On putting your best foot forward as a university while hiring (or what you say will be remembered).
A friend relayed a story about a department chair flipping out on a candidate.
The candidate had received an offer & updated the schools about their status.
An offer, but not accepted.
The chair pushed back, demanding that the candidate delay accepting the offer, until his uni's search had progressed.
The chair had not yet invited the student to campus.
If not, then the chair contended that the candidate's behavior was unethical.
After a phone call with strong language, the candidate withdrew from the applicant pool.
Stories like these make the rounds every so often - about Department Chairs & faculty behaving badly - when interacting with job candidates.
A few more colorful stories.
A department chair advised a PhD student to drop a study, that later appeared in a top journal. (This happened to me).
A department chair using the urinal while making offers. (This was confirmed through three different sources).
A faculty member commenting on the physical appearance of a candidate. (And continued to do so long after the job was declined).
What baffles me, is that even when there are relatively few jobs in an academic market, stories like these resonate & continue across academic generations.
While technically not misconduct, their behavior was awful at best & disrespectful at worst.
So what can we do? To ensure that universities seeking hire faculty behave in more respectful ways? In the future?
First, we need to stop viewing job candidates as commodities.
We need to view them as people who deserve respect.
This will require a mental shift in the minds of many senior faculty.
Perhaps, because they were treated poorly, or candidates have behaved badly, some dept chairs continue to behave badly.
Second, we need clear rubrics about what is, & is not, acceptable behavior on the part of faculty seeking to hire & job candidates looking for work.
Human resources provides training to Dept Chairs for how to behave within the law, but little on how to woo a candidate.
We provide scant training to candidates on how to behave, relying instead on common sense.
Academics are often not much good at wooing or at common sense.
Academic associations must step in & fill the gap.
Third, we need to focus on improving communication.
At a baseline, every contact with a candidate should be clear, professional, & upbeat. Every candidate should be updated, in reasonable time, about their status, particularly after they have made a campus visit.
At a baseline, every candidate should be afforded a chance to attend a doc consortium, a structured conversation, or other mechanism that educates them on the implications of their behavior.
We must address bad behavior on the part of hiring faculty.
If not, the cycle of stories will continue, undermining collegiality & our ability to attract new colleagues to academe.
Lets build a better academe!
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