{
  "registry_version": "1.0.0",
  "data": {
    "title": "Automated Application Expiration Timeout",
    "status": "active",
    "evidence_ids": [
      "evidence.hidden_workers_untapped_talent_hbs_accenture"
    ],
    "content": "# Automated Application Expiration Timeout\n\nThe ATS is configured to reject in bulk every application still pending after 45 or 60 days.\n\n### Structural Context\n- **Actor:** `system`\n- **Nature:** `rule`\n- **Removability:** `none`\n\n### Causal Relations\n- Masks `mech.stale_or_orphaned_job_requisition` — Stale or Orphaned Job Requisition\n\n### Non-Inferences\n- A bulk timeout rejection carries no assessment of the profile at all.",
    "aliases": [
      "M-020"
    ],
    "id": "mech.automated_application_expiration_timeout",
    "type": "mechanism",
    "summary": "The ATS is configured to reject in bulk every application still pending after 45 or 60 days.",
    "operates_at": [
      "bar.application_ingestion",
      "bar.inbound_screening_triage"
    ],
    "emissions": [
      {
        "artifact": "obs.rejection_after_the_application_sat_pending_for_months",
        "fidelity": "direct",
        "likelihood": "high",
        "evidence": [],
        "observed_at": [
          "ingestion"
        ]
      },
      {
        "artifact": "obs.generic_closer_alignment_rejection_template",
        "fidelity": "void",
        "likelihood": "high",
        "evidence": [
          "evidence.hidden_workers_untapped_talent_hbs_accenture"
        ],
        "observed_at": [
          "screening"
        ]
      },
      {
        "artifact": "obs.complete_silence_after_submission",
        "fidelity": "void",
        "likelihood": "medium",
        "evidence": [
          "evidence.hidden_workers_untapped_talent_hbs_accenture"
        ],
        "observed_at": [
          "ingestion"
        ]
      }
    ],
    "facets": {
      "actor": "system",
      "nature": "rule",
      "visibility": "opaque",
      "removability": "none"
    },
    "amplifies": [],
    "masks": [
      "mech.stale_or_orphaned_job_requisition"
    ],
    "evidence_level": "proven",
    "honest_baseline": false,
    "specimens": [
      {
        "kind": "ats",
        "label": "Bulk expiry, as logged",
        "context": "one batch, 312 applications",
        "lines": [
          {
            "at": "02:00",
            "text": "Scheduled job: expire_stale_applications",
            "tell": false
          },
          {
            "at": "02:00",
            "text": "Selecting applications with status=submitted and age>60d — 312 matched",
            "tell": false
          },
          {
            "at": "02:00",
            "text": "Human review recorded on 0 of 312",
            "tell": true
          },
          {
            "at": "02:01",
            "text": "Status set to Rejected — 312 notification emails queued",
            "tell": false
          }
        ],
        "reading": "The rejection email is real and the review it implies never happened. Timing is the tell: everyone in the batch is notified in the same minute."
      }
    ],
    "perspectives": [
      {
        "actor": "actor.ats_vendor",
        "sees": "A scheduled job, the records matching status and age, and a count of notifications queued. Review activity is a stored field, and the threshold does not consult it.",
        "reads": "Records past the threshold are stale queue state. Nothing in the schema separates an application nobody opened from one that was assessed and declined.",
        "does": "Runs the job at the customer's configured threshold and sends the configured template. The setting ships enabled, and switching it off is a customer action."
      },
      {
        "actor": "actor.recruiter",
        "sees": "The queue depth on the requisition drops overnight, and applications the recruiter never opened now carry the status Rejected.",
        "reads": "The backlog cleared at the threshold rather than through screening. The binding constraint was never a decision, but how many applications fit into the week.",
        "does": "Works the current inbound, which is what time-to-fill is measured against. The expired batch is not itemised anywhere the recruiter is asked to account for it."
      },
      {
        "actor": "actor.candidate",
        "sees": "A rejection weeks after applying, in the same wording used for a rejection after an interview.",
        "reads": "A decision about the application. Nothing in the message separates a person's decision from a scheduled status change, and nothing says whether the role was live.",
        "does": "Records the date and stops following up. Whether to apply to this employer again is decided on a message that carries no reason."
      },
      {
        "actor": "actor.public_policy_and_industry_standards",
        "sees": "The class of practice rather than the batch: an application status changed by rule, in jurisdictions where automated decision-making carries disclosure or explanation duties.",
        "reads": "A scheduled expiry is a decision only where the framing counts it as one. Where the rule lives on a configuration screen with a default, no filing records that a decision was made.",
        "does": "The available lever is a rule written for a class of systems — disclosure, explainability, a right to human review — and it arrives on a cycle longer than the threshold it would govern."
      }
    ],
    "non_inferences": [
      "A bulk timeout rejection carries no assessment of the profile at all."
    ],
    "agency_zones": {
      "ats-vendor": "high",
      "recruiter": "low",
      "candidate": "low",
      "public-policy": "low"
    }
  }
}