CORPORATE GLOSSARY

An entrepreneur friend of mine in Europe stopped requesting resumés from job candidates. Instead, he asks candidates to shoot and submit a short video with their phone — less than 5 minutes. The job advert gives high-level instructions and asks a few questions, and the rest is up to the candidate.

This is different from those automated, one-sided video interviews, which are so terrible that most reputable companies have stopped using them. For example, in this scenario, the candidate controls and owns everything they submit. When I asked him about ghosting, he replied, “What’s that?”

Before going too far down this road, it’s worth pointing out things like videos presentations, writing samples — anything you create to get a job is yours. At the close of this article, I give a quick way to protect your work and keep it under your control.

And if you don’t think you need this protection, stay tuned and see why you do.

This week’s Corporate Glossary term: Ghosting

Ghosting is abruptly ending communication with someone without explanation. Coined to describe a phenomenon all too common in romantic relationships, now it’s common in the workplace.

Here’s how ghosting migrated to your job search

A job opening that once got ten applicants now gets 1,000. Before the advent of the Internet, consolidating job sites and apps, we couldn’t pray-and-spray resumés because we were licking a stamp to mail our typewritten application to a post office box.

Today, you can apply to 10 jobs on your lunch hour and customize your resumé for every single one. And you can do it from your phone in a Starbucks drive-thru.

“They just don’t show up!” Those were the words of an owner desperately trying the fill analyst roles for her award-winning data company.

Any employer can regale you with tales of candidates who accept interview appointments or evens jobs only to no-show on them. Jobseekers submit applications into the ether and even go through multiple interviews, only to have the employer go silent.

Ghosting goes both ways. Times have changed. Expectations haven’t caught up.

It takes two to ghost

Have you noticed you never hear people saying, “I ghosted them!” Or, “We ghosted each other.” It’s always, “They ghosted me.” or “I’ve been ghosted.”

Ghosting is in the eye of the beholder. Of all the ways you have to interpret a situation, why choose that one? If you don’t want to be ghosted, then don’t be. Trust me, the person on the other side of this equation is not running around town saying, “I ghosted so and so!”

Expectations are tyrants. Rather than take offense, let it go. Is ghosting the hill you want to die on? Some business cultures still send responses, and some don’t. Assume you’ll hear nothing. If you do, enjoy it.

And if you still struggle to let it go, this might help.

The Andy Warhol approach

“I realized that everything was just how you decided to think about it. Sometimes people let the same problems make them miserable for years when they should just say ‘So what?’ That’s one of my favorite things to say: ‘So what?’ I don’t know how I made it through all the years before I learned how to do that trick. It took a long time for me to learn it, but once you do, you never forget.” — Andy Warhol.

There’s always someone proclaiming, “The world is going to hell in a handbasket!” And there’s always someone asking, “What’s a handbasket?”

So what?

Years ago, a corporate change consultant offered this insight, “People don’t hate change! They love change! New partner, new car, new house, new vacation, new baby! All changes. All wonderful. You know what people hate? Transition.”

Calling cards used to be a thing, too. The pomp and ceremony around using your card were elaborate. The bearer would wait in a carriage while a footman delivered their card to a butler who delivered it to the Lord or Lady of the manor. Then, a reply would be ferried back through the service chain, and the card’s namesake would get alight from the carriage for cucumber sandwiches or go home. All of this was imbued with innuendo and social cues enough to make Edith Wharton write a book!

When calling cards fell out of favor, no doubt there was a contingent thankful to be rid of a stupid, wasteful piece of artifice while others mourned the death of civility and pined for the good old days.

Give up the ghost but know your rights

On her back, just below her neck, Angelina Jolie has a three-word tattoo: “know your rights.”

In 2020, a story entitled “’I am not your moodboard’: Graduate fashion designer accuses Balenciaga of appropriation”went viral. A Balenciaga recruiter first saw designer Tra My Nguyen’s work exhibited at Berlin University of the Arts. The recruiter asked to see Nguyen’s portfolio two more times in the context of Nguyen getting a job. After not hearing back, Nguyen saw that Balenciaga posted near-identical copies of her design work to their Instagram feed. All without Nguyen’s permission.

Rather than debate the likelihood of your work being misused, it’s better to acknowledge that it happens and protect your work. Here’s how.

You own the rights to your work as soon as it’s created, but without claiming your ownership, it’s easy to take away from you and hard to prove it was yours to begin with.

The easiest way to secure your work

Copyright your work.

Option+g will create a Copyright symbol © on a Mac. Type Alt+0169 if you use Windows.

The copyright to your work is yours upon creation. By simply by adding © 2022 Your Name to your work, you’re more protected.

Copyrighting in this way notifies others this work has an owner, and that owner is you. It says, ‘this is not in the public domain, and you can’t swipe it.’ This is enormously effective and the method most people use to stake their rightful claims. Look at the bottom of any webpage, and you’ll see it.

You can register your copyright with the government if you ever want to collect damages. Yet, for most people and job applicants, submitting work with your copyright makes the point and makes you look like you know what you’re doing and care enough about your work to protect it.

If someone wants to use your work, they can request and may pay for the right. If you’re an artist or creator and want to encourage that, add, “To learn more about obtaining rights to this work contact:____.”

No one gets on a boat and expects to drown, yet every boat is required to have Personal Flotation Device for every passenger. Better safe than sorry.

Know your rights.

The Corporate Glossary series reveals the truth behind common corporate words and phrases so you don't get duped. See past articles in this series here.

I help experienced professionals re-package their work to get better jobs. Visit CourtneyKirschbaum.com to learn more.