If You’re A Person Who Does This, You Should Know That YOU SUCK.

Our program director at work sent us this link, and as a former recruiter, I find it absolutely infuriating.

Apparently, people seeking work are “ghosting” potential employers now.  This is a thing.

Check out this story:

Jo Weech, a Washington-based recruiter, found a software engineer she planned to hire, one with skills and experiences so rare she dubbed her a “purple unicorn,” recruiting-speak for a perfect find.

This candidate aced multiple interviews for a job supporting a federal contract. She breezed through a technical test. She had already nabbed a top-secret security clearance. Hiring managers wanted to bring her onboard. Weech called the candidate, intending to make an offer.

Suddenly, calls and texts went unreturned. Weech asked a colleague to reach out; he also got nowhere. Weech sent playful notes: “Please let me know that you have not been kidnapped by aliens. I’m worried about you.” She left voicemails. Then she started to get concerned: Was there an emergency in the candidate’s family? An illness? Car accident? Determined to make contact, Weech bought a greeting card and sent it via snail mail. Over three weeks, the engineer ignored a dozen messages.

Weech had been ghosted at work.

And this is happening across multiple industries.  Blue collar and white collar.  And listen, I get that President Trump has created a labor environment with a crazy low unemployment rate, and so job seekers often have tons of choices.  But why are they so freaking RUDE?

I was a recruiter in my pre-radio life.  It’s what I did day-in, day-out, and if I had candidates just flat disappearing on me in the same way as the “purple unicorn” did in the example above, I’d be beside myself with fury.

Is this really how uncivilized people have become?

According to the source, it gets worse, and it’s not just about candidates you’re trying to offer jobs to vanishing into thin air.  Other examples include candidates agreeing to interviews and not bothering to show up, candidates accepting job offers and then not showing up on their hire dates, and even worse – employees are now quitting jobs WITHOUT TELLING THEIR EMPLOYERS, simply because they don’t want to have to deal with the awkwardness of telling their boss that they’re leaving.

WTF is wrong with people?

And who are the main culprits?  You guessed it – younger generations who were clearly raised in barns and have no sense of responsibility.  But the source article is way nicer about it than I am:

Some of the behavior may stem not from malice, but inexperience. Professionals who entered the workforce a decade ago, during the height of the Great Recession, have never encountered a job market this strong. The unemployment rate is at an 18-year low. More open jobs exist than unemployed workers, the first time that’s happened since the Labor Dept. began keeping such records in 2000. The rate of professionals quitting their jobs hit a record level in March; among those who left their companies, almost two thirds voluntarily quit. Presented with multiple opportunities, professionals face a task some have rarely practiced: saying no to jobs.

Personally, I don’t give a crap if “professionals face a task some have rarely practiced.”  MAN UP AND SAY NO, for crying out loud.  Have some freaking manners.  This whole, “inexperience” thing isn’t a legit excuse.

But but but…

“Candidates are winding up with multiple offers, and you can’t accept them all,” says Dawn Fay, district president at Robert Half International in New York. “Individuals just inherently don’t like conflict or disappointing people.”

Well, too freaking bad.  I can assure you, it’s a lot less disappointing to a recruiter to be told ‘no’ and move on to another candidate than it is to expect someone to show up to a job that you spent a bunch of effort and time and resources offering them, and then have them not show up. What a bunch of conflict-avoiding wusses.

Check this out:

At Hollywood Casino in Baton Rouge, La., VP of HR Robin Schooling advises her hiring managers to interview continuously since it’s unclear when someone may abruptly drop out of the process. Her team hires about 200 people annually, many for front-line positions such as servers, table hosts, cooks, valet parking attendants and similar roles.

In the past month, the casino’s had four individuals accept a job and then fail to show up for onboarding only days later. When members of Schooling’s team reached out to one candidate, this person “literally hung up the phone.” She said she sees the behavior in people of all ages, and is baffled when a ghost will show up again months later, reapplying. Schooling explains to these people that they disappeared previously and, therefore, will not be reconsidered. Some get angry. “People don’t stop to think about the small world we live in,” she says. “People in HR and recruiting have really long memories.”

SERIOUSLY?  OMG I would LOVE for someone who ghosted me to try to reapply for a job.  I would drag them out for as long as possible and ghost the SH*T out of them as payback.  MAMA DON’T PLAY.

Anyway, if you’re a parent of a person who’s new to the job market, teach them some etiquette.  Tell them to communicate.  It’s not hard, and a little bit goes a long way.