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In Booming Job Market, Workers Are 'Ghosting' Their Employers (washingtonpost.com)
A notorious millennial dating practice is starting to creep into the workplace: ghosting. Employers are noticing with increasing frequency that workers are leaving their jobs by simply not showing up and cutting off contact with their companies [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; syndicated source]. From a report: "A number of contacts said that they had been 'ghosted,' a situation in which a worker stops coming to work without notice and then is impossible to contact," the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago noted in December's Beige Book, which tracks employment trends. National data on economic "ghosting" is lacking. The term, which usually applies to dating, first surfaced in 2016 on Dictionary.com. But companies across the country say silent exits are on the rise. Analysts blame America's increasingly tight labor market. Job openings have surpassed the number of seekers for eight straight months, and the unemployment rate has clung to a 49-year low of 3.7 percent since September. Janitors, baristas, welders, accountants, engineers -- they're all in demand, said Michael Hicks, a labor economist at Ball State University in Indiana. More people may opt to skip tough conversations and slide right into the next thing.
... is good for the gander
If your company is going to lay you off, it's not like they give you a whole lot of notice in most cases. You turn up for work, bright and eyed and bushy tailed, only to find a Manager and HR type waiting to give you some really bad news
Sure, most places have severance, but it's not like they take your feelings into consideration so if employees are just up and leaving, that's behavior the corporation does all the time
at will employment goes both ways!
Fuck you bill I'm not working weekends after being told at 4:55 PM on Friday and go fuck your self and put that in the TPS report.
Isn't this what your emergency contact is for? So they can contact your dad or brother and tell them you've dropped off the face of the earth, go to his house to see if he's dead in front of the computer, pantsdown.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
While you may feel like a boss by not giving a notice to your former employer, there's a strong possibility it will come back to bite you in the arse when it's time for references.
I'd be hesitant about using this practice, especially in small markets where everyone knows each other. Our college placement office had a story of a student who accepted an offer from a company but continued to go on interviews afterward. They got another offer, but the partners of the two companies (accounting firms) talked to each other and found out what happened and both rescinded their offers. If you get a reputation of being unreliable and leaving without any contact, it may haunt you in the next downturn. Two weeks isn't much time to stick it out, and if you have an immediate offer, at least tell the previous employer why (and probably expect to not work there again).
If your company is going to lay you off, it's not like they give you a whole lot of notice in most cases.
Do you WANT more companies to do that?
If not why escalate like that?
Telling other people you plan to leave, is just basic human decency.
There is nothing good about either side giving the other one no warning about actions like this.
Besides, the equivalent to what YOU are talking about it not a company laying you off unexpectedly. It's more like if you kept coming to work and after two weeks you just got no paycheck, and the company said "we fired you but dd not tell you".
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If everyone adopts your reasoning, employees will quit without giving notice. Employers will let employees go without severance or adequate notice.
For the best outcome, everyone has to be considerate of each other. Employers have to give employees adequate notice, and provide severance to help carry the ex-employee through while they find another job. Employees have to give their employers adequate notice, and wrap up their projects and help train their replacement employee before they leave.
Also, being a jerk to a company you work at just because another company screwed you over, is no different from a company being a jerk to an employee just because another employee screwed them over. Again, that sort of behavior just creates a race to the bottom, and is in fact the basis of all discrimination. Retribution needs to target the company or individual who wronged you, not someone else who just happens to belong to the same class, type, race, gender, etc.
Has anything changed from 6 months ago when we saw this story?
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
Who in the recent decade of depression saw numerous companies a) let workers go with little to no warning and no compensation or b) witnessed the extremely common scenario where an employee informs their employer they are taking a new job, gives their two weeks notice, and are immediately escorted out the building and left with no job for two weeks.
Companies keep trying to pull shit on employees. I don't think these greedy CEO's realize that there are consequences for their policies. If employers fail to respect 2 weeks notice, than they cannot expect their employees to do so. If corporations find every loophole and means to pay their employees less regardless of the effect on their employees. Than employers can't complain when those same folks keep jumping jobs for more money - if YOU make it ALL about money, than expect it to be all about MONEY.
Back in the 1990s, if you didn't switch employers every two or so years, you were considered someone who wasn't willing to "grow".
After the dot.bomb crash, you were a job hopper.
I never screwed over an employer - a couple screwed me over, though. But sticking to the high ground pays off. Future employers will realize they were dicks to you - some were ALSO screwed over - RIGHT fellow IBM'ers?!
Follow the Golden Rule as Confucius wrote over 3,000 years ago, and it'll work out in the end.
