I am a manager at a small retail establishment and am working on hiring a part time sales associate. The position has been online over a month and we have received 0 qualified candidates. The other day a middle aged woman “Karen” who works across a couple locations came in while I was reviewing resumes. 

I was reading two resumes with another employee and they were just awful. Resume 1 listed their birth date while subsequently leaving off their education. In my country it’s illegal to ask the applicants age, only if they are over 18. They were 22. The resume did not list any skills they had picked up at their previous two part time jobs nor the dates that they worked there. It was half a page in normal size font that they increased to take up a whole page. They did not have a drivers license which is a requirement for the position and did not have any cover letter. 

Resume 2 was 3 pages. They had one part time job, again not listing any acquired skills. They had their education as the last segment on their resume. They filled 2.5 pages with volunteer experience leaving off any dates or skills acquired though these experiences. Most volunteering was 2 hour projects. Their contact information was only located on the second page of their resume and they only had their name on the first page. Their font and size were not consistent across the document. Again, no cover letter. 

Anyway, Karen comes in while I’m lamenting on how bad these resumes are and how I dread we’ll never find someone qualified enough to fill our basic entry level sales associate position. Karen has marital issues that the staff is well aware of because she literally never shuts up about them. I can tell you about her financial troubles, her kids, her husband and her *gag* sex life (which I NEVER asked about. Super funny though because she tells everyone about her husbands ED and how he can’t hold a job because of it??). 

Karen starts tearing me a new one in that mom way for “harassing strong young men for their *likely* (obviously unknown because we can’t ask) mental disability”. I interviewed both of these candidates anyway because were so desperate for a hire. I understand not all mental deficits present but they both seemed normal, just lazy. I explained to Karen that it takes nothing for someone to google “how to write a resume” and even just follow the first google example, but she still says I was being mean and abusing my power. 

Come to find out she has been telling the other locations she works at how I’m a horrible manager and no wonder no one will work for me. She has taken each of my employees to the side and asked them how they feel about me. They told me that Karen made them feel very uncomfortable by doing this and that they have no issues with me. 

TLDR: older female coworker says I’m being unfair by criticizing resumes. I interviewed the candidates and they were not a good fit as their resume suggested. 