Into Thin Air: How 'Ghosting' has moved into the Workplace

Making its way into the list of 2015's best words, 'ghosting' is often used in reference to a romantic relationship and refers to being dumped through a sudden cut-off of all communication. However, concerning new research from CV-Library suggests that this trend has in fact left the dating world and made its way into the working world.

To better understand the issue of ghosting in the workplace, the job site conducted a survey amongst over 3000 of the UK’s professionals, and the results were eye-opening; of Britain’s 31.2 million working professionals, 8.9% admitted to ghosting their employer. Suggesting that amassive 2.8 million employees have ghosted their employer and simply disappeared from work. This result should come as a warning to HR professionals; while many workers will likely have a clause in their contract which details the terms of their notice period, it seems that some employees are simply ignoring it.

There’s no denying that this behaviour is unacceptable and that employee ghosting can leave businesses in difficult situations, however, it should be acknowledged that workers don’t tend to just stop showing up to work without a reason. CV-Library asked its respondents to share their stories, in the hope that businesses take note and work to eradicate any potential issues, and can reveal that the most common reason for employees disappearing on the job was that they felt mistreated by management.

Dave from Brighton told the job site, “My manager treated me with a disgusting attitude, so one day I just left,” while Emma from London admitted that “One of the managers spoke to me with a bad attitude, she had zero people skills”, simply highlighting the importance of clear communication and a good relationship between management and employees.Further reasons for workers ghosting their employers included, ‘constantly facing unrealistic workloads’ and ‘lack of flexibility in work schedules’, suggesting that unhappy staff who are feeling the strain at work are simply upping and leaving, instead of working around the problem. While it’s clear that the employees who don’t feel valued at work at the ones most likely to ghost their employer, it’s interesting to note that the majority of these issues could be solved by support from management, indicating that steps can be taken to combat the trend.

Furthermore, today’s prosperous job market appears to be aggravating the situation, with employees admitting to finding better job prospects with immediate start dates, and simply vanishing from their current jobs. Jason from Birmingham confessed to CV-Library that “I had been offered a much more lucrative offer whilst still employed; I didn’t like my current manager so I stopped turning up instead of handing in my notice”, while Jess from Southampton told the job site “I started a job which was a temporary position and three days later I was offered another job at a better employer. I went for my lunch and never came back”.  With today’s workers having more control over the job market than ever before, it is essential that employers are mindful of how happy their employees are, and how engaged they are with their jobs; workers have more options than before, and if they’re unhappy, they’re unlikely to stick around.

Interestingly, the research also reveals that while workers have taken to ghosting their employers, the source of work-related ghosting actually lies in the recruitment process, with over half (52.8%) of UK workers revealing that they have been ghosted by an employer during the recruitment process. Surprisingly, only 14% of professionals admit that they have ghosted a recruiter, suggesting that it may actually be recruiters and employers that are most guilty of ceasing communication. Whether this is the reason that workers believe it’s acceptable to ghost their employer is difficult to determine, however, it’s certainly a significant revelation. Tackling this trend before it spreads any further is vital, and the importance of clear communication between staff and employers shouldn’t be underestimated. With today’s employees in a position of power, the UK’s businesses must do all they can to keep their staff on board, and to avoid their workforce disappearing into thin air.