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How should an employer respond to a candidate, when the candidate has rejected an offer? What are the possible ways to respond?

If company A does not respond at all, is it considered rude?

The goal of this question is to identify the ways an employer may respond in general. And identify good ways to respond and bad ways to respond. Ideally some argumentation or reasoning could be provided for each type of employer response.

Spyros K
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    Welcome to The Workplace, Spyros K. What problem are you trying to solve? Chatty, open-ended questions tend to not work out so well on our site, since almost every answer will be correct and we can't as easily vote on them to rank the best answers. Instead, ask questions about a real, actual problem you're facing, which includes plenty of details so answers are more targeted. For more details, please see [ask] and [about]. – Lilienthal Apr 24 '20 at 14:24
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    "Thank you for letting us know. We wish you the best in your future endeavours." - it shows appreciation of getting an actual response by the candidate (rather than being ghosted, the latter being unfortunately a clear possibility) and leaves on a goodwill note. Which is the main point of good etiquette. – Captain Emacs Apr 25 '20 at 15:21
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    As-written this really read more to me like asking for good sample phrases for a very common message. Usually those aren't too useful because there's no substance to the answer: the approach to take is clear and you can list any number of potential examples. A different more suitable question would be "We'd like to ask candidates what made them reject an offer?". Good answers will include example phrases as well but there is more substance there. Actually, your question could have been reworded to be more in-line (mhoran's answer has substance), I guess the wording attracted down votes. – Lilienthal Apr 25 '20 at 16:13
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    All of which is to say that there is a general question here (as answered by mhoran) but there might have been a more specific question you had, hence my comment. The "motivation behind it" you mention still makes it a bit unclear to me from what perspective you're approaching this. – Lilienthal Apr 25 '20 at 16:14

4 Answers4

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They have several options:

  1. They could respond in a angry way. And gain nothing from it.

  2. They could respond in a polite way, thanking the candidate, expressing good luck, and reminding them they can apply for other positions now and in the future.

  3. They could respond as above but ask for information regarding why. It can help the employer but it might not get a response.

  4. They can decide not to respond.

Option 2 or 3 would be nice. Often it seems to be number 4, and vary rarely it is option 1.

The issue with number 4 is that it can leave some people wondering if the rejection notice was not received. It can been seen as rude by some. I just don't worry about it if they don't respond.

mhoran_psprep
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I have recieved all kinds of responses. Notable ones are:

Recruiter takes it personally.

Recruiter might come back with a counter offer.

Recruiter cannot accept the truth that I could get an offer somewhere else.

Recruiter wants me to meet the big shots of the company to get an insight of the company.

Recruiter could go bombastic.

Recruiter never responds.

Recruiter can send best wishes.

A gamut of responses, you see.

Don't worry about it. Not worth the time.

WonderWoman
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Exactly: the company "made you a business offer, offering to buy your professional services," and, for whatever reason, you declined to sell. They simply move on to candidate #2. No harm, no foul.

Mike Robinson
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I think you might be worried about nothing.

Let's put the shoe on the other foot. You're trying to find a baker to make your wedding cake. You've sent a few emails back and forth with 'ABC Pastries' but you eventually decide to go with someone else. You send them an email that says, "Sorry, but I've decided we're going to have XYZ Bakery handle the cake."

... do you honestly care whether ABC Pastries sends you a reply? From your perspective, the matter is done. You've made a decision and notified the appropriate party. Sure, ABC might send a 'thanks for your consideration' email, but... it's not something that has a whole lot of meaning to you at that point. All you'd realistically care about is whether ABC is going to send you some piece of information that would make you change their mind.

So Candidate K declined your offer - from their perspective, the matter's settled. Unless you're going to provide something to change their mind, there's not really anything they need from you. Sure, go ahead and send a 'Thanks for your consideration' or such, but... it's not going to matter all that much from their side.

Kevin
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