It’s every employee’s worst nightmare: You land a new job, give notice to your current work and then your prospective employer decides to rescind the offer.
A recent job candidate, known as Sarah, gracefully resigned from her current job after accepting a new role at another company.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Employee’s shock after company withdraws job offer.
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However, things took an awkward turn when the hiring manager confirmed she no longer had a job.
UK career expert Ben Askins read out the shocking submission from Sarah after she thought she was about to start a new job before abruptly receiving a text message via WhatsApp saying otherwise.
“Hi Sarah, I am so sorry to do this, but we are going to have to rescind the job offer,” the employer said.
Confused by the message, Sarah responded: “What? But I have handed in my notice already.”
The company then responded and said, “Can’t you just ask for your job back?”
Shocked, Sarah replied: “They’ve already hired my replacement; they won’t go for it. What has changed? Why are you doing this?”
The company then sent her a cryptic response: “I’m afraid I can’t tell you the specifics”.
Sarah was understandably unimpressed, saying “That is horse s***. If you’re going to do this, the least you could do is tell me why.”
The employer fired back, saying: “Please let’s keep things professional, there is no need for swearing.”
Sarah then retorted: “Yes, me swearing is what is unprofessional about this.”
It’s unclear what happened between Sarah and her prospective employer but Ben weighed in on the situation, suggesting the company had “handled the situation appallingly.”
“Let’s be very clear if you’re going to do this to someone, and it does happen, you need to give them an explanation. It’s awful because Sarah has been left in a terrible position,” Ben said.
“Because now she has no job, she’s gone from having a job to no job. Being offered a new one, she quits, goes to join the new job then that job disappears, she’s got nothing right.
“You absolutely could tell them the specifics, sometimes this does happen and it’s awful, but you need to tell them exactly why it is and be as upfront as possible.”
Ben slammed the company for communicating with the employee via WhatsApp rather than calling her.
“Sarah’s response was totally rational. The company are not even remotely trying to explain why, it’s just awful,” he added.
The video has more than 800,000 views — with many furious on the woman’s behalf while others weighed in on the situation.
“This happened to my friend, but they offered her a month’s salary in compensation,” one said.
Another suggested: “Horribly handled however you shouldn’t quit a previous job until you have something signed with the new job.”
One added: “This is literally my biggest nightmare when it comes to changing jobs. It takes so much time to go through interviews, get an offer, negotiate salary, reference checks… and then get this?!”
Another shared: “Jesus… This is appalling. The mother of all red flags.”
An employment attorney explained why the company couldn’t offer the woman an explanation behind their decision to withdraw the job offer.
“Sometimes they really cannot give specific details. However if they signed a job offer and there is no provision about rescinding the job they may owe her severance,” they said.
Many urged the woman to “get a lawyer involved” to “sue” the company while others suggested employees should never quit their jobs until they officially sign the contract.
Meanwhile, one shared: “See this happened to me but I had already worked out my notice, and had been on the new job for only four days, did everything they asked and then they fired me without any explanation as to why.”