Manager: Check the job site and leave me alone

I have been ignored, lied to, rejected and occasionally encouraged by folks in hiring positions during my search for a job. But until today, I don't recall anyone actually responding rudely to my inquiring about potential openings, unless you consider no response as being ill mannered.

I keep a record of every place that I contact. I maintain notes about how hiring managers respond to my inquires, whether they sound pessimistic or encouraging in e-mails and phone conversations. I don't follow up with anyone who doesn't respond to initial inquiries, figuring that's probably not the type of person I would want to work for anyway.

I made some routine phone calls and sent out some follow-up e-mails today to see whether some folks who I first corresponded with in February and March had any news for me concerning possible openings. In some cases, they asked me to do that. In other cases, I just do it on my own initiative, figuring working people are far too busy to remember to check in with me every two or three months.

I was surprised this afternoon when "Mr. Rude" essentially told me not to contact him anymore and to just check the company's Web site for job openings in the future. I softened his words a bit. This reaction was a 180 from his empathetic and complimentary response in March. I guess he doesn't believe much in karma or was just having a bad day.

There is a lot that I didn't anticipate when I become unemployed for the first time in my life at age 51. I knew the financial hardships were going to be hard, of course. I knew finding work in a recession was going to be a challenge, but I had conquered more difficult tasks in my life. I knew my confidence might be shaken, but I didn't anticipate the blatant rudeness that came my way today or the days in which I can't get a call back or acknowledgment of an application. And through these last 17 months, the one question that remains a bit unnerving: How does someone work successfully and uninterrupted for 29 years and suddenly become an outcast, a pest, a burden on society in the eyes of some? I guess I should have asked that of Mr. Rude.