Declining a job offer and added to blacklist

Question

Company A extended me a job offer verbally two days ago (Monday). They promised to provide me a written job offer letter to review and consult with my parents, but they failed to do so because they're waiting for a start date from their client. What I received from Company A is only a list of pre-employment requirements and it doesn't state anything about job offers.

I have also a job interview the next day (Tuesday) with Company B and passed the exam. On that same day, Company B also extended a job offer and I much preferred to work with Company B, so I accepted it. The time was end-of-business of Company B when I accepted the job offer.

The next day (Wednesday), Company A called me to come over to their office and sign the contract on that same day. I then informed Company A that I have already accepted a job offer, since I was already waiting for Company A's job letter for me to respond within one day, and he also said that they called me yesterday (Tuesday) where in fact they haven't.

Now, Company A told me that they will add me to the blacklisted applicants since I did not inform them immediately if I did not sign the contract on that day. I do admit my mistake of not informing them ASAP. In the end, I didn't proceed to the contract signing and turned down the job offer.

My concern is, will it affect my next employer's application status? Do I really need to worry about its damaging costs in my career?

Answer 1

Firstly, it won't affect your application to other unrelated companies - it's on their personnel files, not some centralized system.

Second, it sounds like you've dodged the bullet - anyone willing to bully and threaten a candidate for their own personal decision isn't worth working for. They wouldn't have hesitated to hire someone else who they considered better/cheaper than you, why on earth should you be tied to them from the second they make a non-binding verbal offer?

Personally I'd still apply to that company in future if you need a job and want to work for them - chances are you aren't blacklisted anyway, and if you are you've only wasted the price of one printed resume.

If it's a recruitment agency, simply use another in future - they need candidates more than candidates need them... most likely the job will be advertised elsewhere anyway, or you can see the post on their website and apply direct.

Answer 2

If it is a recruitment firm then you will not be blacklisted. They make their money by finding people accepting jobs. If they have a job, and you are the right applicant, will they say "we will ask ju-chan to do the job and get our commission" or will they say "no, we don't want that commission because we blacklisted ju-chan"? Of course they will take the commission.

A verbal offer isn't worth the paper it is written on. When you were at company B, you had the choice of accepting their offer and have a job you prefer, or to reject it for a verbal offer from A, which was not in writing, so A could have dropped your offer, and you would have had nothing. What you did was exactly the right thing.

Even if you hadn't had accepted B's offer yet, it is quite possible that you hadn't accepted A's offer or at least you would have delayed accepting it until you heard from B.

All that is really happening is that a lowly employee at a recruitment company is angry about losing their commission, which is none of your concern - that employee doesn't deserve the commission because they didn't find the job that you have been accepting. And because that lowly employee is angry, they are lashing out. Which is unprofessional, and probably against the guidelines of the recruitment company he or she is working for. That recruitment company will gladly find you another job some time in the future when you are looking for a new job, with better qualifications than today, with a higher salary than today, and therefore a bigger commission for them than today.

The lowly employee lost a commission and therefore tried to make you feel bad. You could always take revenge by writing to his supervisor and asking whether you are indeed blacklisted; I bet that will get him into trouble.

Answer 3

To answer your unasked question: you did nothing wrong here. That the first company happened to call you before you had a chance to call them to withdraw is hardly your fault, especially considering that not even a day had passed.

Company A never actually made you an offer, they just said they'd make you one soon. If you had stayed in the running you likely wouldn't even see their offer until you saw the actual contract, at which point they'd expect you to sign it. This is a crappy tactic but is still used by some companies. You would likely have received an equal amount of abuse for requesting time to consider after seeing the contract and refusing to sign on the spot.

Caveat: legitimate companies can rush candidates through the process in cases like these were a project is nearing its start date. But this is more common for short-term employment or contract work and the reason is that HR or whoever handles the legal aspects is still processing the offer. If that were the case however you'd already have discussed most of the (preliminary) details with the recruiting manager. When that is not the case, consider this to be a big red flag.

As the other answers mention, the blacklisting they threatened you with is limited to that company. That they suggested doing so as punishment if you didn't renege on an accepted(!) offer and accept their unknown offer instead is another huge red flag.

Answer 4

How big is the company? If it's one of a few zillion employers of similar size, then you'll just have to apply to that other zillion in the future. They don't seem a good employer to work for, because if they are that generous with threats with you when you're just an applicant, I don't think that it's going to get any better once you start working for them.

Stay well away from companies where the management manages by making threats.