Alison Green is a person who is as involved in work-related anxiety and office politics than anyone else. She has been answering workplace questions on her website, Ask a Manager for over ten years. Direct Report is a collection of themes that she has uncovered in her inbox. They help to explain the modern workplace, and show how we can better navigate it.
A strange thing is occurring in today's chaotic job market. Employers are becoming more concerned about job seekers who disappear. These job applicants don't show up to their scheduled interviews. Sometimes, these job candidates accept the job and then disappear.
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Here are some comments I have heard from managers.
This has been happening to me for the past 612 months. Interviews are being ghosted, and people don't respond. Five people were scheduled to interview but only one turns up. Even people who weren't there the first day of the interview or didn't return the second time around have been hired. Front office and nurse positions. Its unreal.
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I switched from working for a non-profit to working as a vendor. My job involves hiring but it is much more difficult now to do so than at the nonprofit. We offer better benefits and pay. People are hired at a higher rate than at the nonprofit. Hours are consistent and there are good PTO and matching 401k. I have received over 30 offers for interviews. Nine people accepted interviews. Three people didn't show up. Two failed background checks. Two didn't want to travel. We made offers to two other candidates, but they have not responded. I have never seen so many people not respond to my calls or not show up. This is the new normal. I feel really depressed and at loss.
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I am looking for entry-level manufacturing jobs that pay an hourly, well above the local minimum wage. Only 50% of those who reach out to me for a phone interview respond. It's not surprising if someone does not answer the phone if I have set up an interview. I then offer the job but nothing. I got no response. I dont get it.
This is not something that employers like, it's no surprise. They say it's rude and unprofessional. It is, indeed. However, employers have done this for years to workers and their hand-wringing did not begin until the tables were turned.
Over the years, I have received questions from job applicants frustrated by being ignored by job interviewers. They would often take time off work to buy a suit or spend time interviewing, sometimes doing the second, third and fourth rounds. Then they would never hear back from their employer. They would politely ask about the status of their applications and get silence back. They might schedule a telephone interview with the employers, but they wouldn't get a call. They would then try to contact the employer about rescheduling crickets. This has been so common that I have always advised job seekers to not expect to hear back from employers and to accept it as a part of job hunting.
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Now, the situation has been reversed! Oh the schadenfreude! Here's a selection of the letters I received from workers about the turnaround:
I love it when potential employees treat employers in the same way that they have treated their candidates for many years. Then seeing employers become upset that they are not being treated the same way. Although I hope employers take this as a learning experience and begin to respect job seekers more, Im not optimistic.
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This might help employers to clean up their act. In all the years I have worked and interviewed for jobs, only a few companies ever got back to me after an interview. Many candidates went AWOL after interviews. I assumed that this was normal behavior from employers and that a company contacting a candidate to tell them they are not proceeding was an extra effort.
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Employers have been ghosting applicants in business communications for years, even though it is rude and unprofessional. Since they have been ghosting candidates for years, it seems quite rational to conclude that ghosting in business is acceptable and normal.
Employers should have treated candidates with more humanity over the past three decades if they want to be treated better. It is impossible to treat a whole class of people with such cruelty for many decades and then strip them of their rights and protections and then get upset when they don't show enough respect to those asking for work.
I don't know how I feel about the many jobs I spent the time to research, apply for, and then show up to interview for, and they never even acknowledged my time or said that they had filled the job.
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Noting that employers often have difficulty attracting qualified candidates is important because the job conditions, including pay, benefits and hours, aren't competitive. Although it might have been competitive in the past, it is not now and they have not updated their thinking to reflect that fact.
My job is in the public sector, and I see many candidates leaving. Despite our efforts to improve pay over the past few years, we still aren't competitive. Our governing body grew very used to the conditions in the job market during the recession, and for many years thereafter when the employer held all the power. They are just now starting to see how the roles have been reversed. We have tried to fill one of the entry-level jobs for the past year. First, there were no qualified applicants. Second, there were four qualified candidates, but only two came for interviews. Both declined the job. The third time is the charm: We hired someone, but they didn't show up for work on their third day. We were never contacted and they didn't return our calls. We are now in the fourth attempt. Although we have a conditional deal, the candidate has twice pushed back the start date. Let's see.
We don't know how long this market will last. If ghosting helps employers understand how they have been treating job seekers over the years, that's a positive thing. It's even better if it shows a shift in power towards workers.
