Being courteous is a strain on resources

I am replying to Stephen Green’s letter about courtesy in recruitment ads (DW 9 May), as we published the advertisement to which he referred.

Each week we receive letters from designers seeking employment. Out of courtesy, we always reply with the offer to see their portfolios – whether we have a vacancy or not. Designers I have met in this way have expressed gratitude, as we seem to be one of the few companies that actually bothers to reply to such letters. I therefore share Stephen Green’s concern.

Placing a recruitment ad, however, puts a great strain on resources, particularly for a small company. On the last occasion we received nearly 350 applications. Each applicant received a reply. This required much more than a “little effort”, it was for this reason we decided to include the statement referred to. We need not have done so but we felt we should make our position clear and apologise in advance in our advertisement.

The reality is that we have a business to run. These days clients are more demanding and deadlines are tighter. Time is precious and we continuously have to find ways of becoming more efficient. The downside is that on occasions we cannot be as nice to everyone out there as we would like to be. For this I am sorry.

Brian Dedman

Butler Cornfield Dedman

London EC1