A recruiter with six years of experience took to Reddit to explain why hiring managers ghost candidates. The confession was blunt: when the process drags on — a hiring manager takes two weeks to decide, candidates accept other offers in the meantime — recruiters become "embarrassed" and "just freeze." So they say nothing. Not a rejection. Not an update. Just silence.
Reddit did not accept the apology. "Not sending a rejection because you are embarrassed? Get over it," one commenter wrote. Another noted that if candidates treated recruiters the same way, they would be blacklisted instantly. The post has since gone viral as a Rorschach test: some saw vulnerability, most saw institutionalised disrespect.