Candidate gets berated for not showing up to "their" new job, even though they never even accepted or received a formal offer for that job: 'We still hadn't discussed my salary'

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Brad Dickson • Managing Editor
May 23, 2025 12:00 PM EDT

It's pretty normal to receive some flak or negative feedback from a job that you failed to show up for. But you'll probably never expect to get that from a job that you don't actually have. There are a whole lot of things that can go sideways in the hiring process and red flags you might ignore in your blind pursuit of a new job, but it's important to stop and pause so that you don't get caught out by situations like this.

The worst hiring scenario I've ever personally dealt with was when I applied to a local branch of the supplier of the company I was working for. Before the third and final round of interviews the hiring manager asked me to tell the CEO/owner of the company I worked for that I was applying for the role, which didn't actually make sense given the fact that I didn't have the job yet since it was still myself and another candidate in the running.

I foolishly obliged and told the CEO of the company, jeopardizing my current job, and then once the final round of interviews had finished, I didn't get the job anyway, and they didn't even bother to notify me that I hadn't gotten it. The penny didn't drop till long after that; this had been a ruse to get me to withdraw my application so that he could hire his preferred candidate. A lesson learned the hard way. 

Anyways, the point is that this is a massive red flag that I ignored that told me I probably didn't want to work for this chap anyway, just like it was in this situation where this hiring manager was surely trying to force the candidate into a disadvantageous position so that they could take advantage of them.

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  • 01

    "Got berated for not showing up to work, even though I haven received or signed an offer..."

    Just a story I wanna get out of my head. Maybe not appropriate for this sub. It's been almost 10 years since this happened but it still bugs me. So about 10 years ago, in my early 20s, company that I was working in a promised me a great sounding career path, but didn't follow through. I didn't want to waste any time so after about 1 year, I decided to start job hunting, before handing in my 2 weeks notice.
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  • 02
    CHERRY DECK CHERRY
    via Cherrydeck

    The image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • 03
    I directly applied to a rival company, Company A, in the exact same industry. I heard good things about them, so why not? I also got contacted by a recruiter about Company B. This one was a big company in a completely different industry. I had nothing to lose, so I decided to try. Fast forward a month or so, Company A has decided to hire me. The strange thing though, was that we still hadn't discussed my salary. They told me that they'll send me an official offer in about 2 weeks, and 2 weeks af
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  • 04
    2 weeks later, no offer. I called them, and they just told me, "Sorry, please wait 1 more week". 1 week later, still no offer. I called them. again. And I told them firmly that if there's no offer, I'm not turning up. They apologized and said they'll get in touch.
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  • 05
    While this was happening, I was going through interviews with company B. They had hiring managers and team leads come in from overseas, so the process took a while. And after 5 rounds of interviews, they said they would like to hire me, discussed salaries, and I had a great offer on the table. This was on Wednesday. And the start date for Company A was the Monday of the following week.
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  • 06
    So I signed and sent the offer for Company B, and due to timezone delays, and going through a recruiter, they confirmed everything on Friday morning. So, I called Company A. A different hiring manager picked up the phone. I told her that because Company A hasn't sent me an offer, I have accepted an offer from another company, and that I will not be showing up on Monday. She said, "Oh okay. That's too bad". And hung up the phone. Oh... that was easy.
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  • 07
    But this is where it gets interesting. At about 5PM I get a call from the hiring manager that was in charge of hiring me. And oh my god... the amount of ab el got on the phone!! It was horrendous! "You ah le! You f ed me right up haven't you? I had 5 clients lined up for you and now I have to go apologize to them. How could you do that? You are a terrible person! A horrible human!"
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  • 08
    It caught me by surprise so I said, "I'm sorry, but you haven't given me an offer, I didn't know how much I was getting paid, I haven't accepted anything from you guys so how am I supposed to trust you?" And then he goes on to just berate me over and over, I just stayed silent until he calmed down. I asked, "So, if I turned up, how much am I getting paid?" And oh my god, the offer was so low, it was insulting. I just scoffed and hung up the phone. I had about 5 missed calls after that so I block
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  • 09
    typsy_at_embassy • 12h ago Sounds like they wanted you to quit on their word, then have to accept the low offer because you had no other job if you didn't. On another note, the moment HR is berating me is the moment I hang up and make sure Glassdoor is familiar with how the treat people.
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  • 10
    Lopsided-Photo-9927 12h ago • That is too freaking hilarious! Thank you for sharing. I needed a smile, today! I think I would have very much liked to be a fly on the wall after that conversation. The guy had ZERO power, but was acting as though he had it all. How weird. No wonder it lives in your head. It's a cautionary tale about idiot managers. LOL!
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  • 11
    Embedded SoftEng 10h ago • "I had 5 clients lined up for you to work for for a pittance, but it's such a pittance that I was never going to write up an official offer letter to send you before hand because you would have refused weeks ago instead of being here, where I could pressure you to accept the pittance and get to work. How dare you f over me? It is I who was supposed to f over you!"
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  • 12
    Aern ⚫ 11h ago Companies taking advantage of workers need for the ability to survive. A tale as old as time.
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  • 13
    Individual-Fail4709 3h ago • I swear that the recruiting process has not improved, if anything over the past 30 years it has gotten so bad that I have no idea how people even get hired without a friend or relative in the company. Many years ago, before IOT, I had been working for a giant corporation for six months when I received a letter from HR telling me that they didn't have a position for me at this time. Just plain stupidity. My boss thought it was amusing, I thought it was pathetic.
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  • 14
    MOTIVATE_ME_23 57m ago I bet he called you to yank your chain. He knows he wasn't anywhere close to making an offer, and you dodged a nuclear strike. Not your fault at all. If they do, accept their offer, then ghost them. Two can play.
    via hegaT90

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workplace discussion employment issues antiwork workplace-stories jobs employee employment-discussion job work employees overworked-employees workplace Horrible Bosses employment in the workplace
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