Is It Ever Okay To Ghost A New Employer?

“He’s just not that into you.” A catchphrase heard on every Tube, every day, as single men and women struggle with London’s notoriously difficult dating scene, where ghosting, breadcrumbing, cuffing and orbiting are simply par for the course.

Caused by the proliferation of potential partners available online, and the fact that there are more women than men, we seem to have lost all common decency when it comes to romance. And now, it appears that our bad manners are spilling over into our professional life as more and more people are ghosting employers – caused potentially by the same thing. Too much choice.

For the first time since records began, there are now more jobs than job seekers in the UK which has resulted in a labour market flipped in favour of the employee. With companies struggling to fill roles after The Great Resignation, workers are being inundated with offers, even those not actively looking to move.

The result is we have started to ghost recruiters and employers, safe in the knowledge that there are plenty more career fish in the sea. In fact, pre-pandemic 41% of job seekers felt ghosting an employer was appropriate and in today’s tight labour market that number has risen as the power has shifted.

Rude and unprofessional

Unlike in your personal life, where there are an endless array of potential partners to choose from, your professional life is a little more contained. Experts say that ghosting an employer is not only rude and unprofessional, it can also be detrimental to your career progression.

People talk, industries are small, and the HR executive you ghost today might be the VP of talent that you want to impress in seven years time. Why put your name and reputation at risk for the sake of a polite “thanks but no thanks” email?

If you want to walk away from a recruitment process, job offer or start date (yes, some people have been known to accept a role and then not show up) it’s important you’re succinct, honest and respectful in your communications. Of course the earlier you can say no the better, but if you’re deep into the hiring process and receive a better offer or come across a more interesting role, be honest and bow out, do not just disappear.

Email, or better yet call, the hiring manager and explain that you have received a counter offer which better suits your career aspirations, or that on further reflection feel that the role is not a right fit for you, but you’d love to stay in touch about potential opportunities.

While employees are enjoying their day in the sun now, the threat of a potential recession continues to loom, so keeping in touch with as many hiring managers and recruiters as possible is only going to be of benefit. Think of it as saving for a career rainy day.

If you’re currently ghosting an employer, ask yourself why. Are you holding out for something better or did you get too far into the process before realising it’s the wrong role for you?

Either situation can be solved by exploring available opportunities on the Morning Wire Job Board, where dozens of companies are currently hiring for roles across all sectors. We’ve found three exciting roles below.

Head of Talent & Development, Paddy Power Betfair

The Role: The Head of Talent & Development will lead the implementation of the defined performance management and goal-setting process, creating and delivering content, guidance and training suitable to each audience.

The Responsibilities: You will have specific accountability for managing succession and talent development planning across the division below the executive level.

The Requirements: You will have experience in developing and delivering competency models, skill frameworks, succession plans and leadership development/coaching as well as an understanding of how analytics can support the process.

Apply for the Head of Talent & Development role or check out other jobs available at Paddy Power Betfair.

Senior Security Engineer, Detection & Response, Airbnb

The Role: The Senior Security Engineer will have direct impact building, optimising, and growing securing capabilities in order to deliver world-class threat detection and incident response.

The Responsibilities: You will be responsible for coordinating and driving resolutions on a diverse range of incidents. You will analyse root causes, trends and systematic issues to improve procedures throughout the company.

The Requirements: You will have five-plus years’ of hands-on technical experience in security engineering, systems engineering, software engineering, network engineering, or privacy engineering.

Apply for the Senior Security Engineer role or explore other vacancies currently available at Airbnb.

.NET Senior Software Engineer-Remote, UnitedHealth Group

The Role: The Senior Software Engineer will play an important role in supporting key strategic initiatives for the advanced analytics and digital products business component.

The Responsibilities: You will work as a full stack engineer and design, code, build and test software solutions in DevOps scrum environment as you lead team efforts to achieve timely resolution to all production issues.

The Requirements: You will have experience with .NET, experience developing/operating with a commercial cloud environment, preferably MS Azure, strong experience with Agile, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery and the Microsoft .NET technology stack: C# / .NET, .NET Core, Web APIs.

Apply for the Senior Software Engineer role or browse other opportunities at UnitedHealth Group.

For more available vacancies, explore the Morning Wire Job Board