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‘Ghosting’ is the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly, and without warning, withdrawing from all forms of communication. What was once exclusively used to describe relationships that went sour on dating apps such as Tinder and Bumble, has slowly crept into the corporate world. This particularly applies to the recruitment process when either the candidate or the employer abruptly disengages from the interview process without reason. And this can cause huge problems for both businesses and individuals.
The increasing problem with professional ghosting is something that Tom Goodwin, Head of Futures and Insights at Publicis Groupe, wrote about on LinkedIn earlier this month. He said: “We really really have to stop the practice of professional ghosting. I hear of people offered jobs and who sign employment contracts, never to be replied to again.” Goodwin continued to explain that he has also heard from people who have signed verbal contracts, agreed start dates and then been ghosted by the employer. With the email function allowing hiring managers and employers to write short messages to explain that things haven’t worked out, he said that there is no excuse for people to be ghosted in a professional setting in today’s digital era. “Have the dignity and humanity to write a short email and say ‘sorry, things have changed’ or ‘I thought I could sign this off and can’t,” he added. Even if things do fall through – which they sometimes, do due to unforeseen circumstances – being honest with the candidate or employee is crucial to avoid damaging corporate reputations and to ensure that the person leaves having had a good experience. This post garnered a wealth of comments from other LinkedIn users who agreed that communication – even in a negative form – is crucial to save face.
Despite the importance of communication and honesty throughout professional processes such as recruitment, 2016 research from CV-Library revealed that more than half (52.8%) of UK workers have been ghosted by an employer at some point during the interview process. Lee Biggins, Founder and Managing Director at CV-Library, said that it is surprising to see that so many recruiters and hiring managers are guilty of ghosting candidates. “If a candidate is constantly ignored by recruiters, a signal is being sent to workers that the behaviour is acceptable, and they’ll begin to mirror it in the workplace,” he added. More recently, however, it seems that the tables have turned within the recruitment process as candidates have started to ghost recruiters and hiring managers. According to the same set of research, 14% of candidates admitted to ghosting recruiters. Being sent irrelevant job opportunities (24.8%), bad attitude from recruiters (15.7%) and receiving too many phone calls (nine per cent) were cited as the top reasons for ghosting. Whether it is the recruiter of the candidate doing the ghosting, the majority of people in the LinkedIn thread agreed that people should put a stop to it – whether this is in the hiring process or elsewhere in the business – because it is completely unprofessional.
Consultant Warren Zenna explained in the thread that this behaviour has become “progressively worse and it’s disheartening”. Aside from expressing a lack of professional courtesy, he said that it demonstrated immaturity and cowardice – which are not the most desirable traits in the business world. “What’s even worst is that I’ve become resigned to just accepting this as a part of business today. And it’s not just the younger people either. It’s actually mostly coming from seasoned professionals (sic),” Zenna added. This is corroborated by LinkedIn user Hua M. Conry, Director, Creative & Art Production at Gildan, who said that jobseekers shouldn’t have to just tolerate it, even if it has sadly become the norm. “Ghosting hurts at all levels from recruiters and hiring managers. It doesn’t get easier and sadly ‘growing a thick skin’ is not going to cut it as it implies that jobseekers need to just get used to it,” she explained. Conry drew upon her own experiences and explained that in the past, she received an email congratulating her for being a finalist “after months of waiting around” and then was completely ghosted. “It’s really defeating but what are jobseekers supposed to do? Be resilient? Persevere? Endure? Fight harder? Grow tougher? Fail quickly and recover?” she probed.
