The Rise of "Professional Ghosting" in Hiring

 

A growing number of professionals are reporting a similar experience:

• Multiple interview rounds 
• Executive panels 
• Strategic presentations 
• Weeks of silence 
• Or a generic rejection email after significant engagement 

At the finalist level, this is no longer an isolated occurrence. It is becoming a pattern.

The question is not whether hiring is competitive: it is.
The question is what hiring behavior reveals about organizational leadership.

What’s Driving This?

1. Overengineered Hiring Processes 
Search committees, layered approvals, compliance reviews, executive sign-offs. When too many stakeholders are involved, communication ownership becomes unclear.

2. Risk Aversion & Decision Paralysis 
Budget uncertainty, shifting priorities, internal candidate considerations. Silence often reflects internal hesitation more than intentional disregard.

3. Automation Culture 
Applicant Tracking Systems streamline workflow, but they also standardize rejection messaging. At advanced stages, templated responses can unintentionally diminish professional engagement.

4. Volume of Qualified Talent 
Deep candidate pools for leadership roles create bandwidth challenges. However, volume should not eliminate professional closure.

Why It Matters

For advanced-stage candidates, the hiring process often includes:
• Meaningful preparation 
• Strategic thinking 
• Intellectual contribution 
• Reputational exposure 

When communication disappears late in the process, it signals something about:
• Internal coordination 
• Decision-making clarity 
• Communication norms 
• Leadership culture 

Hiring is not merely operational. It is a visible expression of organizational values.

A Leadership Opportunity

Organizations committed to strong talent pipelines might consider:
• Assigning a clear communication owner per search 
• Establishing decision-to-notification timelines 
• Providing brief but respectful closure for finalists 
• Viewing candidate experience as a leadership KPI 

Professionalism in hiring is not about optics. It is about consistency between stated values and lived practice.

In competitive markets, strong candidates evaluate organizations as much as organizations evaluate candidates.

The hiring process is often the first true test of culture.

What do you believe is the appropriate standard of communication for finalist candidates in today’s hiring environment?

Things to think about!

Dr Flavius A B Akerele III

The ETeam

Good Communication: A Lost Art?

 

With so many modes of communication available today, reaching out to someone has never been easier, or so it would seem. Text, email, WhatsApp, social media DMs… and yet, these very options often become excuses for not connecting at all. “You didn’t get my message? Oh, I sent it on WhatsApp.” Somewhere along the way, the simple phone call seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur.

Since the COVID shutdowns, I’ve felt that something essential has been lost in how we communicate, and perhaps more importantly, in how we relate to one another. The absence of physical presence and human touch may have contributed to a growing atmosphere of impatience and discourtesy. We’ve seen the effects play out vividly in service and retail industries, where employees were leaving jobs mid-shift after being verbally abused. And that’s before even touching on the state of political discourse.

So how do we fix this? How do we rebuild meaningful, respectful connections?

I don’t pretend to have the answer, but I do think it’s a conversation worth having. Real change may begin with something simple: acknowledging that the problem exists and choosing to be more intentional and mindful in how we communicate in our own lives.

Something to think about.

Dr Flavius Akerele III

The ETeam

#2026willbebetter

 

AI is just another tool

 

Every so often, the world becomes frantic about a “new” technology that is going “change everything” or replace entire industries.

Recently, I uploaded a professional photo to my LinkedIn profile, and when I say professional, I mean just that. I did use AI, but not to enhance my appearance or make me look younger, change my complexion, or alter who I am. I simply wanted a clean, polished headshot style that, not too long ago, we would have paid a photographer good money to produce. The reality is, I still had to use a real photo of myself, gray beard, and all. AI simply helped create the right background and presentation, and it cost me nothing.

It was interesting some of the comments I got when I posted it; most were positive, some were playful teasing, however, some bothered me a little because the first thing they said was “AI!” in a derogatory manner, and I was not even hiding the fact I used AI.

Why the vehemence? It is just a tool!

