Employees Are Ghosting At Work: How Should Companies Handle No-Shows?

Today’s world is more connected than ever before. Never has it been so easy to get a hold of someone on a moment’s notice, anywhere around the world. Still, employers are finding that this generation can be hard to get in front of, due to ghosting.

Ghosting refers to practices of disappearing, and this magic trick is not so magical when it happens to employers. Increasingly, job candidates either do not show up for interviews or do not show up for their first day after being hired, sometimes after jumping through multiple hoops to secure an offer. Not only do these employees not show up: they do not call, text, Facebook, or SnapChat—they, in essence, disappear.

According to Amanda Bradford, CEO and founder of The League, a dating app, the habit well-established in the dating world is now happening in the job market. She said that it has, “almost become a new vocabulary” in which “no response is a response,” especially among younger employees. It is not just happening pre-employment, either. Oftentimes, young employees are leaving work one day and never returning, never to be heard from again.

Tom Cao, successful florist and owner of Flowerama of Plano, offered some insight into this growing problem. Cao employs a high percentage of Millennials, and in his experience, this occurs when the employees, “are not working out, and they know it, and I know it, and then they just do not show up.”

He sees a real difference in this generation and finds that, even though he has an excellent staff overall, motivation can be a problem at times with younger workers.

When ghosting occurs, according to Cao, he “has spoken to them consistently [about their low performance], and they think they are doing well, and when shown the reality, they do not know how to manage it, so they shut down instead.”

The challenges created by a sudden hole in his schedule are never devastating to his business, because everyone pulls together and makes it work. However, it is still a frustrating and disheartening struggle for him and other small business owners, and one that seems avoidable.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

mentorship
WAVIT’s Mentorship Program: Cyndie Nelson on Building Careers Through Guidance
July 19, 2025

The AV industry, like many others in tech, often thrives on innovation—but it’s mentorship that sustains it. Behind every successful professional is often a mentor who provided guidance, shared hard-earned lessons, and opened doors that might have otherwise stayed shut. Programs like WAVIT (Women in AV/IT) bring this spirit of mentorship into focus by intentionally…

Read More
mentorship
Empowering Innovation: Kim Porter’s Role in the WAVIT Mentorship Program
July 19, 2025

In an industry where innovation often hinges on experience, mentorship is the bridge that connects the wisdom of the past with the promise of the future. Engineering, especially in the mechanical domain, is traditionally seen as a discipline of precision, but its culture is just as vital as its calculations. That’s why programs like WAVIT’s…

Read More
mentorship
Passion, Power, and the Mentorship Paradigm Shift in Tech
July 19, 2025

In today’s rapidly evolving tech world, mentorship has emerged as more than a professional development tool—it’s a powerful human connection that fosters resilience, purpose, and authenticity. Particularly for women in engineering and STEM, mentorship isn’t just about career guidance; it’s a lifeline to navigating environments where their voices may still fight to be heard. While…

Read More
AV
Lessons in Leadership: Mitek’s Cyndie Nelson on the Power of Mentoring Women in AV Technology
July 19, 2025

Mentorship has long been considered a cornerstone of professional development, but in the fast-evolving world of AV technology and sales, its value has never been more evident. The unspoken nuances of tradecraft—those bits of wisdom not found in textbooks—are often only accessible through the lived experience of mentors. Particularly for women in traditionally male-dominated industries,…

Read More