A Luxembourg HR officer whose work includes talent acquisition says that she is overwhelmed by the number of candidates she needs to ghost this week.
“It’s only Monday, and I’ve already got at least fifty applicants with whom I need to cut off communication despite having made them believe that we might be interested in hiring them,” said Solange Thorn.
Among the applicants Thorn needs to ghost are an IT systems engineer who had sent five references per Thorn’s own request, a marketing junior who was asked to send a portfolio of her best work, and a senior accountant who had been invited for an interview the previous week and was led to believe he was the top pick.
Although suddenly and inexplicably cutting off communication with candidates may sound easy, Thorn says it requires time and effort, especially if you want to maximize frustration, confusion, and disappointment.
“If you ghost them too early, they’ll just grumble, shrug, and move on,” she said. “You need to give them real hope. You need to make them believe that finally, a potential employer recognizes their experience and talent.”
“Then, you have to foster that hope and make them believe that if they just do what you ask – send copies of their diplomas, come for one last interview with yet another manager – that the job might be theirs.”
“You want these jobseekers to imagine their future with your company. You want them to joyfully announce to their spouses and parents that yes, things are looking up, and that after months of searching, they’ve finally got a solid prospect.”
“And then, just like that, you have to stop responding to them, mark their emails as spam, block them on LinkedIn, and make sure that they’re internally blacklisted.”
“It’s a job unto itself,” she added. “It’s going to be a long week.”
