Job Offer, Then Retraction?

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
1

Note to Mods: I’m putting this in IMHO on the likelihood that there may be no correct, factual answer to my question(s). I’ve a feeling it may come down to conjecture and best-guesstimate based upon other people’s experiences and such.
Last week (11/27/17 - 12/1/17) I interviewed with multiple prospective employers for a new job. Friday, 12/1/17, ~ 9:00 AM, one company made me an offer of employment.

The interview(s), on Tuesday, 11/28/17, and Thursday, 11/30/17, with both Maintenance and Production Management at that company went very well, IMO. The interviews started cordial, professional, and as the interview(s) progressed grew more relaxed, genial, even convivial. I was excited, and so were they (at least, that was my “read” on the people present).

I called them (the HR Dept.) and spoke with the head of HR. She said the offer of employment was contingent upon passing a pre-employment drug screen. I said I was ready to go, and she said she’d look into how quickly she could set up the drug screening.

At ~10:00 AM, I gave my two-week notice with my current employer. :smack:

Friday, 12/1/17, ~4:00PM, she (HR Mgr.) called me back, asked if I could come in at 9:00 AM on Monday, 12/4/17, to pick up the paperwork to take to a local clinic for pre-employment drug screening. I said yes.

Monday, ~9:00AM, I’m in the lobby of my not-quite-yet-new employer. The HR Manager comes down to tell me the offer of employment has been rescinded. Asking why, I was told (quoting as accurately as possible from stunned, shocked memory):

Friday, 4:00PM, they’re hot for me to get started, knowing (because I’d told them, straight-up, during both interviews) I’d be giving two-weeks notice to my current employer, and serve as many days of that two weeks as my current employer desired.

Monday, 9:00AM, they don’t even want to talk to me.

WTF? :confused:
I’d previously had an offer rescinded with a different prospective employer (thankfully before I gave my two-week notice!) simply because they found a candidate that could start immediately, as opposed to my two-weeks-plus. Okay, fair 'nuf, I reckon. No hard feelings.
So, anyone with HR or hiring experience: can you offer any explanation as to what the hell happened? Given the statement, “long term fit,” am I wrong to suspect I may have been discriminated against based upon my age? I’m 50, FWIW.

2

But you were 50 on Friday too, presumably. So there’s really no reason to think that this was the deciding factor.

My guess; you were not their first pick. Their first pick turned them down, or they thought he did, so they made an offer to you. Then, over the weekend, some misunderstanding was clarified, and they wanted their first pick again.

  • “Are we committed to ExTank yet?”

  • “Not quite; the offer is still conditional.”

  • “Good. Tell him it’s rescinded.”

3

In Oregon prospective employers aren’t allowed to do background checks and the like until a candidate is accepted, so they have to hire you based on your merits and only then can they find out what lurks in your past. I could see that leading to some rescinding of offers.

4

Well this is crappy, do you have anything in writing?

I was once hired by a guy on a Thursday, to start the next Monday. On arriving on Monday, I found out he had been fired on Friday. It is a drag. (I did manage to keep that job for a year, though. The office was kind of in an uproar. I called the guy who hired me, and he said, “Just act like you belong, and take your timecard in to Marsha,” so I did that.)

I also had a job where they hired me and the guy said he’d call me about my start date, and then not only did he NOT call me, I couldn’t reach him. Six months later he called me. “Now about that start date.” No.

My guess here is someone looked at the budget and decided they didn’t need to fill the position after all, but who knows? Sorry that happened to you, and I hope you can fix things up with your current company.

5

Hmmm. Good answers so far. Trying NOT to let confirmation bias color my views of any particular answer.

-There’s noting in my past to pop “negative” on a background check; no criminal record, no record of mental instability, no health issues, no history of drug use, no history of violence (workplace or otherwise), etc.

-There was nothing in writing yet with my prospective employer; my impression was that that was coming after the pre-employment drug screening. No paperwork of any kind beyond basic job application was filled out (on Thursday, 11/30/17, later in the day after the 2nd interview).

-To UDS’s point: maybe they missed my age on the application on Friday, caught it on Monday? I’m reaching, I know…

Additional info (my impression only, so take it with a grain of salt): on Friday, HR Lady was nice, genial, enthusiastic about me starting. Today (Monday, 12/4/17), she was cold, curt, aloof; dismissive, even.

I think another thing kind of ticking me off was that I schlepped my ass all the way out to far west county St. Louis after I got off work at 7:00 AM, just to get this cold brush-off. They could have called or texted me, saved me the trip!

6

Sucks, but better to know now they aren’t the kind of folks you want to work for.

7

But why would you think that your age, rather than anything other detail, was something they missed when reviewing your application, and picked up over the weekend?

Plus, they met you at not one but two interviews and, unless you have a Dorian Grey-type picture in the attic, presumably they could see more or less what age you are. If it didn’t bother them at interview, why would it bother them later>

She’s mortified and embarrassed, and as far as she’s concerned her meeting with you can’t end soon enough.

