A new survey found that almost 40% of companies posted a fake job listing this year — and 85% of those companies interviewed candidates for fake jobs
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Companies said they are posting fake jobs for a laundry list of reasons, including to deceive their own employees.
More than 60% of those surveyed said they posted fake jobs “to make employees believe their workload would be alleviated by new workers.”
Sixty-two percent of companies said another reason for the shady practice is to “have employees feel replaceable.”
Two-thirds of companies cited a desire to “appear the company is open to external talent” and 59% said it was an effort to “collect resumes and keep them on file for a later date.”
What’s even more concerning about the results: 85% of companies engaging in the practice said they interviewed candidates for the fake jobs.
I don’t find it that hard to believe, they’re responding anonymously so they know it won’t hurt their specific company’s image, and the general message of “there’s a lot of untrustworthy bullshit out there for job seekers (so if we do make an offer you better take it because your fallback plan might be a mirage) (and, y’know what, just in general - we have all the power here and we are going to lie to you and not feel bad about it because thats normal for us, so don’t even think about complaining to anyone about it)” is one that serves all their interests
I think your “On the other hand etc.” is a pretty accurate guess at specifically how they do this, tho
If they’re responding anonymously on the Internet, they could be anyone. We have no way of knowing whether they really are hiring managers, or whether the site doing this “poll” made it up for clicks. I’m skeptical of everything I read on the Internet, even if it comes to a conclusion I agree with.
Usually for a poll like this, they would make invitations to targeted respondents and provide them with secure anonymous access when they agree.
It does not provide the details, but I highly doubt the polling was done anonymously online. You’re right, that would be completely useless.
However, polling done offline also needs to be anonymized, even though it is offline and the pollster knows the identities of the participants, simply to protect them from repercussions.