Bosses Are Posting Fake Jobs To Trick Overworked, Burned Out Workers Into Thinking Things Will Get Better
Not only is it harming employees, but it’s also tricking potential applicants.
David Gyung | Shutterstock With toxic work cultures and an even worse job market, many employees are stuck between a rock and a hard place—better known as a bad boss and job instability. Whether they’re dealing with toxic co-workers, an insurmountable daily workload, or a terrible boss, anxiety lies at the core of their daily 9-to-5.
To nobody’s surprise, many employers aren’t making things better — in fact, they’re often making them worse. A recent survey from Resume Builder found that many employers are actively posting fake jobs online, tricking their overworked employees into thinking there’s a better, more balanced future ahead, and deceiving job seekers in the process.
Employers are posting fake jobs to trick overworked, burnout workers into thinking things will get better.
“Companies are posting fake jobs to make it seem like a company is hiring more to offset the workload that a lot of employees have,” workplace culture expert Dan Schawbel explained on TikTok.
“Employees are burned out right now. It’s the year of efficiency; they’re trying to do more with fewer resources," he continued. "Employers are not hiring more people, but making it seem like they are. And that's a huge problem.”
The Resume Builder survey revealed that over 40% of employers have posted fake jobs over the past year, and 30% still have them up today. Not only are their companies and hiring managers openly defending their choice to post them, but they’re also arguing that they’re beneficial—of course, to their own corporate productivity and stability.
Not only are fake job postings degrading to current workers, but they’re also misleading to struggling candidates amid their job search.
Many employers use these fake job postings to signal to the market that they’re expanding — or more specifically, to their competitors that they’re growing, even if they’re not actually planning to.
In some cases, they’re deceptively using these fake jobs to signal to their employees that they’re “easily replaceable,” but in others, they’re meant to be supportive.
For employees desperate for more colleagues to share the workload, these job postings provide a false sense of hope that help is on the way — and that there’s a future approaching where they’ll have less job stress, more time off, and more manageable workloads.
However, that’s often not the case at all.
“One part of business practice has always relied on misinformation to attempt to keep employees feeling afraid and insecure,” business consultant Daniel Boscaljon told Fortune. “Many illogical motives may inspire this act. It could be wanting employees to believe that they won’t be as badly overworked, to make employees feel insecure, or to send a message to rival companies.”
While employers consider them ‘ethical,’ fake job postings are inherently deceptive — and a signal of toxic leadership and harmful company culture.
Despite the controversy these fake job postings have sparked online, over 70% of hiring managers consider them to be “morally acceptable” — whether to gauge the market, compare benefits and compensation against competitors, or serve as placeholders for company growth.
Of course, these job postings aren’t only misleading for current employees. They're also incredibly deceptive for people on the job hunt.
Forty percent of job seekers have admitted to being ghosted by a potential employer, but the truth is that many don’t even make contact or get an interview in the first place. These fake job postings are part of the problem.
Whether they’re intentionally misleading job seekers or not, they’re wasting their time, getting their hopes up, and diverting them from positions that could actually employ them.
“It’s psychotic behavior to appear to be hiring when people are literally starving,” content creator Kevin White argued on TikTok. “People have been unemployed for months and months, but you want to play around."
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories.