PE Firms Need to Stop Calling to Reject

A couple b-school buddies and I have tallied some rejections over the phone the past few weeks and my humble request would be...just stop? This is PE-specific too: I get that shops are leaner / pride themselves a little bit more on culture and collegiality (at least the appearance thereof) than banks, which overwhelmingly reject over email, do, but this medium just doesn't make sense unless the following situations apply:

A) the caller and candidate have an authentic, usually outside, personal connection (not just "we like the same sports teams" from a coffee chat);

B) you're calling to offer some kind of *tangible* praise, opportunity, or information:

i) If you've genuinely terminated a search because of a hiring freeze, or are declining because the experience level for the search has genuinely changed (not just changed because the original scope "wasn't good enough"), then communicating that info over the phone instead of over email seems a little kinder / "sparing" of a candidate, though it's hard to describe why;

ii) if the candidate didn't make the cut but really connected with the team enough that you really want to differentiate IDK the "first four out" candidates from those who bombed the modeling test by calling them, then feel free to call and tell them that info. If you are calling only a selected few candidates, then it's nice for them to hear that they're on the right track, even if one process didn't work out. If you're calling everyone--prayers up for your schedule and it's weird for the last interaction with the candidate to leave them wondering whether you saw something in them or are really doing 40 of these over a week;

iii (or maybe ii-b)) if the candidate did make enough a good impression that you'd definitely want to see them in 6-12-18-24 months if the stars align, then it'd be helpful to hear that even if communicated subtly and with no promises. If you think the candidate might slot in well to another specific group or strategy or vertical and would recommend (and more importantly, can funnel them over if they accept) they pursue that process, that counts too;

C) you're ready and prepared with real feedback beyond "the cuts were tough." It doesn't even have to be "nasty" or all that constructive, but if there are genuine things regarding either interview performance or background that you would prefer not to write in a formal rejection email, candidates would rather have that information over the phone than omitted completely in a form email.

As a guiding principle, think about the factors that differentiate a call from an email: there's a lack of synchronicity between when a candidate gets your email or voicemail to set up the call and the message actually being delivered, there's a not-fun lag in the interim when the candidate wonders if they've been offered or advanced that might have them pause on networking or keep their next week relatively open in case it's good news, and both parties have to find a mutual time to pull themselves away from work, class, life stuff instead of sending and reading at their own leisure. None of those is back-breakingly tedious or stressful, but if you're going to do that to a candidate and yourself relative to an email, think about whether the actual content of the message offers something in my categories enough that justifies it not being an email.