There is a possibility that, whatever stuff-up went on that led to you being treated in this shabby fashion, within the company she’s being blamed for it.

8

Good question; fair point. I have no other answer.

You’re on to my secret! Please send me your name & address so my Sinister Agents can come silence you!

Seriously, I don’t look 50. Generally, I get pegged for early 40’s.

That hadn’t occurred to me; again, fair point. Thanks.

9

I second UDS. Most likely something happened after 4:00 pm Friday. Being as it was a weekend and probably people were already leaving most likely they weren’t able to get get whatever their procedures for such a thing implemented in time and the lady probably found out first thing on Monday. Possibly while you were already waiting for her.

Do check if one of your references was less then positive on you.

Sucks. Don’t worry, it will get better.

10

:slight_smile: The situation is not dire; I had three other interviews last week, all feeling as “positive” as the company that ditched me today (well, yesterday, now).

I have additional interviews pending, as the agency I’m working through (who, by the way, feel like utter shit over this, and have, in a no doubt utterly professional manner, let the company know that they don’t appreciate back-to-back offers/rescissions on their clients) re-loads my schedule with new, prospective employers.
I just really wanted to know, to be certain, when/where/how I was going to “land” before I yanked the “ejection handle” on my current employment.

I guess anyone reading could take this as a precautionary tale: after all, I was the one who gave notice to my current employer, on nothing more than a telephone “verbal” offer from a prospective employer.

IOW, I wasn’t certain; I just had a good warm-and-fuzzy, and rolled with it in absence of written agreements or formal letters of offers of employment, signed/dated, etc.

Tanj! Tanstaafl!

11

Even if she isn’t, she was the one having to deliver bad news that she probably didn’t agree with. And like AK84 said, she might have just found out herself, in which case she was still swallowing the bad news.

12

Wow. What a shitty situation.

I think I would write to them asking for (actually, sort-of-demanding) a more detailed rationale for their decision. I doubt they will respond with anything useful, but I think if nothing else, it could be good to reclaim the moral high ground.

13

Not really interested in moral high ground; it’s an “at will” employment state, with some union protections. If you’re a member of a union; I am, but that only applies to my current place of employment, not any prospective place(s) of employment, unless they’re also under contract with my current union.

So the prospective employer who ganked me has no legal obligation to tell me much more than “pound sand,” and I kindly doubt that any “moral” argument will have any more effect on them than the legal one.

14

I think that’s one of the vilest corporate sucker-punches I’ve ever heard of. I commiserate with you.

15

Do you have a Facebook page?

A friend of mine hired someone. Before anything was final, another employee showed the boss the new hire’s Facebook page and there was alarming stuff there that led to a withdrawal of the offer.

(I heard about this from my friend because the Facebook stuff was extreme)

16

They might’ve checked your references and, unbeknownst to you, somebody you have there may not be giving you the most stellar recommendation.

17

Fair enough - and I agree, I don’t think it would be very useful - IMHO, I would still do it just in order to have the last word - and to go on record as questioning/rejecting whatever their bullshit reason might be (I don’t know if there’s any real risk that they could ever cause you any kind of future trouble of the type “well, he didn’t protest”, so it probably is unnecessary).

18

My FB page is, IMO, pretty benign; YMMV. OMMV. I do have one quasi-rant about my current employer from over a year ago. So…possible, I suppose.

That had occurred to me, but I didn’t want to come across as paranoid or something. My current employer and formerly-prospective employer are in the same industry, with a LOT of the same equipment/production machinery (I figured, “why let my current experience base go to waste?”), and I did let slip with a few select coworkers who my (not-yet-formerly-at-that-point) prospective employer is (was) this weekend at work.

I suppose it’s possible someone at work knows someone at my formerly-prospective employer, and made a phone call…

My leaving (anyone’s leaving, really!) is going to cause problems in an already very lean and already short-staffed Maintenance Department.

But that’s paranoid thinking!

Right?

Right?

19

The “last word” ain’t all it’s cracked up to be; I’ve found over the years that sometimes, it’s better to know when to stop talking, and just walk away. A kind of, “If you’re already neck-deep in a hole, maybe it’s time to stop digging” kind of thing.

Plus, I then have the advantage of “leaving a door open” for real dialogue, possibly alternate career options, if, at some future point, that formerly-prospective employer has a change of management team and/or change of heart and wants me back.

And, as I indicated earlier, the Employment Agency/Headhunter I’m working through has already let formerly prospective employer know that what they did was very, very uncool, from not only my perspective, but theirs as well.

20

I got a verbal offer from a manager once and monday when HR called to, i thought, offer me the job they instead told me he’d quit and so they wanted to start the hiring process over again after they brought in a new manager. It doesn’t seem like that’s what happened to you but i can at least comisserate a bit.