{"id":3862,"date":"2026-04-22T17:40:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grantalexander.com\/en\/?p=3862"},"modified":"2026-04-22T17:40:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:40:42","slug":"ghosting-what-if-we-stopped-telling-ourselves-stories-an-article-by-romain-buob-for-bilan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grantalexander.com\/en\/our-news\/ghosting-what-if-we-stopped-telling-ourselves-stories-an-article-by-romain-buob-for-bilan\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghosting: What if we stopped telling ourselves stories? &#8211; an article by Romain Buob for Bilan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><br>Candidates, recruiters, clients \u2014 everyone has been someone\u2019s ghost at some point. But an unanswered message isn\u2019t always a sign of disrespect: when faced with silence, we need a measure of tolerance and self-awareness \u2014 and we shouldn\u2019t hesitate to follow up.<br>Radio silence: that abyss that follows a job interview or a networking coffee. Today, we call it \u201cghosting.\u201d It has become the scapegoat for all our digital frustrations. Yet between deliberate disengagement and simple organizational hiccups, the issue deserves a more objective and nuanced look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br><strong>The end of the one-sided trial<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Recruiters often take the blame, particularly in French-speaking Switzerland, where \u201cno response\u201d is almost seen as a tradition. It can feel dismissive, as if you\u2019ve been ignored or brushed aside with a click.<br>But let\u2019s be honest \u2014 there are two sides to the story. As a headhunter, I see executives disappear after passionately explaining why they were the perfect fit for a role. I also see clients vanish after a tender process. Ghosting may simply be part of the human condition. The good news? We\u2019ve all been, at least once, either the ghost or the ghosted. That shared experience should help us better understand the phenomenon \u2014 and avoid lumping everything together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br><strong>Is it really ghosting?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Not every silence is a shameful disappearance from someone lacking courage or courtesy. We can broadly split it into two categories:<br><strong>Real ghosting<\/strong>: cutting ties on purpose to avoid confrontation. Not great\u2026<br><strong>False ghosting<\/strong>: a sick child, 200 unread emails, an internal decision dragging on. That\u2019s just life.<br>There are, in other words, mitigating circumstances on the \u201cghoster\u2019s\u201d side. And then there\u2019s the initial outreach that went unanswered. Here, a bit of honest self-reflection is needed \u2014 with some detachment. Maybe the message was ill-timed, poorly targeted, or completely impersonal. Labeling every unanswered LinkedIn message as \u201cghosting\u201d is a stretch. If you\u2019re blasting copy-paste messages to everyone, silence is to be expected. It\u2019s not disrespect \u2014 it\u2019s digital survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><br><strong>My (unpopular) advice: follow up<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><br>We\u2019re often afraid of coming across as pushy. I think that\u2019s a mistake. In an attention-scarce economy, your message may simply have slipped through the cracks. Follow up once, twice, even three times \u2014 politely, but clearly. If you don\u2019t get a reply, it may just be that the day got away from them. In fact, I often say it: feel free to follow up with me. Of course, this requires a fair dose of social intelligence to strike the right balance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bilan.ch\/story\/ghosting-pourquoi-le-silence-apres-un-entretien-est-normal-922486115993\">Read the full article on the Bilan website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Candidates, recruiters, clients \u2014 everyone has been someone\u2019s ghost at some point. But an unanswered message isn\u2019t always a sign of disrespect: when faced with silence, we need a measure of tolerance and self-awareness \u2014 and we shouldn\u2019t hesitate to follow up.Radio silence: that abyss that follows a job interview or a networking coffee. Today, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":2900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"activity":[7],"topical-themes":[],"news-type":[36],"class_list":["post-3862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ghosting: What if we stopped telling ourselves stories? - an article by Romain Buob for Bilan - Grant Alexander<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.grantalexander.com\/en\/our-news\/ghosting-what-if-we-stopped-telling-ourselves-stories-an-article-by-romain-buob-for-bilan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ghosting: What if we stopped telling ourselves stories? - an article by Romain Buob for Bilan - Grant Alexander\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Candidates, recruiters, clients \u2014 everyone has been someone\u2019s ghost at some point. 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