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“Ghosting” isn’t just a dating phenomenon: It has grown more common at the workplace, too. And that unreliable behavior risks reputational harm to employers and job seekers, said career experts.
The concept of ghosting — abruptly and unexpectedly ceasing communication with someone (i.e., disappearing) — arose around the mid-2010s as social media and dating apps gained prominence. Merriam-Webster added this new-age definition of “ghost” to the dictionary in 2017.
The practice has become common among both job applicants and employers during the hiring process.
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About 78% of job seekers said they’d ghosted a prospective employer, according to a December report from the job site Indeed, based on a poll conducted in spring 2023. That’s up from the prior year, when 68% said they’d gone AWOL during the hiring process sometime over their career.
Roughly 62% of job seekers said they plan to ghost during future job searches, up from 56% in 2022 and 37% in 2019, Indeed found.
But it’s not just applicants who disappear: 40% of job seekers said an employer had ghosted them after a second- or third-round interview, up from 30% in 2022.
The data suggests ghosting is “still trending upward” and isn’t a “passing fad,” according to the Indeed report.
Why job ghosting is becoming more common
It’s not as if ghosting is a new phenomenon. There have always been job seekers and employers who’ve displayed lackluster communication during hiring, said Jill Eubank, senior vice president of business professionals at Randstad, a recruitment firm.
Its prevalence in recent years is likely attributable to a hot job market heading into the Covid-19 pandemic and then exiting it, she said.
Demand for labor surged in early 2021 as the U.S. economy reopened from its…
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