Watched a resume screening algorithm reject my neighbor because of a gap year

My neighbor took a year off to care for her mom with cancer and a hiring algorithm for that big retail chain just auto-rejected her. No human ever saw her actual experience... Has anyone else seen these systems hurt people with legit life gaps?

3 comments

3 Comments

brianm6612d ago

Legit life gaps" is right. That's just cruel, algorithms have no idea what real people go through.

-1

the_anthony8d ago

My brother once got denied for a simple store card because the algorithm saw he'd bought cat food five times in a row and flagged it as "unusual spending patterns." Meanwhile the guy was just feeding his sick cat after the vet made him change diets. The rejection letter actually said something about "responsible credit behavior" and I had to read it twice to make sure it wasn't a joke. These systems judge people on numbers they pulled out of thin air with zero clue about real lives.

carter.joseph12d ago

Right, because nothing says "we care about your journey" like a computer deciding you don't qualify for a card because you paid rent instead of buying a new phone. @brianm66 probably got flagged for "insufficient engagement" when he dared to take a weekend off social media. Maybe the algorithm should try paying a hospital bill on minimum wage and see how its credit score holds up. The whole system's a joke, just a fancy way to punish people for being poor.