Earlier this year, CBS News reported (here) that a survey indicates 40% of companies post fake jobs, often even conducting fake interviews, and 70% of hiring managers believe the practice is morally acceptable.
Why do they do it? After all it costs time, effort, and money to list a job and interview candidates. The Guardian listed some reasons here:
- Trick their employees into thinking their workload will be lightened by a new hire.
- Make their employees think they’re replaceable, so they’ll work harder for less money.
- Get the market to think their business is growing rapidly.
I’ll add another one: If you’re looking for a government job, the opening may be real, but the hiring manager plans to promote an existing employee or has a candidate in mind, and is only going through the motions of posting the position and interviewing applicants to comply with civil service laws.
Back in the days of lifetime employment, workers typically were loyal to their employer, and bosses often were loyal to the workers in return. Everyone had a stake in the company’s success, and they prospered together. Those days are long gone.
Many years ago, I read a story about a corporate raider who bought a company, then instituted layoffs. When a supervisor pointed out that a particular employee had spent 30 years with the company, the new boss peremptorily snapped, “He was paid, wasn’t he?” Yes, but part of the employment bargain was an implicit promise that as long as he did his job, he would have a job. Another aspect of this story is that workers aren’t objects to be discarded.
Today’s young workers understand that jobs are temporary, and they have to be career entrepreneurs. Loyalty isn’t expected or given. It’s a two-way street; workers job-hop, and employers also are disposable. That’s probably inevitable in a dynamic, fast-paced, ever-changing economy where companies come and go.
But dishonesty, last time I checked, is still immoral. Posting fake job listings to serve some devious purpose of the employer causes unwitting jobseekers to waste time, energy, and money on pursuing what seems like a real job, and suffer letdown when it doesn’t materialize. It’s an evil practice. The best thing you can say about it is that disappointed jobseekers are better off not working for an employer who’s a liar.