Why You Should Never Ghost

Ghosting is the professional equivalent of standing up someone for a date, and it’s one of the most damaging behaviours a job seeker can do.

According to a February 2021 report by Indeed, 28% of job applicants had ghosted a prospective employer over the past year. That’s up from 18% in 2019, despite a global pandemic wreaking havoc on the job market and creating a shortlist of employment options. The numbers are even more startling from the employer side, with 76% reporting they’ve been ghosted in the past year and 57% saying it’s more common than ever before.

The level of ghosting is broad, with employers reporting that some candidates simply disappear from the process after an initial screening call or first interview. Despite the simplicity of an email to express a lack of interest but appreciation for their time, candidates choose the path of silence. However, others are taking the trend to a whole new level, with 46% of job candidates not showing up for a scheduled interview and 7% failing to appear for their first day after successfully landing a job.

So how have we gone from that polite thank-you note to not even showing up? According to Indeed’s report, the reasons for ghosting among job seekers varies, with 20% saying they received a better job offer in the meantime, 13% dissatisfied with the salary offered and 15% indicating they decided the job wasn’t the right fit for them.

Many candidates likely assume that ghosting a potential employer won’t catch up to them and there will be no consequences for the unprofessional action. However, employers are taking names — literally. With the increasing rise in ghosting, many employers are tightening up their processes to protect themselves from the significant time lost on these candidates.

The Consequences Of "Ghosting"

On a basic human level, when you “ghost” someone, often their immediate thought is that something is wrong or there has been some kind of an emergency. Simply put, they start to worry about you. Have you been in an accident? Are you in the hospital? Did you die? Because it’s so far-fetched for many to believe that any professional would simply stop all communication for no reason (especially if things had been going so well up until then – well enough to get a job offer), their first concern is that something must be wrong. So, once they realize that all is well and they’re simply being cut off, that sense of worry quickly turns to anger. And that’s a feeling they aren’t likely to forget any time soon.

“Ghosting” an employer or recruiter is one of the most effective ways to “burn bridges” in your professional life. Like LinkedIn editor-in-chief Dan Roth points out to CBS, employers remember who “ghosted” them, so anyone who “ghosts” runs the risk of having a serious dent in their professional reputation. For one, you never know who you will end up working with in the future, who you’ll be sharing a panel with at your next conference, or who will be sitting across from you at the interview table. If it’s someone you’ve “ghosted,” you’re in for a rocky, awkward conversation.

And remember, people talk. The sciences can be a rather small world, especially if you remain in one field, so this type of faux pas can easily come back to haunt you in the future. Then there’s social media, particularly LinkedIn. These days it’s not difficult to find out where someone works or what they’re up to, so if you thought you could “ghost” an employer and never be heard from again, think again. You could wind up with an uncomfortable message on one of your social pages that publicly puts you on blast for your bad behavior.

The Alternative to Ghosting

Ultimately, “ghosting” an employer is a sign of immaturity and unprofessionalism. As LinkedIn Editor Chip Cutter said, in today’s tight labor market many “professionals face a task some have rarely practiced: saying no to jobs.” Some job candidates may fear conflict or not understand the right way to decline an offer or quit a job. So, rather than risk an uncomfortable conversation that they don’t know how to approach, they simply stop showing up altogether and hope that it just ‘goes away.’

Instead of simply avoiding a potentially negative conversation, job candidates and employees should learn how to say “no” gracefully in a way that doesn’t burn any bridges and leaves their professional reputation intact. Employers and recruiters (well the good ones anyway) are not interested in forcing people into a new job.