'Ghost jobs' are on the rise – and so are calls to ban them

Post by jamesnorden » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 12:45 PM UTC

zwnow wrote: post #66

dandare wrote: post #58

I am not sure if more regulation is a solution, but the lack of respect for job seekers is a real problem. And not just with ghost jobs. My recent experience as a job seeker was harrowing - even with large, proud companies. I would pass multiple rounds of interviews with senior/director-level interviewers only to never hear back from the company - even after a direct request for an update or feedback. Just total igno…

I wonder why people still apply to FAANG companies, there is nothing to be won by working for them. Your work has zero impact, you're actively paid to enshittify stuff over making it better, you have horrible bureaucracy within the company, they lay off thousands of people per year so your job never really is secure, all of FAANG is ethically corrupt beyond means. I'd never hire a FAANG employee to be honest, while w…

Post by danaris » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:05 PM UTC

terminalshort wrote: post #145

moralestapia wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your time might be worthless but mine isn't.

Yeah, you go ahead and sue someone for the few minutes of your time it took to send in a application for a fake job. Then you'll really see what wasting time looks like.

Post by Nextgrid » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:12 PM UTC

pharrington wrote: post #142

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In most other situations related to money or contracts, it would be a criminal offense punishable by prison time What are you thinking of? In most cases, that falls firmly under the category of bullshitting. Annoying. Unprofessional. Dishonest. But rarely criminal. What makes this possibly illegal (though I'm still unsure if it's crimial) is that it's specifically around employer-employee relations.

Fraud is very illegal.

Post by josephd79 » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:13 PM UTC

cmiles8 wrote: post #144

In the US a lot of these are pseudo postings for immigration applications. They are technically posting the job, but in pt 3 for on page 72 of a random newspaper in a hope that nobody sees it and applies so they can say “we couldn’t find anyone so we need a visa/green card.” That’s starting to get cracked down on, but it’s been a mess and a sham for a while.

Post by jagoff » Thu, Dec 18, 2025, 1:18 PM UTC

Dayshine wrote: post #158

YmiYugy wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems analogous to the following. A company asks users to fill out an online survey in exchange for participation in some raffle, except the company never pays out any prize. As with the job application there was never a guaranteed reward, but it's still easy to see the damage. The company induced to you to provide them with an economically valuable asset (filled out survey/application) for which you expected a…

Except a job offer is generally non binding, so they could interview you, offer the job, then withdraw it. So never being offered a job because it doesn't exist doesn't lose you anything.