Comments on: This Candidate Declined a Job Offer Over $5,000. The Reason Is Instructive for Any Employer https://www.evilhrlady.org/2025/09/this-candidate-declined-a-job-offer-over-5000-the-reason-is-instructive-for-any-employer.html Everything to make HR better Mon, 29 Sep 2025 23:28:20 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1.4 By: Goober https://www.evilhrlady.org/2025/09/this-candidate-declined-a-job-offer-over-5000-the-reason-is-instructive-for-any-employer.html#comment-242070 Mon, 29 Sep 2025 23:28:20 +0000 https://www.evilhrlady.org/?p=7966#comment-242070 In reply to Kelley.

It’s generally not about the money, it’s about establishing up front who is the boss, my way or the highway. It’s about hiring someone who can be bullied, controlled and abused.

]]> By: Braver https://www.evilhrlady.org/2025/09/this-candidate-declined-a-job-offer-over-5000-the-reason-is-instructive-for-any-employer.html#comment-242018 Thu, 25 Sep 2025 13:55:22 +0000 https://www.evilhrlady.org/?p=7966#comment-242018 If the ad stated that the bottom of the offer range is $110 and I proceeded with interviewing under that premise, only to have the offer be $105, that would feel like a bait-and-switch. And if an employer is trying to pull this kind of con on me before I even work for them, I would wonder what other kinds of cons they’d try and pull on me if I actually worked for them. I’d’ve declined, too.

]]> By: Eric https://www.evilhrlady.org/2025/09/this-candidate-declined-a-job-offer-over-5000-the-reason-is-instructive-for-any-employer.html#comment-242003 Wed, 24 Sep 2025 18:38:57 +0000 https://www.evilhrlady.org/?p=7966#comment-242003 Respect in the job market is measured in units of USD. The gap wasn’t just one of $$ but also respect. If the candidate had any idea that the actual salary range for the position was above what they were offered, they would have felt hugely disrespected. Lowballing an offer to “prove he actually WANTS to work for us” isn’t what respect looks like, and even if this candidate did accept, the risk of them learning that they were lowballed vs the actual salary range would be a cancer waiting to go metastatic. People do learn such things. It happened to me many years ago when I was fresh out of school. My company had a generic salary offered to people coming straight from school with my set of credentials. Everyone got the same number. Except me. I had accidentally been offered $1500 less than everyone else, and I really believe it was an accident. I did figure it out, though, and I almost quit over it. It wasn’t the money, it was the disrespect of paying me less than all of my peers.

]]> By: Anonymous https://www.evilhrlady.org/2025/09/this-candidate-declined-a-job-offer-over-5000-the-reason-is-instructive-for-any-employer.html#comment-242000 Wed, 24 Sep 2025 17:39:33 +0000 https://www.evilhrlady.org/?p=7966#comment-242000 In addition to all of the other things, if a company is going to lowball me when I’m starting and have the most leverage to walk away (my current paycheck isn’t coming from them / I can keep looking without risking job hopper status), why on earth would I trust the company to provide fair COLA / merit raises? It’s not just the 5K annually, it’s all the annual raises that aren’t going to happen, which will then peg my next job at a lower amount (yes ideally new job is paying fair market wage, but it’s a lot easier to say my current salary is X, to move I need X + 10-15% than my current salary is Y, to move I need Y + 20-30%).

]]> By: MariaRose https://www.evilhrlady.org/2025/09/this-candidate-declined-a-job-offer-over-5000-the-reason-is-instructive-for-any-employer.html#comment-241999 Wed, 24 Sep 2025 17:31:02 +0000 https://www.evilhrlady.org/?p=7966#comment-241999 I can definitely appreciate the mindset of that employee who received that offer of a lower salary than wasn’t even accompanied by an alternative benefits to compensate for the salary decrease. Labor costs have become the one area where the company wants to spend the least and yet demands more efficient performance without realizing that to maintain that efficiency level demands using a bare minimum of bodies employed has a cost that cannot be cut just because the cost eliminates/lowers the bottom line profits for the shareholders who contribute nothing but demand for the business models. I now understand why the cost of the H1-visas needs to rise because businesses need to understand that they are employing people not slaves and by only paying cheap wages they are only hastening the demise of the company. If they really want to save labor costs—stop overpaying their top executives.

]]> By: Kelley https://www.evilhrlady.org/2025/09/this-candidate-declined-a-job-offer-over-5000-the-reason-is-instructive-for-any-employer.html#comment-241998 Wed, 24 Sep 2025 16:11:04 +0000 https://www.evilhrlady.org/?p=7966#comment-241998 I don’t understand why companies do this. On the Company books it’s a rounding error, but to the employee it shows that you want them.

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