Current Events > Gen Z feels empowered by getting hired and never showing up for work

(+) Yeah! (+)

Ghosting isnt just for dating anymore. Now Gen Z are treating their would-be employers like bad dates and not showing up for job interviews or their first day on the job without as much as a phone call.

Employment website Indeed surveyed 1,500 businesses and 1,500 working people in the U.K. and found that job ghosting is rife, with 75% of workers saying theyve ignored a prospective employer in the past year.

But the youngest generation of workers are by far the worst offenders.

A whopping 93% of Gen Zers told the global recruitment platform that theyve flaked out of an interview.

Worse still, a staggering 87% managed to charm their way through interviews, secure the job, and sign the contract, only to leave their new boss stranded on the very first day.

Their reason for doing so? According to the survey, it makes them feel in charge of their career.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gen-z-treating-employers-bad-121633798.html

Skipping an interview is one thing, but putting all that effort into getting the job all so you can put no effort into the job seems like time that could better be spent playing videogames.

nice.

To be fair employers ignore applicants all the time so I have a hard time caring.

McSame_as_Bush posted...

Their reason for doing so? According to the survey, it makes them feel in charge of their career.

"I intentionally fuck up job opportunities because it makes me feel in charge" is the kind of logic cutters use. "I self-harm because it makes me feel good" and all that.

good. this is how workplaces shamelessly treat employees, why shouldn't potential employees shamelessly return the favor?

mix in the fact that most unskilled labor nowadays is just objectively a bad deal for the potential employee and yeah, fuck em

Good.

I mean I get it but in the end it hurts no one but themselves.

87%? I don't believe this for a second.

UnholyMudcrab posted...

I don't believe this for a second.

but it is an article on yahoo so it must be true

This happens a lot at my work

Employers view applicants as just functioning meatsacks with eyes filling positions anyway so it was a matter of time till this happened.

inb4cryingbootlickers

This is just like all those articles about Millennials killing XYZ. This isnt Gen Z deciding to be rude to employers in a vacuum to get a kick out of it, this is a response by the wide public to corporate hiring practices that dont treat applicants like human beings.

I got hired for my job in November, and I STILL get emails from random companies finally letting me know that I was rejected. Most recent one I got was for an application I filled out last May. And even those are just the subset of companies that have a process for letting you know you were rejected. The majority just ghost you.

Feels like something is missing. You put in the work to get the job, and then... don't? Like why, who is paying for this to happen

spanky1 posted...

To be fair employers ignore applicants all the time so I have a hard time caring.

I don't care about the employers, I'm just amused by the effort put into punking them.

Guide posted...

Feels like something is missing. You put in the work to get the job, and then... don't? Like why, who is paying for this to happen

To be completely fair, what's actually likely to be happening is they're applying for a bunch of jobs at once and then either ghosting all the ones they got that were back-up options or using their "new salary" as leverage in a different interview.

s0nicfan posted...

"I intentionally fuck up job opportunities because it makes me feel in charge" is the kind of logic cutters use. "I self-harm because it makes me feel good" and all that.

Those same companies would lay them off or fire them then instant it came time to drive up stock values. Fuck em.

There is a general disconnect between employers and employees now, and it's not going to go away until employers try to build bridges and mend fences. They've spent decades shitting on their workers and now workers have realized they can do it back and companies don't like it. Well, boo fucking hoo.

Could also be bad data. Its a subset of 1500 UK workers that identify as Gen Z and is willing to answer an Indeed survey. Besides self selection bias, how was the poll served and therefore how many people mindlessly clicked the last circle on every question?

shockthemonkey posted...

I assume this is people who line up multiple interviews and jobs then go with the best one to actually work at.

This right here.

I did this unintentionally when I was younger. My parents were like; "get a job." So I went through the whole process of getting a job and like going through the first day orientation. But when it was time for my first actual day of work I just felt such an overwhelming feeling of dread. These were by no means good jobs. And the little time I already spent there made the places just seem so bleak to work at.

So, I would call them up right before my first shift started and was like; "I got a better job offer, bye." I went through this cycle like 5-6 times before I eventually went to college and got a good job.

Also to qualify for unemployment in most states you have to apply for at least two jobs a week. But the issue I had was I wasnt going to settle for any job that came my way so I was purposely applying to jobs I didnt want to satisfy the conditions but either not following up with phone calls or tanking/not showing up for the interview if it got that far.

s0nicfan posted...

To be completely fair, what's actually likely to be happening is they're applying for a bunch of jobs at once and then either ghosting all the ones they got that were back-up options or using their "new salary" as leverage in a different interview.

That makes sense, and I'm a little bit embarrassed I didn't think of it.

s0nicfan posted...

To be completely fair, what's actually likely to be happening is they're applying for a bunch of jobs at once and then either ghosting all the ones they got that were back-up options or using their "new salary" as leverage in a different interview.

