Being 'ghosted' by employer after job offer - please help!

[CarlyD156]

I would love some thoughts/advice. Last Fri (31 May) I was offered a job offer. It's a small organisation (no HR team) but the manager was very communicative, answering my questions on the emails. By Tues we had agreed a salary, which I negotiated to be a bit higher than the original offer.

I wanted to accept but felt like I needed to disclose things. 1 is that I already have leave booked for a 3 week honeymoon, some of which I'd have to take unpaid as I wouldn't accrue enough leave. The second is that I have a health condition that requires me to work from home one day a week. Of course, I could have waited til I had a contract to chat about this stuff but I didn't want anyone to feel 'tricked' and thought it'd be better to be totally upfront.

The problem is, since that email, they have ignored me! It's now end of Friday, so 3.5 days since I contacted them. I am getting really anxious and didn't want it hanging over me over the weekend, so I sent a friendly prompt this morning. But still nothing (it's now 5.30pm).

Has anyone experienced anything similar? What does it sound like has happened? And what would you do in my shoes?? I went through 3 interviews to get the role so I don't want to give up on it, but I also am getting slight red flags!

Thank you xxxx

I’m sure if OP comes back it will be to tell us that all is well and the job offer still stands.

Tricky

Would've been easier to do it face to face

Maybe call and ask to go in and discuss

I work in the NHS and had a situation where someone after accepting an offer disclosed an intermittent sickness absence history higher than anything I’d ever seen. They visited occ health where they declared a disability (it really wasn’t anything like a disability) and that they’d need to work 7am-3pm (outside core business hours) and a day working from home. There was no judgement from occ health as to what conditions met disability criteria. More if the individual thinks they’re disabled then they are. I was under a huge amount of pressure from HR and occ health to accommodate the demands. Luckily the invidual came with a bad reference so I was able to withdraw the offer. Nowadays I would have had to take them as our references just comprise dates and disciplinary procedures. Appreciate the NHS HR is nuts though.

There are conditions where people have to go to hospital for infusions regularly

Sure but then you're not actually working are you. Working from home means you're actually working, as you would in the office and the same hours normally.

So having to work from home one day a week means you simply can't commute once a week. But you can still do the same work.just in a different location. If you're receiving medical treatment during that day it's unlikely you can work to the same standard. So you wouldn't request to work from home, more work part time Ie four days a week.

That's why people are asking what it is. What medical condition means once a week you can't commute but can still perform your work duties as normal in a different location.

I doubt the ops going to tell us though.

I have a condition which means I'm in constant pain and so I work one day a week at home as it reduces the amount of traveling & moving around I have to do, which in turn helps me to keep being able to work. I get exhausted through being in pain so that one day means I can get up later and sit with my feet up (in my pjs if I wish!) and get my work done. I have a customer facing role so I organise my time so that that day is for writing up and my boss is happy with this. I resent it but appreciate I have to do what I have to do in order to keep my in the workforce. My disability was declared from the start though and my employer has been great at supporting me.

The OP hasn’t said she has a disability, she has a health condition. Not every condition is a disability.

If she’s not disabled, the company can turn around to say that it isn’t offering WFH options to the OP so she either takes five days on the office or doesn’t take up the role.
Might be a bit of a battle if the OP argues that she is disabled, but impossible to know given her post.

If she does have a disability, the company does need to look at making any reasonable accommodations but they get to define “reasonable” in the sense of what would work for their business.
If it’s an office where everyone can work from home on day a week once they’ve passed probation, but OP is looking to do that from day 1, it’s likely to be considered as reasonable.
If OP has been hired in a role where WFH is not available at all, either because everyone has to be in a particular place at a particular time (ie, she’s a driver for a delivery company), or it doesn’t have the IT infrastructure to support it, or it’s jist not an option the company wants as part of their working week, then they can say it’s not a reasonable adjustment.

The key here though is the medical condition, and whether it amounts to a disability or not.

Unlikely to hear from the OP again as she's probably hidden the thread whilst thanking her lucky stars she didn't post in AIBU. CF, IMO.

The second is that I have a health condition that requires me to work from home one day a week
Did you say it as such or did you elaborate, IE. explained that you were given this flexibility in your previous job and that it allowed you to be more effective because x,y and z. Did you suggest that the day off could be flexible depending on deadlines etc... It is quite unusual to have a health condition that means that working 5 office days will impact on your day but 4 with a day at home, still working would be ok.

If a candidate I recruited did this to me then I would be withdrawing the offer immediately and making an offer to the reserve candidate. You absolutely cannot start making ridiculous entitled demands like this where there was no prior discussion or agreement at interview. Better start looking for another job and try to be less demanding and more honest in future.

I think a lot of people are missing the point here so I’ll put it in bold-

If the OP declared a disability, she is entitled to ask for a reasonable accommodation to allow her to work

Those saying “I’d immediately withdraw the offer” would quickly find themselves at an equality tribunal.

As I mentioned up-thread, the OP hasn’t given enough information as to whether her condition is actually a disability.

If she does have a disability, the right time to disclose it is after an offer. Before an interview, there’s a risk she would be ruled out. Once offered, she’s proven she has the skills and qualifications for the role, and a withdrawal of an offer would be discriminatory.

I’m also surprised that people are annoyed that she negotiated on the salary before disclosing it. Of course she did. You negotiate from a position of power. A company can turn around and say “no, we can’t offer you £X because we don’t pay that amount as a company”, they can’t say “we won’t offer you £X as we wouldn’t pay that to a disabled employee”.

All that said, the OP hasn’t told us if she has a disability so there’s no way of knowing unless she updates us.

Rustynail I don't think the OP deserves to be insulted actually.

Not everyone is clear on exactly which order to ask for or to declare certain things, in particular their health challenges and disability diagnoses. We often get queries on here about when best to state a disability, because people don't know their legal rights.

Maybe the OP didn't do everything word perfect and in the right order, but that could have been due to worries about whether a job offer might be withdrawn.

Regarding the salary uplift, again the OP took a chance and maybe the timing was the wrong order of things, but I'd sooner give them the benefit of the doubt and provide guidance. Just because people get flamed on AIBU shouldn't make that acceptable. It's toxic over there.

I recently interviewed a candidate for a FT job and made an offer. They then revealed that they had a commitment in another country and went to visit every other weekend. They tried to negotiate late start on alternate Mondays and early finish on alternate Fridays (this might have been OK). Then it turned out that they wouldn't be in at all on the alternate Fridays (but wouldn't accept part time hours), plus they needed an extra 6 weeks annual leave to cover school holidays.

Funnily enough, I withdrew the offer. Total CF.

OP, I think you do need to look at it from the employers POV

I think the problem is partly raising it so late, and partly just ‘informing’ them that it was something that ‘had to’ happen, rather than raising it during the same conversations during which salary and other terms were being discussed, and/or saying “I have x health condition, which has y impact on me, previously this has been managed well with working one day a week from home, is that something that would be possible?”

It sounds like she’s got their backs up by negotiating other terms including salary, getting it all finalised, and then just announcing “by the way I have to work one day from home”, assuming that will be doable and is something she’s entitled to demand.

But the OP didn't ask for reasonable adjustments, she just stated that she would be WFH one day a week. That can't be ok.

The OP is absolutely behaving like a CF. if her health issue required a reasonable adjustment this should have been declared at interview and agreed. Note it is the employer who decides what the business can accommodate as an adjustment, it does not mean that the employee dictates when and where they will work. Negotiating a salary uplift is not so much of an issue. It's fairly common as is the pre booked annual leave but I would be very pissed off to have appointed a candidate that then tried to start dictating terms to me. Her employer is absolutely within their rights to withdraw the offer on the candidates refusal to work the contracted hours in the office. It may be that her new employer does not allow WFH for anyone else so why on earth should they make that concession to a new employee. The op may think that WFH is required as a reasonable adjustment but that does not mean the employer has to take a blind bit of notice of her.

No, you don't have to declare health issues and ask for reasonable adjustments as part of the interview.

Unless you are working 7 days a week could you not do what you have to do on a non working day? As pp said if you are not available for whatever you need to be at home for, you're not going to be fully available as you should be if WFH?

"if her health issue required a reasonable adjustment this should have been declared at interview and agreed."

Absolutely no need or requirement to do this. The OP left it too late and handled it badly by the sounds of things but there was absolutely no need to mention it at interview.

"Her employer is absolutely within their rights to withdraw the offer on the candidates refusal to work the contracted hours in the office. It may be that her new employer does not allow WFH for anyone else so why on earth should they make that concession to a new employee. The op may think that WFH is required as a reasonable adjustment but that does not mean the employer has to take a blind bit of notice of her."

Goodness. Well, as I say, the OP has handled it badly (and doesn't actually say it is a disability), but it's completely wrong to say that if a new employee with a disability needed some homeworking as a genuine reasonable adjustment, and this was possible, the employer would be within their rights to "not take a blind bit of notice"

As I say, it was handled badly, and this isn't how one should go about requesting an adjustment at all, but it's going way too far to say that an employer can just refuse it for reasons like they don't allow anyone else. A request should be looked at on its own merits, and adjustments for disabilities shouldn't be based on whether the request is allowed for everyone else or not.

"Not taking a blind bit of notice" of requests for reasonable adjustments for a disability would be extremely foolish of any employer. They should be considered and explored, and then refused if they genuinely cannot be accommodated.

As someone with a disability, I'm laughing my head off at the idea of declaring it at interview stage. I never do and you don't have to.

I don't do it until after the offer AND I have accepted. Usually on the medical form. I wouldn't ask for reasonable adjustments until I'd started.

I currently work for a very agreeable employer, but even then I waited until after I started.

If disabled people declared at application or interview they'd never get any jobs!

Isn't the negotiation stage the time when both sides put what they have on the table? So the offer is made, then the OP opens discussions on WFH and salary simultaneously.

I have never ever declared my health condition at interview.

Some of these posts are questionable.

But does reasonable adjustments equal, I'll accept the job, but don't want to do it as advertised, l want to do it this way?

”I wouldn't ask for reasonable adjustments until I'd started.”

But how would that work if you needed adjustments that weren’t reasonably able to be accommodated by the employer?!

I think the phrase "I need" to work from home would be ringing alarm bells for for many employers.

As other PP have said asking for reasonable adjustments for a disability doesn't work like this.

Well they can offer the job without the WFH - it may not be a reasonable adjustment for the employer to make. In which case, presumably, the OP will turn it down. No winners in that case.