Favorite Web Personality #14: Surly Craigslist Responder

Platform: craigslist

Who He/She* Is:

(*Not sure of gender so I’m going to go back and forth with he and she…)

I’m bending the rules a bit this week because the personality I am featuring is not actually one person but a type of personality I have encountered many times. These are the people who post responses back to job postings on Craigslist, job postings asking people to work for rates far below standard industry scale - sometimes even for free.

She sees the job postings as an insult and perhaps also feels threatened by the fact that there are desperate people who are willing to work for little (or no ) pay, thereby undervaluing the product or service she provides.

Best Quote Online:

Take it from me, a successful freelance artist…

This brings us back to the question: who is he or she? I find this quote very intriguing - is he really successful or is he losing work to the people who are responding to the offensive ads? Is she looking for work on craigslist or is she some sort of vitriol-ific vigilante, loyally standing up for the vulnerable new fledglings in her profession?

While researching my post for this week, I only found one surly response that wasn’t anonymous (and I’m not going to mention his name just in case it was a mistake). Perhaps my Surly Responders are concerned that employers might think they are difficult to work with?

5 Reasons Why I Chose Him:

1. I’m not sure why the average assumption is that work has to be unenjoyable, so if you are doing something you enjoy you should expect little or no pay for the privilege. Writing and parenting are just two prime examples of vocations that I have entered into with poor prospects of making a decent living.

2. There is something to be learned from these crotchety responses: if you undervalue yourself, everyone else will, too. Don’t get me wrong, pay should be commensurate with experience - but what’s the deal with all of these businesses trying to equate opportunity with no pay?

Click on image to view full response

3. It’s nice to know someone is providing feedback to these potential employers just in case they aren’t actually evil but just misinformed.

Click on image to view full response

4. It’s a vicious cycle - if desperate employees are forced to accept low pay then the quality of their work will definitely suffer, and that doesn’t do anyone any good - it just lowers the standards and expectations for everyone and everything, everywhere.

5. I’m on Craigslist quite a bit myself trolling for work so I see these responses posted in the ‘writing/editing’ and ‘creative’ sections quite a bit. At first they annoyed me but after months of having to wade through insulting job postings I find that the responses offer a cathartic pause in my job search and a boost to my own self-worth. So, thank you Surly Craigslist Responders! Thanks for standing up for all of us!

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What do you think about all of this? Do you notice these ads? Do you think they hurt or help job seekers?