I had something similar happen - dream job offer with a government office in Winnipeg. Seriously was my dream job at the time - background check was the only thing left, and my top secret was still active, so it was not going to be an issue. I gave notice at the well-paying but horrible contract job I had at the time.
Until the position was cancelled and the decision made to handle all communications at the National level. Job gone, poof! That sucked. I am sorry this happened to you.
Not any longer. Now, too many companies are not giving notice themselves (or severance) or once a employee gives notice they hand them their final paycheck and security escorts them out the door. Companies can’t expect to be treated better than they treat their employees.
So, ask around , find out what the company does when a worked gives notice.
Unless no one ever left the company, it should be pretty obvious what they do. I only know of one case where someone leaving was escorted out, and that was when he was going to a competitor and told management. It seems common practice today is not saying where you are going.
That they can boot you immediately yet expect notice may be unfair, but it does not mean you are going to get a willing to rehire reference. If there is a network there might be stories told about you being obnoxious on it. Also, even if you hate your boss you might not hate the co-workers who will get screwed if you leave stuff hanging.
I want to stress that I’m not an IT guru, so perhaps someone with real expertise could answer this more completely. Moreover, I know I sounded definitive in my earlier post, but I’ll walk it back a bit. I can’t know with absolute certainty that this is what got your offer(s) rescinded, but it just seems like this is the most likely culprit – either that, or it’s possible one of your references and/or past managers isn’t being particularly helpful to you. I
To answer your question, deleting your account would, after a certain number of days (more like a few months, actually) purge the account data that was on your Facebook page, which would be a lot. However, if you’ve commented on someone else’s page, it would be there on their page until they remove it. It might be more difficult to find, but it’s possible that some of that information (likes, responses, etc) would be there on their pages. But I’m guessing the comments that would alarm them the most would be eventually gone once your posts are removed from your account.
Is it a mid-sized to large company you applied to? Are they involved in sensitive work of any kind? I don’t think companies are necessarily that concerned with someone bitching about a hard day at work - they know people are usually more eager to clock out than clock in. But if they’re involved in sensitive work and/or if they’re a large firm, even one outspoken Facebook ranter represents a potential problem from their point of view. It’s just too easy for an employee’s comments to become problematic nowadays.
I think closing a FB account and being paranoid about one anti-work rant is WAY overboard. I wouldn’t worry about it at all. I’d bet my annual bonus that the reason the OP didn’t get the job had nothing to do with a mild rant posted over a year ago. He’s not running for electoral office or applying to join the secret service.
The prospective employer, like my soon-to-be-former-employer, makes corrugated “sheet” cardboard. The only difference is that the prospective employer also does Flexo. Nothing at all “sensitive” or even proprietary in their process; I’d be hard pressed to believe that there’s anything all that proprietary or confidential in their customer base, either.
“Sheet” customers routinely “jump” from one provider to another, then back again, as the market and/or their particular need dictates. I don’t know how wide this story went, but locally, we picked up many customers from this incident, until Loy-Lange was back up-and-running; even then we retained more than a few of their (former) customers.
Like I said earlier, my FB post was very G-rated, precisely because I knew it was going “out,” it was going “public,” so I minded my language and tone, and did not get into any kind of detailed specifics about my disaffection, or otherwise reveal internal policies/procedures about my soon-to-be-former-employer; just intimated that hours were getting longer, and mandatory OT was becoming more prevalent, to the point that it was beginning to impinge (unduly, IMO) in our already scant time off.
Hell, our department is almost 24/7/365, but we have a nice rotating schedule that gets us a 3-day weekend every other week, and 3-days off as well during every other week. Downside is, when it’s your weekend to work, and it happens to fall on XMas Day, or the 4th of July, or Memorial Day, tough noogies; it your turn in the barrel.
Okay, fair 'nuf; what goes around comes around.
I acknowledged that yes, people go on vacation, and occasionally people call off on short notice, and shifts need to be covered; 4-out-of-5 times, I’m “Reliable Rob,” the guy that steps up and comes in and covers. In reality, I’m a bit of an OT whore, but even a whore can get tired of being…screwed
So when I work 5 out of 6 weekends in a row, and then plan, months in advance, a long weekend vacation (actually taking vacation days!) over the Thanksgiving Holiday(s) as my shift rotation aligns perfectly with the holiday, and then have my vacation canceled days before I head out of town…yeah, I’d had enough of that. And it still took me the better part of a year to “get off the dime” and actually do something about it.
Which is why I’m interviewing with other employers.
Sorry, didn’t mean to rant; I had my exit interview today. My immediate boss understood; the "front office’ types did not, and there was some drama. It was all on their side, as I kept my cool, replied calmly, politely, and refused to be drawn into debate or argument about the “soundness” of my reasons.
I simply stated, politely and professionally, my reasons for leaving.
Basically, I’m not the only guy leaving our department; another guy gave notice for 5 January, and yet another is lining up for a nice “run for the door.” So an already lean and short-handed department is about to lose 50% of their Night Shift, and that is likely to turn into 75% in very short order.
That has the “front office” types panties in a twist.
Day Shift is shitting a brick, too.
My brother had to delete his account on the advice of his lawyer, and when he did so, all comments he made on other posts were deleted, too. This makes those “facebook memories” posts odd to look at sometimes because we’ll be responding to comments he made that are no longer there.
Bump/update: I started my new job yesterday, and I’m pleased as punch with it just on working conditions and hours alone. It’s a pharmaceutical, so cleanliness and climate control are big plusses!
I would’ve started about a week earlier, but the HR Mgr. was out the week before for some kind of family medical emergency kind of thing.
Congrats!!!
Congrats and merry Christmas! Hope you enjoy your new job.
I have been told by HR hiring folks that only they call other companies for this very reason. And the fact that they have a code (his words) that they use that conveys their real meaning without getting the company/themselves in trouble. Regular managers don’t know the law (actually I understand it to be case law) and don’t know the code. Given how anal HR got in the last few years before I retired I can well assume this story is true.
And also, sometimes it goes the other way. We went through the entire hiring process with an experienced programmer, only to have him come by the Friday before his Monday start date and apologize but he wasn’t taking the job after all. Since it required a security clearance our HR was ticked with the amount of money we wasted, but at least he came by to apologize.