It reminds me when we started using calculators in school and teachers (me included) did not like that, but then they figured out that calculators do not solve everything you still had to learn the formulas. “Garbage in garbage out” we used to say because you still had to use your mind.

AI works the same way. It can enhance the work that you do, but cannot replace your creativity, your judgement, your passion, and your style. The real conversation should be about how we use the tool responsibly and effectively, not whether we use it at all. That debate is already over. It is here!

AI is just a tool, and we should not be afraid to use it, we should embrace it and make sure it gets used to make life better (not necessarily easier, because easy isn’t always better).

What are your thoughts on AI and the use of it in the workplace?

Dr Flavius Akerele III

The ETeam

One step away from disaster

 

The job market today is unstable in ways that are difficult to capture with statistics. Headline unemployment rates look reassuring, but they ignore two critical groups: those who have stopped looking after months or years of failed searches, and those who are highly qualified yet continually overlooked due to subjective, opaque hiring practices. The reality that people are living does not match the numbers we are being shown.

Many Americans are already living paycheck to paycheck, so it doesn’t take much to tip a stable life into crisis. Picture this scene, because versions of this story happen every day.

You and your spouse both work. The bills are paid, your children are in college, and although nothing is extravagant, life is steady. Then, without warning, one of you loses a job. Suddenly your two-income household becomes one-income overnight, and that one income isn’t enough to sustain where you live. Unemployment benefits help, but only briefly; they were designed as a temporary patch, not a real safety net.

Before you’ve recovered, a medical emergency hits. Now the spouse who still had a job can’t work either. The home you’ve rented for a decade is being sold, and you are given 60 days to move. Even if you scrape together the money for first month’s rent and a deposit, you can’t qualify without the “three-times-the-rent” income requirement. Your credit takes a hit from months of instability. And within six months, despite doing everything “right,” your family finds itself on the brink of homelessness: in the richest country in the world.

This is not hypothetical. This is the lived experience of thousands of working families. Too many people are one step away from disaster, and we rarely acknowledge how fragile the system really is.

So, the question becomes: How do we build a society where one setback doesn’t destroy an entire household? Until we answer that, millions will continue balancing on the edge with no margin for error.

Thoughts?

Dr Flavius Akerele III

The ETeam

Does this still exist in the true form?

 

Altruism: “is the principle of unselfish concern for the welfare of others, involving behaviors that benefit others at some cost to oneself, without expecting a reward”

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/altruism

 

Key aspects of altruism

• Selfless concern: defined by a focus on the well-being of others, prioritizing their needs over one's own personal interests or safety. 
• Lack of reward: actions motivated are performed without the expectation of any personal gain, such as money, praise, or societal pressure. 
• Cost to self: the act of helping others may involve a personal cost, whether it's a small sacrifice of time or a greater sacrifice. 
• Empathy and emotions: often driven by emotions like empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. 
• Philosophical doctrine: in philosophy, it can also refer to the ethical doctrine that the greatest good is produced by actions that benefit others. 

I ask this question as I watch people post about there “charitable” activities on social media to gather followers, as I  watch mega church pastors fly around the country in their private jets, as I see the catholic church (that I a part of) continue to pay out money for past and current abuses, and as I see politicians claim they are doing things to help me as they hurt me. I could go on, but do you see my point?

Altruism is more than a word, it is a true belief, and like many other things, I worry that the true meaning has disappeared.

Dr Flavius Akerele III

The ETeam

Resiliency

 

Resiliency, a term that is used in multiple ways within numerous circumstances, the meaning can be subjective, and yet we must strive to achieve this state in today’s world.

Some core aspects of resiliency are probably:

• ·       the ability to keep moving forward when you feel you no longer can,
• ·       to maintain your dignity in the face of indignity,
• ·       and to continue to be civil in the face of incivility.

Easier said than done sometimes but never give up!

Dr Flavius Akerele III

The ETeam

 

#resilient #dignity #courtesy #yougotthis #nevergiveup