Ghosting: The troubling new workforce trend

A tight job market has left employers facing a troubling new trend: ghosting.

While typically associated with the end of romantic relationships, “ghosting” is a smartphone-ere trend in which someone abruptly ceases contact with their partner, without any notice or explanation. In the business world, employers are ghosted when candidates don’t show up for interviews, or don’t return to work after a couple shifts.

“It's gotten worse over the last couple years,” Jason Savoury, director of industrial staffing at the employment firm Talentworks, told CTV Atlantic. “It's becoming more normal, to a point where we're bringing in double the amount of people to fill one certain role.”

On Dec. 5, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis released its annual Beige Book Report, in which they classified ghosting as an employment trend.

With unemployment low at the moment, employers are having a hard time filling positions, which means job seekers have options and are more likely to ghost when something more appealing comes up.

Of course, ghosting can go both ways. A 2017 study from CareerBuilder indicates more than half of respondents had been interviewed for a position, but never heard back from the employer.

“I think the respect has to go back and forth between the companies and the candidates,” said Jason McDonald, a managing partner at Talentworks. “It's communication. It's a respect issue.”

With a report from CTV Atlantic’s Emily Baron Cadloff

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