In a viral video, a 21-year-old shares a “witty” rejection letter they allegedly received, sending them into a “rage” for how patronizing it was. Tamsyn Fox (@pur_purblock) from Sussex, England, took to TikTok to give a “dramatic” reading of the email that was allegedly sent in response to their application for a sound designer role at a gaming company.
In the video, Fox included a screenshot of the email while they read it in a mocking voice.
“We’ll cut to the chase: your application wasn’t successful,” the email began.
“And who knows, maybe we’ve made a big mistake?” it continued. The letter then went on to cite famous people whose “success stories” started with failure, like Albert Einstein and Steven Spielberg.
“[I] guess the point is, every great success story begins with little failure. We’ve had our fair share of failure too. Even though you won’t be joining us just yet, who knows what the future holds?” the next paragraph read. “Perhaps you’ll prove us wrong (we certainly hope so).”
And, as if to drive the point home, the sender closed with a Steve Jobs quote: “Stay hungry, stay foolish.”
“Thanks for patronising me into a rage that can only be described as ‘firey,’” Fox added in the caption. The video quickly went viral on TikTok, racking up more than 70,000 views since being uploaded to the platform on Tuesday. Hundreds of viewers sympathized with Fox, claiming the email was indeed patronizing.
@pur_purblock thanks for patronising me into a rage that can only be desrcibed as ‘firey’
♬ original sound – Tamsyn Fox
“I think I’d prefer just no answer oh my god,” one user wrote.
“‘We’re not like other companies, we’re fun,’” another viewer joked.
“Literally they’re trying so hard to be quirky and it’s not working,” Fox replied to one comment.
Several others were convinced the sender had to be a millennial due to the “quirkiness” of the email.
“Why does it feel like an elder millennial wrote this,” a user commented.
“LITERALLY I FEEL LIKE A PAIR OF SKINNY JEANS WROTE THIS,” Fox replied.
Others claimed Fox had dodged a bullet by getting rejected. Fox agreed, writing in a comment that they couldn’t be happier they were rejected.
Fox told the Daily Dot they mostly felt “super patronised” by the email, as though the company believed it was their first job rejection ever.
“Like I was just some naïve little guy just trying to make it in the big city, when i’ve had upwards of 100 job rejections since I had to start looking 7 months ago,” they said via Instagram message. “They weren’t special, they were just another potential job. The only thing that made them special was how crappy their response was.”
However, the response may not be as unique as it seems. On June 21, the same email template went viral on the social platform Reddit after a user claimed they had received it. Unlike Fox, user @effineeuphoria stated they found the rejection letter “wholesome” and posted it in the r/MakeMeSmile subreddit.
But over 1,000 commenters were divided on whether the email was actually encouraging or just condescending. Still, many Reddit users claimed it was better to receive a copy and pasted email template than to receive nothing at all.
“Hope all Human Resources are like this. Ghosting is not okayyy,” one redditor wrote. “Yep, I get it that its a template, but still its a good thing that they notify applicants.”
The act of “ghosting” applicants, where a company refuses further contact with a candidate, seems to be a rampant issue among job searchers. Fox told the Daily Dot they also received their fair share of ghosting when applying.
“One place ghosted me after I went to their offices several times and got to the last round of interviews. that one felt like a bit of a joke,” they wrote.
Fox said they wanted to respond to the company’s email but ended up making a TikTok instead.
“It made me super angry don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day, it was a copied and pasted message,” they wrote. “It wasn’t personal, so much of job rejection isn’t personal, it’s just someone else was a better fit on paper a lot of the time.”
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