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Uber once offered me a job. Except they didn't. The recruiter kept saying "we'll put it in writing as soon as you commit to accepting." I had told them I was w

Uber once offered me a job. Except they didn't. The recruiter kept saying "we'll put it in writing as soon as you commit to accepting." I had told them I was weighing their offer against a different one. In fact I slightly preferred their situation. After several rounds of this ridiculous dance, I finally realized I didn't want to work for a company that acted with so little decency. I've no doubt that wasn't the case everywhere at Uber, but it was a bad experience.

edmundsauto 4y ago
I would probably reply with a verbal commitment just to see the offer, get their hopes up (employers are excited to finally land a new hire!), then reject once I had the offer (unless it was a godfather offer). Congrats to you for taking the high ground!
- texasbigdata 4y ago
  In all fairness sometimes it’s a huge pain in the ass depending on how HR set up the req 2 offer process (even worse if a ERP is involved), and having some vague notion on if you’d accept would help. Plus as a hiring manager, and this is minor, I’d feel kinda embarrassed if out of sheer statistical luck multiple candidates turned down written offers, which would indicate maybe something is wrong with us as a hiring entity. Not sure there’s a playbook here. Another commenter suggested being untruthful and pulling the offer out of them. Given how many times companies screw over employees that might be the game theory rational thing to do here even though it’s not great ethically. Just my 2 cents.
  - lostdog 4y ago
    > In all fairness... Isn't this your fault (your company's fault) for creating such a silly process? It's not the candidate's fault that writing an offer is difficult. Still not the candidate's fault that you've got some poorly thought out metrics that make you withhold a written offer.
    - texasbigdata 4y ago
      Fair, fair, and fair. :)
- sys_64738 4y ago
  Or don't reject it but merely ghost them. Or tell them you'll start on a date and don't bother showing up.
  - metadat 4y ago
    No need to sink to their level. At the same time, I get it; sweet justice.
- ledauphin 4y ago
  It would certainly have been easy to do. In a weird way, it felt almost like a transparent test of my willingness to lie - or at least, to not keep my word. Like everyone else, I change my mind about things frequently, and have to back away from things I've said. But it feels very different when you know up front that there's a good chance you won't do what you've just said you'll do. I really dislike that feeling.
treyfitty 4y ago
All 3 of my employers in the past said this as well (“we don’t draft letters without a verbal accept, as a matter of policy”). I thought it was weird but didn’t let that dissuade me, purely because they were the only offers at each time. Why do companies do this? What benefit does this afford them or what risks does it mitigate for them? I never understood it.
- reidjs 4y ago
  Why not just verbally accept then? They have some red tape to get the contract written up. Then if on paper the offer is crap you can still say no.
- 10u152 4y ago
  We did this a bit at a previous workplace. Essentially sending out a formal offer letter involved a lot of HR, approval meetings and exec sign offs. If the person wasn't interested there was no point in going to the effort. Just corporate procedure and trying to save busy-work.
  - ledauphin 4y ago
    this makes plenty of sense to me. It certainly wasn't my goal to make extra work for them, and I value efficiency! At the same time, the other company was willing to do that extra work upfront, which made me feel like they actually wanted me to come. I think I might've felt a little differently about it had the recruiter been transparent and said something about the work involved. Then again, at the end of the day, we had all done quite a lot of work to get to that point. Not being willing to do the final steps suggests (to me) a lack of commitment to the offer.
- kamyarg 4y ago
  This is done partly to prevent people from using written offers as leverage to either negotiate a higher compensation at their current job or another company they are interviewing with.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  If I verbally accept an offer that was never put in writing, I feel like one of three things could happen: 1: there is something materially and surprisingly bad in the contract (equity or cash isn't as described) 2: there is something that is arguably not material, but which is surprisingly bad in the contract (something to do with vesting schedule, clawback of a 'signing bonus') 3: everything is as-expected. In case 1, it's clear that they have materially changed the terms, and I am no longer bound by my verbal acceptance (which was of a different offer). In case 2, they can argue that what was changed isn't material, and so I'm still bound. But if they say that, I would reply that if it's not material, then they should have no problem changing it back to the originally-discussed state. If they don't, I walk. It's not like they can force you to work for them, and they would presumably not try to ruin your rep over it because you could probably do more damage to them (by posting on HN, for example). In case 3, obviously everything is fine!
Mandatum 4y ago
Because they operate on KPI's and if they get 1 too many rejected offers, they lose their bonus/go to the front of the line to be axed. Always be suspect of what people say verbally, vs what they are willing to put into writing.
david38 4y ago
This is every company I’ve known. It’s a pain to do the write up and mostly just used to shop around.

