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A company whose offer I accepted is having a major technical issue with their online onboarding application which is preventing me from completely signing off on each of the tasks required. There is a complete lack of concern or ownership in getting it resolved which is wasting my precious time. Meanwhile I have open offers from other companies who were not my first choice but likely will not have technical issues along the way; each offer expiring at various times.

Canceling an already accepted offer is generally seen as bad and would harm one's reputation; however would this particular scenario be validation for doing so without repercussions?

Appulus
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noodles
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    perhaps their complete lack of concern is because they know your offer won't be withdrawn if you don't get the required tasks done according to the original schedule. Why not ask whoever signed your offer letter if your start date is affected by these onboarding issues. If it's not, you have nothing to worry about and can finish up the paperwork in the first few days or weeks of work. If it is, well you've started a conversation, haven't you? – Kate Gregory Jul 08 '15 at 18:52
  • Related - http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/11219/how-to-decline-an-already-accepted-offer-professionally-and-politely-if-i-want – David K Jul 08 '15 at 19:11
  • Do you have an agreed start date lined up? – Myles Jul 09 '15 at 22:21
  • Also related: http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/40529/is-it-ok-to-cancel-a-signed-employment-contract-before-starting –  Jul 10 '15 at 13:45

3 Answers3

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Anytime you cancel there are repercussions.

You are willing to throw away a job based on a technical glitch. If you tell them the reason they may pass your concerns on to management, but it is either a short term problem, or a long term problem that they have been ignoring. I would not have any expectation that your situation is the straw that breaks the camels back, thus spurring IT to resolve the issue.

What will be the repercussions? For a period of time you will not be likely to get a job there. Will this hurt you? No way to know. It depends on what glitch causes you to abandon the next company. Because there is no master database of job offers that all companies can see, it is unlikely that it will hurt your chances with other companies.

They may also look at your quick rejection of the company as a sign that they dodged a bullet. Your lack of patience (their view) was a sign you would have run into issues with their bureaucracy.

Keep in mind that in the future you will not be able to tell this story as part if the chit chat during an interview because it will not paint you in a positive light.

mhoran_psprep
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    makes sense, i'll add though that any company feeling that a candidate shows a lack of patience in a situation like this then it is the employee who actually dodges the bullet. time is valuable on both sides. not everyone has a current job and can wait weeks because of technical issues especially when other hard earned offers are coming your way while your "ethically" stuck waiting. – noodles Jul 08 '15 at 21:13
  • I'd say it's more than a "technical glitch". Clearly the company wants @noodles to work for them, but based upon his(?) account of events, they're not terribly responsive with regard to making it happen. How long do you propose that someone wait in this situation? If the company can't get it fixed, they need to produce a workaround so that the onboarding process can continue. – alroc Jul 09 '15 at 20:57
  • My son ran into a similar issue. he had to electronically add his initials to some documents as part of the on boarding process for an intern position with a company with annual sales of almost $100 Billion. It kept on rejecting his initials because the directions said first and last, but the requirement was first, middle, and last. They gave him 24 hours to sign the documents. When he called for help nobody had any idea, till an HR person remembered that the instructions are wrong. Without knowing that, there was no way to get beyond page 1. – mhoran_psprep Jul 09 '15 at 21:08
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If you're worried about some "blacklist" in which other companies are all going to look at and keep from hiring you, there should be no concern. However, in the event you turn down an offer after a conditional verbal acceptance it's most likely you would not be working for them in the immediate future.

I would also advise to discuss this issue with someone in HR to resolve the matter. Every company you work for will have its own case of hiccups and no job will be perfect.

ist_lion
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There is no repercussions to canceling an offer at finding a new job, there is no way for them to know where you 'accepted an offer' unless you personal disclose that information to them or on a website somewhere (which you should not do). Even if you did it's not as big of a deal as you may seem to believe, interveiwers and recruiters will ask you specifically if you have other offers and will actually negotiate with you for better pay when you do, even after already accepting a position somewhere else (as long as you haven't started working there and went through all there legal stuff and training, that will always look bad on you, but you don't have to disclose that to anyone).

Is this technical issue potentially pay threatening? As in you may lose pay or not get paid due to not being able to 'sign off' on tasks? Cause I would def. take one of the other offers if that's the case ESPECIALLY if they are giving something that affects your pay the run around. Some newly started independent companies find ways to screw over contractors in pay in order to get themselves ahead more, mainly cause they don't actual have enough funds but find clever ways to get free work. Every company on the planet that is going to pay you will put serious, and quick concern into the thing that is hindering that - no professional company in the world is going to screw around with that stuff.