You're hired...just kidding.

[tally]

I recently applied for a non-tenure track position at a university where I've been a visiting faculty member for several years. The hiring committee and department chair recommended that I be hired & I was notified two days before Christmas that I received the job. Then the Dean decided he disagreed with the decision made by the committee & the chair. Today I received word that the job has been given to someone else. I am incredibly disheartened by the chain of events. Is this normal behavior?

[conjugate]

No, and I regard it as callous and shockingly unethical.  Spread the word about these people to your acquaintances; word of mouth ought to come back and bite them in the rear on this.

[frombothsides]

I recently applied for a non-tenure track position at a university where I've been a visiting faculty member for several years. The hiring committee and department chair recommended that I be hired & I was notified two days before Christmas that I received the job. Then the Dean decided he disagreed with the decision made by the committee & the chair. Today I received word that the job has been given to someone else. I am incredibly disheartened by the chain of events. Is this normal behavior?

When you say that you were 'notified' - were you notified that the committee and chair had recommended you, or do you mean you had gotten a direct offer officially from the university?  It's bad form regardless, but for different reasons.  If it was the committee just recommending things, they should have waited until the process had finished to avoid raising your hopes then seeing them dashed like this.  If it was an official offer, then the dean is engaging in very poor business practice.

As others will point out, in the end any word you hear is meaningless until you have that offer in writing and on the record - and preferably with the offer letter in writing signed and confirmed as returned to your employer.

From Both Sides of the Pond

[tally]

It was just from the committee & chair. I realize no official rules were broken with the process, but it still stings.

[jackalope]

The committee and the chair behaved incredibly unprofessionally--as they are realizing right now. I am sorry you went through this.

This is why we tell people not to withdraw from other searches until they have a contract.

[athena1]

How terrible. I'm sorry and I hope you've applied elsewhere.

[ruralguy]

This is way out of line. Jobs are only to be officially (or even unofficially) offered by the person who has the final say about it (usually some sort of Dean, as it clearly was in this case). AFTER
the Dean makes an offer, THEN the dept. can be involved as much
as they want (usually, with some control from the Dept Chair/SC Chair).

Committees have to be very very clear about NOT saying to candidates such things as "We just put in our reccommendation.." or "You are top guy/gal"....its frustrating, since some committees probably made reccomendations on December 22 or so, only to have to wait until January 5 (or later) to have  a Dean return and approve
or disapprove of the reccomendation, but thats life.

[zuzu_]

This has also happened to me for a non-TT position.

I was even given a SCEHDULE OF CLASSES.

I am serious when I say I think I had a mild form of PTSD from this event that took me years to overcome.

To everyone: DO NOT stop your job search until you have a contact, or, at the very least, an official offer letter from someone atop the the chain of command.

[rattusdomesticus]

This happened to me. I was told by a dept chair that I was hired at a large community college system in Chicago... then the letter of offer never came. Luckily I had another offer--but at the time it was devastating. Turns out they have a very dysfunctional administration which frequently dismisses recommendations from faculty committees -- or disbands faculty committees that don't give them the recommendations they want.

Funny enough, I applied two years later and *the same thing happened again*. This time a V.P. of Academic Affairs stepped in, trash-canned my hiring paperwork and hired a little apprentice of hers. Needless to say, the department hates this V.P. I stopped taking them seriously (though I badly wanted to live there). One dept chair confided that sometimes faculty is hired and they dont' find out until after the semester started (!). The faculty that work there love the town, but are demoralized by the college adm. They've even gone on strike to hold on to their health benefits! Yikes. Sucks to be them.

Yeah, that's a place I want to work... (not).

[losemygrip]

The hiring committee and department chair recommended that I be hired & I was notified two days before Christmas that I received the job.

Was the notification in writing, and did it formally say you had the job?  Or was it just a notification that the recommendation had been forwarded?

This is why when I call candidates, I just tell them we would like to recommend them for the position, and are they still interested?  I explain then that this decision is not final until it has been approved by all.

[comp_queen]

The hiring committee and department chair recommended that I be hired & I was notified two days before Christmas that I received the job.

Was the notification in writing, and did it formally say you had the job?  Or was it just a notification that the recommendation had been forwarded?

This is why when I call candidates, I just tell them we would like to recommend them for the position, and are they still interested?  I explain then that this decision is not final until it has been approved by all.

And this would be why candidates should ask for an e-mail or other written confirmation during such phone conversations, or let the phone take a message, or immediately creat the paper trail themselves by e-mailing the person--"Per our phone conversation of Date and Time, I am pleased to accept . . . . "

In various situations, I respond to phone messages or phone calls with e-mails, on which I bcc myself.  You won't give me a paper trail?  I'll make one.

[de_safran]

This happened to me. I was told by a dept chair that I was hired at a large community college system in Chicago... then the letter of offer never came.
Quote from: rattusdomesticus on January 11, 2009, 12:55:57 PM

===========

I work for the Chicago City Colleges.  The paper work never comes before the semester starts.  At another University I prepared for many weeks and the contract never came until the course started.

My hope is that one day soon I'll get a full time permanent job say good bye to this semester by semester adjunct business.

[offthemarket]

This must have been really disappointing.

The person to be really mad at is the chair of the department, who told you about it prematurely.  Job offers come from the dean.

[nomozob]

The previous poster commented that job offers come from the dean.  Actually job offers come from whoever is authorized to make the offer, and that varies across institutions.  I am a chair, and I am authorized to extend job offers at my institution.

This is, however, an excellent question to ask during an interview:  Who is the hiring authority?  If an offer is forthcoming, who will I be speaking to?

[prytania3]

Really poor form. So sorry you had to go through this.