edmundsauto 4y ago

I would probably reply with a verbal commitment just to see the offer, get their hopes up (employers are excited to finally land a new hire!), then reject once I had the offer (unless it was a godfather offer). Congrats to you for taking the high ground!

texasbigdata 4y ago
In all fairness sometimes it’s a huge pain in the ass depending on how HR set up the req 2 offer process (even worse if a ERP is involved), and having some vague notion on if you’d accept would help. Plus as a hiring manager, and this is minor, I’d feel kinda embarrassed if out of sheer statistical luck multiple candidates turned down written offers, which would indicate maybe something is wrong with us as a hiring entity. Not sure there’s a playbook here. Another commenter suggested being untruthful and pulling the offer out of them. Given how many times companies screw over employees that might be the game theory rational thing to do here even though it’s not great ethically. Just my 2 cents.
- lostdog 4y ago
  > In all fairness... Isn't this your fault (your company's fault) for creating such a silly process? It's not the candidate's fault that writing an offer is difficult. Still not the candidate's fault that you've got some poorly thought out metrics that make you withhold a written offer.
  - texasbigdata 4y ago
    Fair, fair, and fair. :)
sys_64738 4y ago
Or don't reject it but merely ghost them. Or tell them you'll start on a date and don't bother showing up.
- metadat 4y ago
  No need to sink to their level. At the same time, I get it; sweet justice.
ledauphin 4y ago
It would certainly have been easy to do. In a weird way, it felt almost like a transparent test of my willingness to lie - or at least, to not keep my word. Like everyone else, I change my mind about things frequently, and have to back away from things I've said. But it feels very different when you know up front that there's a good chance you won't do what you've just said you'll do. I really dislike that feeling.

treyfitty 4y ago

All 3 of my employers in the past said this as well (“we don’t draft letters without a verbal accept, as a matter of policy”). I thought it was weird but didn’t let that dissuade me, purely because they were the only offers at each time. Why do companies do this? What benefit does this afford them or what risks does it mitigate for them? I never understood it.

reidjs 4y ago
Why not just verbally accept then? They have some red tape to get the contract written up. Then if on paper the offer is crap you can still say no.
10u152 4y ago
We did this a bit at a previous workplace. Essentially sending out a formal offer letter involved a lot of HR, approval meetings and exec sign offs. If the person wasn't interested there was no point in going to the effort. Just corporate procedure and trying to save busy-work.
- ledauphin 4y ago
  this makes plenty of sense to me. It certainly wasn't my goal to make extra work for them, and I value efficiency! At the same time, the other company was willing to do that extra work upfront, which made me feel like they actually wanted me to come. I think I might've felt a little differently about it had the recruiter been transparent and said something about the work involved. Then again, at the end of the day, we had all done quite a lot of work to get to that point. Not being willing to do the final steps suggests (to me) a lack of commitment to the offer.
kamyarg 4y ago
This is done partly to prevent people from using written offers as leverage to either negotiate a higher compensation at their current job or another company they are interviewing with.
gnicholas 4y ago
If I verbally accept an offer that was never put in writing, I feel like one of three things could happen: 1: there is something materially and surprisingly bad in the contract (equity or cash isn't as described) 2: there is something that is arguably not material, but which is surprisingly bad in the contract (something to do with vesting schedule, clawback of a 'signing bonus') 3: everything is as-expected. In case 1, it's clear that they have materially changed the terms, and I am no longer bound by my verbal acceptance (which was of a different offer). In case 2, they can argue that what was changed isn't material, and so I'm still bound. But if they say that, I would reply that if it's not material, then they should have no problem changing it back to the originally-discussed state. If they don't, I walk. It's not like they can force you to work for them, and they would presumably not try to ruin your rep over it because you could probably do more damage to them (by posting on HN, for example). In case 3, obviously everything is fine!

Mandatum 4y ago

Because they operate on KPI's and if they get 1 too many rejected offers, they lose their bonus/go to the front of the line to be axed. Always be suspect of what people say verbally, vs what they are willing to put into writing.

david38 4y ago

This is every company I’ve known. It’s a pain to do the write up and mostly just used to shop around.