Ghosting. Its simply rude and has no place in the workplace

I am normally the creator of all my own content, but in this edition I would like to share an article written by Alex Christian for the BB in March 2022.

You see, this term ghosting - call me old fashioned but isn't it simply rude?

I simply cannot find a reason at all where ghosting is acceptable. You want to break up - tell them. You dont want to offer someone a job - so tell them! you have decided to accept another job - so speak out! Communicate! For heavens sake it makes life so much more simple.

Below Alex Christian shares a story about a company withdrawing from a job offer which is something I have never come across but would deem exceptionally bad practice and I wouldn't work with any company that ever did this. However, whilst its not happened to me - I have heard of applicants ghosting new employers and simply not turning up. As a recruiter I would be most certainly blacklisting them for the future.

I think despite the word "ghosting" somehow trivialising the incident, fundamentally this is a behaviour that show how discourteous, ill mannered and fundamentally rude someone is - and that this is a reflection of their upbringing and personality. It is not excusable. However, count your lucky stars if it happened to you that you got to know the measure of someone before taking things further.

So what are your thoughts on Ghosting in the workplace?

Article by Alex Christian

Rather than sending a withdrawal or rejection email, workers and employers are simply cutting off contact during the hiring process. Are we stuck in a ‘ghosting’ spiral?

When Laura was invited for a final-stage interview at a multinational music corporation based in London, she thought she was on the cusp of landing her dream role. After passing a first-round phone interview and meeting team members in person, all Laura had to do was meet a senior-level executive. “It was presented to me as a formality,” she says. “The interview went well, and I was later told I’d got the job.”

And then – nothing. Despite receiving initial guarantees she would be joining the team, the email formally confirming Laura's role never arrived. She’d send occasional follow-ups to the firm’s HR department only to receive non-committal replies.?“It was always me instigating the conversation,” says Laura. “The last message I received said they promised to contact me as soon as they had more information on my new role. I never heard from them again.”

Laura had been ghosted. Rather than sending her a formal rejection or an explanation of what had happened, her potential employer ignored her. It’s a practice that’s common in the recruitment process; one recent study of 1,500 global workers found that?75% of jobseekers?have been ghosted by a company after a job interview. Employers openly acknowledge that they do it; only?27% of US employers?surveyed by job listings site Indeed said they hadn’t ghosted a candidate in the past year.

But it’s not just companies. Right now, employees are ghosting back – and potentially in higher numbers than ever before. In the same 2021 Indeed survey, 28% of workers said that they’d ghosted an employer – compared to 19% two years before. The phenomenon seems to be happening at all stages of the recruitment process. While some employers reported that candidates cut off communications following an initial phone screening, a quarter said new hires had “no-showed” on their first day at work.

Ghosting is considered bad practice for both companies and workers; no one likes being on the receiving end of it. Yet its rise seems inexorable: digital hiring processes deluge companies with candidates, making replying to everyone hard, even as labour shortages give job-hunters more options as employers scramble for talent. Is the inevitable consequence of this an increasingly discourteous recruitment process – or can steps be taken by both sides to avert a downward spiral?