Yeah, there are some assholes out there who think you should sell your soul to your employer; but most? Nope.
Give two weeks notice - if it's that horrible that you have to leave immediately, consult a labor attorney and then listen to his advice.
Been through this shit and many asshole employers (And mostly great ones), and let me tell you, we workers are ALWAYS at a disadvantage.
But you can't just walk off with the company badge key, or keep the laptop at home, etc. Maybe the article is just talking about hourly workers, but even then you have a good chance of getting blacklisted by the union or future employers. If you're not salaried, you certainly can be sued and companies aren't shy about this.
<Platitudes>
Try not to burn your bridges after you cross them. Because the grass only seems greener from the other side.
</Platitudes>
While there is an employment shortage, this isn't a long term issue, and the market will move from an employees market back to an employers market. So if that great new job you got turns sour (because they gave you too much more then what you are actually worth, because of employee scarcity) You may be out of a job, and the company that seemed to suck so much, may still have a spot for you, because its conservative investments meant such a turn in the market didn't hurt them as much.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Given that I've never even seen the same employer under 100 employees advertise the same job twice, it's pretty hard NOT to end up burning bridges, but this ghosting seems to take it to a whole new level.
Although, for a salaried employee with automatic deposit whose manager isn't paying much attention, it could be a profitable move, as you'd likely get a couple of pay periods out before they notice your job isn't being done.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I don't think people forget this at all. If you are professional, you want to leave with a good impression with the company. For good references, good relations with your fellow employees who may be hiring managers in the future, and if things go south, there may be an other company to get hired again with.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Given that I've never even seen the same employer under 100 employees advertise the same job twice, it's pretty hard NOT to end up burning bridges, but this ghosting seems to take it to a whole new level.
I think you are confused. Leaving a job doesn't have to result in burned bridges. It is possible to leave a job without burning bridges.
Leaving a job doesn't burn the bridge. However most of the time people will not reapply back to the same company, unless it is large enough (over 100 employees) where there is a better position for them, because of their job growth withing that period of time in the middle.
2 out of 3 employers that I have worked for are out of business/sold merged to a different company. While I joke that I probably should had left better documents, most of the time the reason those companies had those issue was due leadership deciding to retire.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
I worked for a company that ran out of money, and that they couldn't pay our upcoming paychecks. I left and didn't return, but apparently everyone else kept coming to work and eventually they formed a new company, leaving the original investors with nothing. The CEO kept phoning me but I only communicated with the bankruptcy administrator from that point on.
Take off every 'sig' !!
Why leave like that? You miss out on cake, and sincere heartfelt wishes from your fellow employees, as well as earnest conversations about “we must catch up some time soon”.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
Or that new job you're trying to land might try calling your old position and find out you ghosted them when you left. Then the new company will be less likely to hire you.
Okay maybe this is me, but it's completely normal to ask the people interviewing you to hold off on contacting your current employer until a written offer is made. I've never had a company that I went to work for that didn't honor that. What the hell kind of shitty jobs are you thinking folks are going to apply to, because if they trust you that little walking in the door, it's probably best to just walk away anyway.
Additionally, right to work states. Being in a right to work state means the employer or the employee may terminate the position at any time for any reason or no reason at all. So you literally have States that promote ghosting as being completely normal.
why not collect a few extra paychecks by just leaving without notice
If you don't fill in your time-sheet, you're not going to get paid. If you do (or are "salaried" and don't complete a time sheet) you might be committing fraud. In addition, if you have direct deposit, the company can also debit those over-paid funds from your account. If you're going this route, it would better burn your vacation and/or other paid time off, *then* just give notice you're leaving immediately.
It's better than waiting around to be laid off ...
Um... I got laid off and received $$$ in severance and my first few months of COBRA paid for by the company -- which then turned out to be *way* less expensive than the available options in my area on Healthcare.gov. Most people qualify for COBRA, even when leaving voluntarily, but "ghosting" your employer *might* count as "for cause" and disqualify you for both COBRA and unemployment benefits.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
> You think that shit does not get around?
It's very easy for a young employee to think that the industry is just an endless field of hot-swappable engineers and developers. Especially in certain markets (SF, Seattle, etc.) I hear there are thousands of nearly-identical openings. Never forget that it's very possible for that list of thousands to go down to a couple hundred, right after a massive tech company dumps 50,000 engineers onto the street in one shot (HP/HPE/CSC is a perfect example, or the mass firings at Microsoft.)
People talk. The industry is smaller than you think. If you're in any sort of specialty that makes you less hot-swappable, the talent pool and list of employers gets smaller. Companies have no-hire lists and acting like a jerk either on your way in or out is a good way to get on them.
