How to deal with ghosting by employees in the workplace

Produced in partnership with Elise Turner of Morton Fraser MacRoberts LLP
Practice notes

How to deal with ghosting by employees in the workplace

Produced in partnership with Elise Turner of Morton Fraser MacRoberts LLP

Practice notes
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This Practice Note considers workplace ‘ghosting’, where an employee accepts a job but fails to turn up for work, or stops attending without giving notice of termination or resignation. For information on the situation where an employer ghosts a prospective employee or candidate, see Q&A: What issues arise when an employer ghosts a prospective employee?

The term ‘ghosting’ stems from the online dating world where, at some point during the relationship, one person stops communicating with the other without explanation—they are ‘dumped’ without ever actually being told they are dumped.

In the workplace, a candidate or employee might ‘ghost’ their employer at any stage—from not attending an interview, or not turning up for their first day on the job, through to walking out of the door at any stage in the employment relationship and never returning.

A 2023 survey by Indeed: When Candidates and Recruiters Vanish: Indeed’s Ghosting in Hiring Report found that 46% of job seekers surveyed in the US thought that ghosting had become more common

Elise Turner
Elise Turner

Senior Associate, Morton Fraser MacRoberts LLP


A Law Society of Scotland Accredited Specialist in Employment Law and a Senior Associate in Morton Fraser's highly rated employment law team, Elise Turner advises both employer and employee clients in relation to the legal and practical aspects of both day-to-day and complex HR issues. Her advice includes everything from discipline, grievance, performance and absence matters to redundancy, working time, TUPE, outsourcing and discrimination. She regularly advises on senior executive contracts and exits on both sides, often drafting and negotiating agreements in highly confidential or delicate circumstances.

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