

Like Gene Simmons once said, "You want to be an artist? Go paint my fence."

[ozzymandus]

Trouble is, they’ll blame their sore butts on capitalism and those dirty Republicans like they always do.

[Milton Miteybad]

There are a lot of people who just need a job to survive but employers won't take the risk. There are too many young job hunters that can be pushed around, aka trained as the employer wants for way less money.

Which is why this lady isn't working at the Container Store. She wasn't a good fit in any event and why would the retailer assume the risk of hiring her unless they figured she could contribute heavily to the bottom line? Maybe she could make such a contribution, but it's not likely given the position she said she was seeking. Pretty much anybody could have done that particular job...even somebody between the ages of 18 and 24 for whom a starting wage would have been acceptable.

[Mastador1]

Wow, so you're okay with older people being discriminated against so that younger people are employed over them, or is it just the harvard biotch that you're ok with? Welcome to the new America, starting to sound just like Europe!

[Sparklite]

"Four years at Harvard, and
I'm not even qualified to say, "Hiya.""

[Jim from C-Town]

It was a seasonable part time job that paid at or close to minimum wage. The fact is that they probably hired the first couple people in the door.

She talks about how she was rejected at numerous places that had openings for part time seasonal no benefit jobs and how few full time with benefits jobs are really out there.

[HonkyTonkMan]

Yeah but she’s from Haaa-vahd

[nascarnation]

I’d guess she sent them a resume that showed her to be grossly overqualified for the job. And a week later she got an electronic reply telling her that she was.

[freeandfreezing]

There is no question of the fact that she needed a job to continue to live.

Actually there is no evidence of that at all. She would have continued to live with or without a job, and she could have raised money or borrowed money to finance her life and the MRI test she wanted until she had other sources of income. She could have also taken a job somewhere else, which is what she actually did.

As the article stated:

For Copaken, things are looking up; she now has a job with benefits as at staff writer at Cafe.com (which she describes as “Nirvana”), and she recently sold a pilot for a television adaptation of her bestselling book "Shutterbabe."

You asked, What SHOULD have happened

What actually happened sounds like a good alternative - she got a job elsewhere, and sold some intellectual property she had.

I'm not sure why you are "confused" but it might be confusing that a highly educated and obviously skilled woman felt the need to write about her rejection for one particular job opening. I suspect the reason she wrote about it is because her job is to write and she knows that writing about her experiences - as mundane as they may be - generate income for her. Adding in details that provoke sympathy make her writing more interesting, and so that's what she does.

Maybe the hiring manager at the Container Store thought the author was just applying for the job so she would have something to write about, and so instead of hiring her he hired somebody who truly wanted to work on a long term basis at the Container Store, or somebody who needed the job more than the author did.

[kearnyirish2]

“The “ageism” in the work place is just amazing.”

Companies seem to figure that people of a certain age are going to have financial pressures relating to families that they’d rather not deal with; if such a person is working for you, then you either have to pay them enough or know that they’ll always be looking at other jobs...

While they don’t seem to protect much of anything, anti-age discrimination laws kick in at 40 years old...

[Milton Miteybad]

Wow, so you're okay with older people being discriminated against so that younger people are employed over them, or is it just the harvard biotch that you're ok with?

I'm in favor of the employer being able to make a hiring decision that takes into consideration the needs of the business first and foremost. Hiring a person into a position for which they are vastly overqualified isn't in the interests of the business (or the overqualified hire either.)

[q_an_a]

the most stupid part of her interview - which I saw two days ago was this , “she wanted a Christmas job.” Hey companies hire folks during the holidays and let the cream rise to the top. She had no plans to be with them in the future and they gave someone that might want to that chance. End of story!!