Ghosting: Job candidates turn tables on employers
asktheheadhunter.com
asktheheadhunter.com
Once you make this shift in thinking, it opens the doors to you increasing your status in the company, doing more interesting work and making way more money.
Stop doing any favours to your employer and start putting yourself first. The result is mutually beneficial in the long run.
The company is just made up of people, and so while some of those people can be your friends, oftentimes others have completely selfish aims.
From a position of power you can give and take, but many people pull the bullshit "We are a family" bit to eke out that extra work for no extra pay.
An employer who burns through trust with their employee is going to perpetually have staffing issues.
My management treated me well when it was in their power to do so. I survived for 36 years in a company that had multiple downsizings, sometimes 2 a year in the last 15 years. Our workgroup supported each other the best we could. We still get together for lunch periodically. Ross Perot's "great sucking sound of jobs leaving the country" occured on my watch. We just had to deal with it the best we could.
I was much happier and productive when I realized that it was best to be thankful for the good parts of my work and that sometimes you go through situations that suck. That's life...
This is not universally true. I genuinely care about the people that work for me.
Working hard might not make you look good to "the company" but it can make you look good to your supervisor(s) which (except in the event of things like mass-layoffs) has a huge impact on how the company treats you.
What's the primary thing the employer gives the employee? Money.
I think it's reasonable when one party decides to end the relationship, that they keep providing that primary thing for a period of time to make the transition more orderly.
That makes notice periods and severance periods logically equivalent in my book. The company can show you the door immediately (if they want), but as long as they pay you severance for a period of time, they've held up their end. (I've never seen zero severance in the tech industry unless a company is literally out of money or in the case the employee is being fired "for cause" (typically meaning sexual harassment, or theft/embezzlement, etc, not mere incompetence or laziness.)
So yeah, I'll give my employers the same consideration they give me: NONE.
But it swings both ways in these countries; you can't terminate someone on the spot. The employer must fulfil the notice period too (or, at least pay you for it)
Whilst I may despise many a situation - I'll constantly attempt to treat others the way I'd like to be treated. I'll also fail, because I'm human. It's part of being the change, part of doing more than just complaining about the problem.
If people want to conduct themselves thusly, it's their issue - but don't let it negatively define who you are.
This article describes employees resigning with no notice and employers rescinding job offers days before start. Neither of these are ghosting as they involve notice. They are certainly rude, but something other than ghosting.
Also, if you incur costs as a result of a job offer that is not fulfilled, it’s a pretty easy lawsuit to recoup damages. If the company can’t afford to pay, then that’s a failure of due diligence on the employees fault. It’s not that expensive to do a $5-10k small claims lawsuit and certainly affordable given the pretty massive cushion emergency fund I have to have to pull my kids out of school and move across the country. “The candidate accepted and HR instructed him to give notice at the old job immediately. He did.”
>involve notice
The wiki article you link even mentions the use of the word in regards to employment.
>Ghosting is not limited to only intimate relationship contexts. It can also happen between friends or even family members,[20] and be practiced by employers with prospective candidates.
But that is what the article is describing. The initial question goes "It just happened at work. Someone “ghosted” their job! A man in his 20s just disappeared without saying goodbye or I quit."
It seems odd to compare an employee walking off the job with no notice vs a recruiter never getting back. I think the equivalent is having the doors locked with no notice. Happens in the restaurant business, but pretty rare in white collar.
- I don't care if the labor market is tight.
- I don't care if you're an employer with 300 qualified applicants for a single opening.
Being respectful and maintaining relationships matters.
A well-respected venture CEO screamed at me in rage when I gave my 2-weeks notice at the company he ran. Former colleagues tell me that they've been having a lot of issues hiring engineers.
iHeartRadio was recruiting engineers up until the day they announced bankruptcy and continued to do so, but would rescind offers and just waste candidates' time. This left such a bad taste from seeing it happen to TWO friends of mine, that I have no qualms naming them publicly.
Unfortunately it looks like you are disproving your own point here.
A well respected co-worker, just stopped coming in after a vacation, and played World of Warcraft instead. He had savings, so he just played. (He did it for years)
Another co-worker, got a great offer at an exciting new place, semi-large startup. Quit his job, trained a replacement, first day at the new job "Sorry.. it seems like we cant afford you, as our strategy has changed."
That's just cold. You don't do that to people.
I would sue. I would sue for the money I spent to move as well as the loss of income until I found another job.
After the first 3 months, you have to show some kind of cause, have issued warnings of performance, be downsizing or similar.
p.s he didnt move, the job was in the same city. But he took the oppurtunity and started for himself, and is very succesfull today doing something completely different (he makes beautifull cookbooks now).
But none of these things happen often enough to make it "a thing". This article is basically some anecdotes about things that have happened, but not any type of regular occurrence in most professional industries. A high school or college kid is thousands of times more likely to quit without giving notice than anyone in a professional environment.
If there is any takeaway in this article:
* Your loyalty must be to yourself and your career. The days of employers seeming to take care of employees are over other than some rare occasions. You must make career decisions strictly based on what is best for your career and earning potential (short and long term).
* Do your research - These companies that pull job offers on people probably have some history of doing it, and there are plenty of websites that offer horror stories. Ask around and do some research if the company you're speaking to doesn't have much reputation or credibility online or in the public domain.
* Be professional - Especially in tech, career fluidity is much more common now than it was even 15 years ago. 2-4 year stints at companies are the norm. What does this mean? It means that your potential network is exponentially bigger than it would be if tenures were 10-15 years and turnover was low - you are working with a larger number of peers over your career, and those peers are going on to work for many other companies. You work for a 50-person startup that collapses, and those employees maybe join 30 other firms. Now your reputation (good or bad) has reached 30 firms. Bad news spreads. Give proper notice and treat employers as you'd like to be treated - hopefully they will reciprocate.
i) Because you've signed a contract and they have lawyers that can come after you to enforce that contract or extract damages as a result of non-compliance.
ii) Because your personal values are derived from you, and not how others conduct themselves.
I do a bit of interviewing and it's remarkable how many people will apply for a job, be offered an interview, accept the interview, and then just not turn up for the interview with no contact at all.
It's a really bad look, and people do remember it.
(Obviously, none of this is meant to excuse poor behaviour by employers).
The legal system is not easily accessible for the average person and companies know that perfectly well. Even if it's a straightforward case it will cost tons of time at a minimum.
It's never a bad idea to consult with 2-3 attorneys with significant practice in the relevant area. When a case has merit - and fees could be awarded out of relatively deep corporate pockets - interest from attorneys will be readily apparent.
Certainly more interesting than yet another conversation about the costs of the legal system favouring those with money, don’t you think? That one has been done to death.
I know language doesn't have to make sense, but to me 'ghosting' seems to mean the exact opposite of what it's supposed to mean.
Think of it, a ghost is a dead person that hangs around and bothers you in this world when it should have gone to some other realm, presumably.
Aren't there enough existing words and expressions that mean the same thing: ignoring, stonewalling, etc...?
Keeping up a trickle stream of half-baked work[0] (to prevent you from being accused of being "non-supportive") worked fine.
[0] matching the half-baked ideas we were supported to implement
Tldr: employees are now treating employers the way the employees have been treated.