This seems like a fair bit of karma when it's probably down to this.

Companies that are quicker on the ball get the interview and the ones that take their time to get back to you get ghosted. Taste of their own medicine.

ScazarMeltex posted...

Those same companies would lay them off or fire them then instant it came time to drive up stock values. Fuck em.

There is a general disconnect between employers and employees now, and it's not going to go away until employers try to build bridges and mend fences. They've spent decades shitting on their workers and now workers have realized they can do it back and companies don't like it. Well, boo fucking hoo.

Problem is, for every "ghoster" there's 10 people behind them willing to take the job.

So them "sticking it to the man" just adds one more phone call or email to the recruiting department.

This just sounds like trolling, and the media took it seriously.

nocturnal_traveler posted...

This just sounds like trolling, and the media took it seriously.

Yeah, it seems designed to give boomers confirmation bias.

McSame_as_Bush posted...

Skipping an interview is one thing, but putting all that effort into getting the job all so you can put no effort into the job seems like time that could better be spent playing videogames.

This.

I get being too lazy to do a job. I don't get going through all this effort just to be too lazy to do a job.

Doe posted...

This is just like all those articles about Millennials killing XYZ. This isnt Gen Z deciding to be rude to employers in a vacuum to get a kick out of it, this is a response by the wide public to corporate hiring practices that dont treat applicants like human beings.

I got hired for my job in November, and I STILL get emails from random companies finally letting me know that I was rejected. Most recent one I got was for an application I filled out last May. And even those are just the subset of companies that have a process for letting you know you were rejected. The majority just ghost you.

I've had the same treatment applying for government/public sector jobs. Going in for multiple tests, being interviewed and then just ghosted after it all, and then once so far as to be called back and told I was going to be hired and then ghosted, so I had to call them like a week later and was told my application had passed their expiration date so they couldn't hire me after all. So it's definitely not just limited to the 'corporate' environment but rather employment in general.

s0nicfan posted...

"I intentionally fuck up job opportunities because it makes me feel in charge" is the kind of logic cutters use. "I self-harm because it makes me feel good" and all that.

Holy fuck. How do you still have this account.

I once thought "show up and do what needs doing" was an unrealistically low bar. Thanks internet for illustrating that I should set the bar lower

This is very likely BS. Most businesses themselves arent unused to no shows oftentimes so they have little reason to believe they no showed for a myriad of other reasons.

That and depending on the job they likely had no shortage of applicants anyways.

took my new job 3 months to call me back. glad they did too.

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The article is definitely burying the lead. There's a lot of additional context beyond what was quoted in the first post. Here's some segments from deeper in the article:

Indeed found that the cost-of-living crisis has exuberated ghosting, with around 40% of those surveyed admitting that they're more likely to ghost if they find a job offering better pay or a cheaper commute.

It also (indrectly) calls out applicants getting lowballed on pay offers as a reason for ghosting:

Its clear that the financial offer is the biggest carrot for employers trying to attract talent, with pay, benefits and other factors that support the rise in cost-of-living likely to prevent a jobseeker from ghosting, concluded Indeeds U.K. head of talent intelligence, Danny Stacy.
Of course, not all businesses will be in the position to increase their offer, but being transparent about the financial package from the outset is likely to prevent jobseekers from ghosting further along the hiring process.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Now I'm wondering if the TC did given how this whole topic is framed.

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Yeah a lot of you came in here with such strong knee jerk reactions instead of considering it being people weighing options then going in for the good ones lol

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If you know anything about a working process or hiring, you understand how this goes though. It's reactionary at least, & disingenuous at best to just think people are trolling because they can. Like many said, you apply to probably 5+ places in a months time to find somewhere to work. You compare benefits & pay, then show up the most for the best offer. You won't have time to go back & forth with the low ball offers, you just move on & show up where is best.

I remember I applied to whole foods before my current job, I got an email months later about not being good enough lol. Then another year later, another email came in telling me that positions were available, like fuck corporations for doing this shit. They deserve much worse, even if in this instance it's just apparent that people are weighing their options

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

??? So we're not talking about gen z specifically, just about the article negatively framing the work practices of Gen Z, you realize that's contradictory don't you?

Anyways regardless of you not actively reading or comprehending what I wrote, people's responses were still reactionary because people don't do their own reading into these conversations on their own time. We've seen these same conversations about millennials & now it's Gen Z's turn to be slandered, we have different work ethics & higher standards than corporations or business owners like, so they have large outlets like Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes etc all doing deceptive framing of us all the time. People still fall for it every time, but at least a few people in here realize they just fell for the trap because of bad framing, that's all

TonyKojima posted...

I mean I get it but in the end it hurts no one but themselves.

It doesn't even hurt themselves.

Been seeing a lot these anti gen z articles and it feels a lot like boomers trying to make millennials like me hate boomers the way boomers hate us.

Well they can fuck off with that.

Okay.

Probably way overblown story.