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Resume Spamming Creates Storage, Legal Snags
selan writes "Did you know that federal law requires companies to store a copy of every single resume they receive? This applies to emailed resumes too, regardless of whether the applicant got the company's name wrong or is applying for a job that doesn't exist at the company. Employers not in compliance risk being fined and could lose government contracts. The resulting storage problems are creating massive headaches at companies who are overwhelmed with bulk-emailed resumes. The Baltimore Sun has the story."
I wonder how long it will take for /.'ers to start using this loophole to further back up Spammers and their companies.
then again.. they never did follow the law exactly, so why start now?
When HR came to me about someone mass-sending his own resume over and over again, they wanted to know if they could avoid receiving it again. I wonder if setting up a rule on the box to automatically delete the message on arrival would have been sufficient, or if it needs to be blocked before it gets there?
I wonder if the government has to keep all the resumes that are sent to them from people wanting municipal jobs and the like
This is a problem of large corporations who have to worry about government compliance. There aren't going to be any government officials knocking on my business's door. So what do I care if IBM, Microsoft, and Exxon have to purchase more RAID so they can store resumes? Big frickin' deal. Hell, it creates more jobs, probably, to fill the positions required to maintain the storage, and, which will be a big Slashdot plus, it'll probably create more Linux jobs.
I could be wrong. Perhaps throngs of G-Men are going to be canvassing the neighborhood urgently nabbing resume storage violators, the filthy rotten criminals that they are, but this doesn't seem like much of a post. For the large businesses for which this is a problem, my response, gosh, guys, sucks being you.
Chr0m0Dr0m!C
All mail is pre-screened. No applications or resumes are accepted without a corresponding and valid job number. Personnel accepts no unsolicted phone calls Postings always close within two weeks. It's really tough to get a job with the company because of these Federal regulations. Compliance is not an option.
The preceding comment has been reviewed and declared to be compliant with HIPPA Phase II regulations.
Even if companies do follow your suggestion, it is still costing them a lot of money to have to do it. It takes time to drag and drop. Not much, granted (and it would be less time if you didn't have to watch the cutesy papers flying across the progress dialog), but the more resumes they get, the more time they are spending doing the copying. I would guess it takes at least 3 times as long to do the copying as it does to just click the delete button.
The way I see it, the government is imposing a rather large financial burden on employers, just so the government can go have a look when they want to see if the employer is unfairly dicriminating against applicants.
This reminds me of the standard mortgage application. It has a box where you are required to indicate your race. Why should you have to indicate your race on a mortgage app? Only so the government can make sure the lender is not using that information. Not only is the lender required to collect information they aren't legally allowed to consider, the lender is required to guess the applicant's race if the applicant refuses to provide it.
Just another fine example of government stupidity.
appended to the end of comments you post, 120 chars
A number of viruses disguise themselves as resumes. Does this law also force companies to keep those? Do companies still have the right to disinfect these mails?