The virus that’s infected the recruitment industry.
I can only guess at the origin of this virus.
It might have been started by one organism or it might have mutated from something else.
If it was the first, then my guess would be an agency big-biller encouraging everyone around them to copy their phone spiel – probably back in the 90s.
Or maybe the recruitment industry caught it from the Contact Centre industry.
I am of course talking about recruiters who use the word “yourself” instead of “you”.
“Would you like me to email it to yourself?”
“Is the meeting just with yourself, or is the HR manager joining us?”
“Is the fee discount I’m offering just for yourself, or every other line manager in the business?”
Why do people do this? It makes no fucking sense! Do they think they sound more professional? More grown-up?
Do they say, “Myself will call yourself back later”?
Do they fall in love and tell their partner, “I love yourself”?
If they’d been John Lennon, would they have written a song called “All Yourself Needs Is Love”?
Imagine a world where most people spoke like that? That could happen if these people all start marrying each other.
What can we do to stop it spreading any further?
PS… Someone sent me this video. It features the MD of a recruitment agency talking about nothing in particular. The most interesting bit is around 20 seconds in when he uses the word “me” (correctly I might add) only to immediately correct it to “myself”.
This may be even more serious than I thought.
Read more from Mitch on LinkedIn.