I don't think people forget this at all. If you are professional, you want to leave with a good impression with the company. For good references, good relations with your fellow employees who may be hiring managers in the future, and if things go south, there may be an other company to get hired again with.
The main reason you give two weeks notice is so that people have time for knowledge transfer and your co-workers can make arrangements to pick up your workload. Even if you and all of your coworkers hate your managers and company, if you ever actually did any work and then disappeared, your coworkers are going to be scrambling to pick up the pieces and cursing your name. If your intention is to screw over your coworkers there are probably better ways to do so because they're just going to blame everything on you after you disappeared anyway because its not like you'll be around to defend yourself.
The majority of the time it is in your best interest to play nice. Sadly, that isn't always reciprocated. One time I left a job I hated for a new opportunity with a big fortune 500. 9 months later I was laid off because my new employer was constantly playing musical chairs at the executive level so every month priorities would change and entire departments would get cut to the bone. I tried crawling back to my old job, but I guess my old boss was so offended when I quit that she never returned any of my calls.
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
There we go. Finally. Is this what we've come to? Doing the worst because you think someone might do that same to you. No wonder this society is in the shitter.
"But, but, they'd do it to me!". Oh please, grow up. If you want to be treated professionally, then be professional. If you don't get treated professionally, move on when the time is right, be professional, and never look back. Positive change doesn't come from acting first and playing tit for tat. It comes from doing what you know is right even when you might not expect to see a return.
What benefit does just walking out possibly have? Yeah, you might feel cool for a day or two, but you've burnt a bridge. Do you think the company cries itself to sleep at night now wondering where you are? So what are you left with? Only negatives, no positives.
I had a job where we had a voluntary salary reduction of 20% and got one day a week off for 6 months. In Canada, a company has to offer you a choice to accept such a cut and give you severance if you don't. If you don't have a job to go to you have no real choice but to accept the cut but immediately started looking for a new job. I waited till the end of the 6 months for my current company to communicate what they intended to do with the 20% cut. This time if they repeated the 20% offer I was taking the severance. The day the 6 month reduction finished came and went and the company didn't say anything. I wasn't going to say anything and weaken my position with respect to the severance. I wanted a written offer for the extension of the 20% reduction that I could refuse. In the end time ran out. I was starting the new job on the Monday and it was Friday afternoon when I quit.
. Oh please, grow up. If you want to be treated professionally, then be professional. If you don't get treated professionally, move on when the time is right, be professional, and never look back. Positive change doesn't come from acting first and playing tit for tat. It comes from doing what you know is right even when you might not expect to see a return. What benefit does just walking out possibly have? Yeah, you might feel cool for a day or two, but you've burnt a bridge.
That all works both ways. Now, I can't see myself ever doing this but...
Some companies are shitty. If they've already burned the bridge with you, flipping another match at is isn't going to make it any more burned.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Not really. Most states forbid previous employers from disclosing anything beyond, "Did X person work here?" and "Are they re-hirable?" Many companies try to get around that by asking for managerial references because the manager can then be counted as a personal reference that can disclose whatever they want. The last company I left actually straight up told me they wouldn't disclose anything to another employer just to avoid any possible liability from it, and I left on good terms with them. Basically, if you don't have any contacts you want to keep at the employer you are leaving, burn away if so inclined.
I personally haven't ever done it and don't see that situation ever arising for me, but who knows maybe some of these people were seriously slighted and wanted to teach their employer a lesson.
The companies deserve it.
In the 1944-1974 period, the split between capital and labor was 50:50 (you kept half of the profit from productivity gains from your work).
In the 1974-2018 period, the split between capital and labor was 90:10 (you get 10 cents of the extra dollar profit your employer "earned" from your work). Frequently that was less than increased costs of living for employees.
Ghost away!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I know someone who kept in contact with the CEO in a similar situation. It worked out great for them - they got like 2 months salary as a lump sum, decided to take a quick beach vacation to a beach, and came back to to the legal reformation complete with new solid investors and the same job for more money.
Your ad here. Ask me how!
No. A company has to give you a correct W2 by Jan 31st/Feb 1st or they face some serious penalties from the government.
Now, a valid error would probably be excused (transposition of digits, etc.) but a group of quitting employees all getting massive errors...
Your ad here. Ask me how!
If you clock in and clock out, you probably would be in the clear legally.
If you are not in such a position and the checks kept coming after you stopped showing up, I could imagine a company coming after the person for wages paid after services stopped being provided.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.