Letter to decline job offer after accepting - AIBU?

[RangeTesKopeks]

Argh accepted a job earlier this week and now needing to decline the job offer after accepting it.

I've drafted a letter, but was just wondering if you'd mind all having a look over it please?

Dear X,

Thank you very much for offering me the position of X at Company A following the final interview earlier this week.

After a lot of consideration, I have decided unfortunately not to accept the offer. I really appreciate the time you have taken to meet with me over the course of our interviews last week and this week, and I apologise that I am no longer in a position to accept the role.

Yours sincerely,

Range.

It sounds fine. Maybe some sort of praise of the thorough process or such? Or a hint you have gone elsewhere or cannot commit the hours?

Whilst its not a great thing to do, its far better than starting the job and then leaving after a month or two... that would be worse.

Is there a specific reason why you cant (like a change in child care) that they might accomodate, or have you just had a change of heart?

Letter is fine though IMO - you have very little relationship with them so you dont owe them a full explanation

The only thing I might add is something like

"for personal reasons, I am now unable to accept the offer"
or
"having reviewed the training plan it is incompatible with my lifestyle so I am now unable to accept the offer"

Basically, without saying the actual reason, giving them a hint as to whether it's a you or them issue.

I would change "unfortunately" to "with regret I have decided not to"
"Unfortunately" makes it sound its an accident you couldn't control.

Would also delete "following the final interview earlier this week." doesn't add anything - they know what their interview process was.

I'd change the last paragraph to the following just so it makes a tiny but more sense with regards to the reasons why (it's a very tiny thing but makes a difference)

"After a lot of consideration, I have decided unfortunately not to accept the offer as I am no longer in a position to accept the role.

I really appreciate the time you have taken to meet with me over the course of our interviews last week and this week."

I work in recruitment and think your letter is perfect. Just yesterday I got an email saying ‘I’ve decided not to take the job after all, thanks anyway’. I work for a big company so it may be different for me but to be honest, we rarely bother about your reason, we just need to know you’ve changed your mind so the job advert can go live again.

Wouldn't it be better to ring them? They can get straight on to getting someone else on board.

Thanks so much, everyone - your suggestions are all really good. I'd like to go with winobaglady's suggestion of the job being incompatible with my lifestyle, as I think that fits perfectly.

My reason for not accepting this job links to a thread I had last night where I was looking at whether to go along with 'Option 1' or 'Option 2'.

To go over the options in the other thread:

'Option 1' was at least a couple of hours of work every day at £30 per hour, which I enjoy (in afternoon and/or evenings), as well as Citizens Advice training for two full days every week (this training is really useful in itself, and feeds in directly to what I'd like to look into doing in the future). There's also a possibility of being given temporary work until end of this year with Company B, and then of being offered a stable job in their office with good pay and prospects at end of year (will hear back from company X about this by end of this week or start of next week). Would have free weekends and evenings.

'Option 2' was doing this job mentioned in the letter above - it would involve working full-time from an agreed location with Company A boss (no other colleagues) for Company A during the day (and would have to work on Saturday mornings and on some evenings too). Would have one-year contract that is reviewed every three months. With this option, I would have to work exclusively for Company A and would not be able to fit in working for Citizens Advice or to fit in freelance work.

Also, I had two interviews for Company A, with the second one lasting around 3 hours. In the second interview, I was asked to draft a piece of work for them (which took me two and a half hours), and the boss said that she loved it and that she'll use it on her website. Is that CF territory?

When I mention Company X in the Option 1 example, I still mean Company B - sorry! Copied directly from my other thread.

Bump.

Anyone?

How does this sound? I've rewritten the letter slightly, after some of the advice on here:

Dear X,

Thank you very much for offering me the position of X at Company A following our final interview earlier this week.

After a lot of consideration, I have decided, with regret, not to accept the offer. Due to personal reasons, unfortunately I am no longer in a position to accept the role.

I really appreciate the time that you have taken to meet with me over the course of our interviews last week and this week.

Yours sincerely,

RangeTesKopeks.

Go for it.

You may be able to argue that you own the copyright for the piece of work you produced as it wasn't produced in the course of employment. If so, they can't publish it without your permission & your permission may be conditional on them paying you a fee. Perhaps post in legal issues as I know very little about copyright law.

I’d let them have that piece of work seeing as you accepted the job initially. They’ll have rejected the other candidates, and will now need to readvertise and reinterview (both costly).