Company keeps delaying giving an offer to prospective employee, chews them out when they accept another offer: 'I had 5 clients lined up for you and now I have to go apologize to them. [..] You are a terrible person!'

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
May 30, 2025 10:00 AM EDT

Looking for a new job can be stressful business. You have to find time to write cover letters, update your resume, and follow leads straight into the ground. All the while, you're trying to pitch yourself, make yourself look good, and catch everyone's attention. It can be utterly exhausting. You get tired of constantly trying to sell yourself to everyone. You're tired of fielding emails and doubling back and following up. You wish you could just land one job that you'd like to keep for a while. That is until jobs start giving you offers, but they're not the offers you were expecting. 

Negotiation is a skill on its own, and not everyone has it. The most skilled negotiators play tricks on the mind and use all sorts of psychological techniques in order to get you on their side. But if you're not adept at these games, or refuse to play them, you might end up being played.

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    Cheezburger Image 10511318272
    via sarah b

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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

    So about 10 years ago, in my early 20s, I was working in a company that 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.
    via u/hegaT90

  • That's what happened to one employee who was trying their best to find a new job and kept coming up against a wall. And when they found two leads worth pursuing, one of them fumbled the bag in a major way. Read on for the story to see what happened.

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    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.
    via u/hegaT90
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    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 after that, I'll start working. Not much time for negotiation...weird... but I was young, and really needed work so I told them sure, I'll wait.
    via u/hegaT90
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    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.
    via u/hegaT90
  • 06
    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.
    via u/hegaT90
  • 07
    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.
    via u/hegaT90
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    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 e I got on the phone!! It was horrendous! "You а hole! 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!"
    via u/hegaT90
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    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.
    via u/hegaT90
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    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 blocked them and never turned back.
    via u/hegaT90
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    P 1139
    via sarah b

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    Commenters came in with their takes on the situation.

    typ... 6d ago Edited 5d 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 they treat people.
    via u/typsy_at_embassy
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    Lopsided-Photo-9... 6d 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!
    via u/Lopsided-Photo-9927
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    Embedded SoftEng · 6d 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!"
    via u/EmbeddedSoftEng
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    Aern 6d ago • Companies taking advantage of workers need for the ability to survive. A tale as old as time.
    via u/Aern
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    kawaeri • 6d ago Soo Japan huh. I'm there too. In late 2010, I decided I had enough of my full time job and didn't quit but was looking. Don't know how I end up in the interview can't remember. Think a friend recommended it. But it was
    via u/kawaeri
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    for what I thought was an international school as an aide that didn't need a teaching degree just relevant experience, turned out to be an ESL school. Found out in a group interview, where the founder of the school a African gentleman told his life story
    via u/kawaeri
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    of being adopted into his wife's family taking their name and starting this business and being "super successful". And how we could be like him! Then they took our passports to copy (to check if we could work in Japan) and went off and left us (like
    via u/kawaeri
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    8 of us) for about 20 minutes. One person really popped off and was pred it was a group interview. Learned a lot of the people were former ESL teachers that got screwed by a recent belly up company. The guy who popped off stormed out demanding his passport back. He was either a plant or the smartest person
    via u/kawaeri
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    there. I said ugh screw it, it's practice and stayed. They then interviewed us more, which really felt like a MLM pitch for some reason. Then separate interviews, where I was told it was teaching not an aide position which I did say I wasn't really qualified. for. I kept trying to end the
    via u/kawaeri
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    interview politely. Don't worry we'll teach you give you classes on it. Huh? During the one on one I stressed I had limited hour due to children and child care restrictions, that I currently had a job that was flexible, with benefits asked about hours and pay. Never got a response. They didn't answer one of my questions, so when they said goodbye I told them I don't think this job is for me.
    via u/kawaeri
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    Well a few months later I got a voicemail offering me the job. Huh? So I decided what the h I called back, no one answered so I left a message asking again, benefits, guaranteed hours, and salary. They didn't call back, and I figured I heard the last from them. Ohh well.
    via u/kawaeri
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    Forgot all about the strange weird job, then the earthquake happened (I live in Tokyo). Because of our child's young age and my anxiety due to the whole thing, and his worries my husband (Japanese) bought me and our daughter tickets to go to the US for us to stay with my family while he went to his parents house about three hours away from Tokyo.
    via u/kawaeri
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    Well when I came back about three weeks later, there was another voicemail from the same job. Offering me the opportunity to work for them. Again no info on hours pay or benefits. Yeah screw that.
    via u/kawaeri
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    Individual-Fail4709 6d 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
    via u/Individual-Fail4709
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    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.
    via u/Individual-Fail4709
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    Office_Worker808 · 5d ago . Should have laughed super hard and loud. If he stayed on the line for an extended period after that just start over on the laugh. The moment he starts talk just interrupt him with "omg say the offer again! How much was it?" And continue to laugh
    via u/Office_Worker808
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    Majestic_Plane_16... . 5d ago So they wouldn't give you the pay rate because they knew it was too low and wanted to see if you were desperate enough to show up.
    via u/Majestic_Plane_1656
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    devilish_rogue • 4d ago I would have hung up after the first bit of beratement and blocked them immediately, before waiting for a second call. Sorry, you want me to work for you, maybe you should've chosen your words more carefully. Bullet dodged.
    via u/devilish_rogue

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