Hope and Richard...a love story

Dear Connection,?

Ok, y’all, so get into this. During my break, I caught up with my girlfriend, Hope. Hope is one of those good girlfriends that you can rely on. She is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. I was particularly excited about catching up with her because she had just gone through a horrible breakup the last time we spoke. The breakup blindsided everyone, her family, her friends, and especially her. I mean, when I tell you, she was the epitome of a great girlfriend, she was it. So we were all caught off guard because we knew a proposal was on the horizon.?

Things were looking up until he, Mr. Perfect, just dumped her…No notice, nothing. She was distraught and decided to take things slow as she built back up her confidence. She wanted to take her time and ensure the next relationship was better than the last.?

As fate would have it, she had someone slide into her DM’s. Not open to entertaining the prospect of another relationship, Hope, ignored the messages. But this guy was persistent. We will call him Richard. I mean, who could blame Richard for sliding into those DM’s? He saw what the world saw and what the ex-boyfriend did not appreciate.?Richard pursued Hope…it wasn’t creepy; not like a lifetime movie creepy. It was tasteful; with class, he told her what we all knew about her, and she knew about herself.

As good girlfriends do, we encouraged her to give him a chance but not after we did our due diligence and digging to see if he was legit…you know, there are many scammers out here after weeks of communicating back and forth and confirming that he was legit. They finally agreed to meet in person. He picked a nice restaurant. Excited for her date, Hope got all gussied up. I made sure she was put all the way together… My girl was on point.?

The date finally came. As an extra precaution, Hope decided that she would meet Richard at the restaurant. In typical Hope fashion, she got there early.?Richard showed up a few minutes late.?The date went well. They enjoyed each other's company. He got to see her personality, and she saw his. Thinking to herself, Richard may be the one. They made plans for a second date. Richard told her he would contact her the next day to finalize the plans.?

The next day came and went with no word from Richard. Not wanting to think negatively, she chucked it up to him being busy and assumed he would reach out the following day. The next day came and went again with no word from Richard. Finding this peculiar, she checked his?#socialmedia?and saw that he was still active. Coincidentally, he had just made a post five minutes earlier. She texted and, called, even emailed. No response. It was like he didn't exist, and the date never happened.?

OMG, where is Richard??

PLOT TWIST...

See, the story is fake. Richard is a recruiter, and hope is what you give us?#opentowork?candidates when you contact us.

Here’s the summary:?Richard, the recruiter, slides into our DM’s,?tells us we are perfect, and takes us on our first and second date (interview).?To ignore our emails, emails, and phone calls. Just ghost us with not even a Dear John letter. Many of us have been laid off (horrible breakup) and have been on the “market” for months. So when you reach out to us, selling us an opportunity, we think our problems are solved. That you are the “one.”?We understand that there are no guarantees even if you reach out to us, but some of you are so convincing that it makes that much harder to recover from the disappointment. It is not a good feeling. Hopefully, reading Hope and Richard's story that evokes sympathy (not pity) sheds light on what it is like behind the scenes and how it may affect our confidence.?There are too many stories on LinkedIn about my?#opentowork?colleagues experiencing being ghosted. We all deserve better.?

The moral of the story is don't be a Richard.