As of: March 2, 2024, 6:02 a.m
By: Julian Mayr
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A young woman from Graz actually wanted to apply for a job in a pharmacy.
However, as an involuntary response she receives a xenophobic email.
Graz – Applications can sometimes be very depressing for job seekers.
For example, if promising job interviews are followed by a rejection or, even worse: if there is no response at all from the company after a complex application process.
But the most painful ones are likely to be rejections that are accompanied by malicious or discriminatory messages.
A young woman from Graz recently had this experience when she applied to work as a student employee at a pharmacy in the Styrian capital.
Within a few minutes she received a response with racist innuendos.
“What do we want with a barn owl?” Response to application at pharmacy in Austria causes scandal
The answer to the application was shared as a screenshot on the Reddit internet platform.
“Great, what should we do with a barn owl?” the email says.
And it is also written: “It’s crazy, are there still Austrians?” Within three days, more than a thousand users reacted to the apparently xenophobic remark.
“Thanks for the post!
“It’s good to know which pharmacy you can avoid from now on,” says just one of the more than 360 comments on the post.
The email published on Reddit is a real message.
According to the Styrian Chamber of Pharmacists, it comes from the husband of the head of the pharmacy.
Apparently he responded to a young Graz woman's application for a position as a pharmaceutical-commercial employee.
“It was a shock,” the victim reported to the
Kleine Zeitung
.
As a headscarf wearer, she is “used to stupid comments on the street, but I have never experienced anything like that.” It was only at the end of 2023 that an ÖBB conductor caused a scandal in Austria with racist comments.
Pharmacy manager reassures: Email was “taken out of context”
Just eight minutes after the application was sent, she is said to have received a response containing xenophobic innuendos.
As she tells the
Kleine Zeitung
, the man is said to have called her the same day and apologized: “But it was more of a wishy-washy apology,” says the person concerned, who did not accept it.
According to the husband of the pharmacy manager, the reply email was a mistake.
“It’s a complete nonsense that this happened to me,” he tells the regional newspaper, noting: “We are not racists.”
When asked by the news portal
5 Minuten
, it said that the email had been “taken completely out of context”.
The head of the pharmacy and also the professional chairwoman of the Styrian Chamber of Pharmacies also showed little insight into aspirant examinations in the
Kleine Zeitung
: “It was really stupid and taken out of context.” Her husband wanted to forward the application to her, the discriminatory message was “ “written out of emotion”.
The Chamber of Pharmacists wants to invite people to a “joint clarifying discussion” - Shistorm on the internet
The Chamber of Pharmacists regrets “the derogatory and insulting statements made” towards the applicant and distances itself from “any discrimination”.
The statement also states that those involved would like to be invited to a “joint clarifying discussion”.
As the newspaper
Der Grazer
reports, the case has already been reported to the disciplinary board of the Austrian Chamber of Pharmacists.
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A pharmacy in Graz caused a scandal with a xenophobic email in response to an application.
(Symbol image/montage) © CHROMORANGE/Imago
As a result of the posting on Reddit, there were probably more negative reviews of the pharmacy's website, as comments on the platform suggest.
It is now no longer possible to rate the pharmacy in question via Google.
A number of users have also announced that they want to send mock applications to the pharmacy.
Just a few months ago, a woman in Lower Austria was outraged by the company name and logo of an Austrian beverage manufacturer.