I’ve seen discussion of the halakhic implications of gathering product information in one store and purchasing elsewhere. Some consider it theft of time and knowledge, and of unfairly giving the sales clerk hopes of receiving a commission on the sale. Is there any specific Halakha concerning how businesses and organizations process job applications?
Say someone sees a job posting. Their educational requirements, qualifications, work experience, and the listed roles and responsibilities match exactly. Assume everything in the job posting is extensive and very specific. They work hard to customize a resume and cover-letter and complete a lengthy application. They contact people to provide references. The person is feeling great and hopeful they will end up with the job. After committing much time and effort they don’t receive the courtesy (decency?) of a phone call, form rejection letter (or e-mail), let alone an interview.
What are (if any) the halakhic implications of getting the hopes up of applicants given the time and effort made completing the application process? Do they have any obligation to at least extend an interview? What if the employer posted the job for legal or internal reasons and never intended to extend interviews (or just went through the motions of interviewing for appearance sake) because they already selected which candidate they wanted? Not receiving a job offer is one thing after being interviewed but not receiving an interview or wasting a persons time interviewing them when there was no intention of hiring seems to be problematic.