You could now be publicly shamed by HR for not accepting a job offer Candidates who “ghost” future employers are being named and shamed on social media M Saraswathy @maamitalks Moneycontrolnews

Naveen Ravindran, a 36-year-old finance professional, was offered a job by a rival firm because of a reference of a former colleague’ he did not want to officially decline the role. Ravindran decided not to take any calls from the HR instead. This proved to be counter-productive when he was publicly tagged on a social media, asking for his response to the offer.

“Naming and shaming” is a common strategy used by banks to identify wilful defaulters and nudge them to pay their pending debts. However, this is now being extended to the human resource sector as well. Candidates who “ghost” future employers are being named and shamed.

Ghosting, a common term in the dating world, is used to refer to someone who suddenly stops all forms of communication with the partner. In the HR world, this refers to candidates who stop all forms of contact with the prospective employer.

In the “naming and shaming” practice, senior executives of the future employer find the social media profile of the said candidate and share it publicly, seeking clarification on platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter. The justification is that there is uncertainty if a candidate does not join since the day-to-day business is impacted.

A heated discussion has begun over a recent LinkedIn post where the COO of a company tagged a prospective employee who did not allegedly inform them about his decision of not joining. While one set of the audience said that it was inappropriate to tag a prospective employee since it might jeopardise his future career, the other felt that this was the right decision.

The post said that the particular individual accepted the offer and made them wait for two months. Further, he neither showed up for work nor informed them.

“I hope you treat your current and future organisations with more dignity and respect,” said the post. Following this, the candidate deleted his LinkedIn profile.

The message here is simple: if you do not want to accept a job offer, say no in the first instance. Do not keep a company hanging. While it is open to debate whether a company can publicly “shame” a candidate for not joining, it is a basic professional practice to politely decline an offer.

Some candidates either are reluctant to decline an offer or feel that they can get a higher pay by making the prospective employer wait. Sometimes, the latter trick works. But, on other occasions, this could lead to a candidate virtually getting blacklisted.

HR experts told Moneycontrol that candidates “ghosting” an employer is considered offensive and that they could be put on a blacklist, jeopardising any future chances of getting employed in that particular company or within allied firms.

There could be genuine reasons why a candidate has not responded to a job offer – family emergency or the fact that they are in two-minds about the offer. However, even in such a situation, sending a formal email asking for more time is essential.

Tagging a candidate on social media could be viewed as a vendetta by many. But, considering the dearth of good talent and high costs of hiring, it is better for candidates to be safe than sorry.