The debate around hiring ethics and employee accountability has found a new talking point after entrepreneur and Shark Tank India judge Anupam Mittal floated the idea of a “Ghostdoor” — a Glassdoor-like platform where employers could rate candidates and employees based on their professional conduct.
In a post on LinkedIn, Mittal questioned whether it was time for an “evil twin” of Glassdoor, noting that while employers are often publicly rated and criticized, companies also face challenges from candidates who accept offers only to back out at the last moment.
“Candidates who accept offers, shop them for usual ‘30% more’ totka, and then ghost you a day before,” he wrote.
Mittal said he recently experienced such a situation firsthand when a senior executive reportedly failed to join after making the company wait for six months, citing a family medical emergency at the last moment.
The entrepreneur suggested that employers could theoretically rate professionals on factors such as offer integrity, notice-period behaviour and the quality of handovers. However, he quickly acknowledged the risks associated with such a system.
“Useful? Very. Dangerous? Also very,” he wrote, warning that any reverse-rating platform could easily be abused in India. According to Mittal, toxic managers could misuse such a system, employees leaving unhealthy workplaces could be unfairly penalized, and careers might end up being judged by what he called “vendetta-based CIBIL scores.”
Still, he argued that there should be some mechanism to discourage habitual offenders whose actions disrupt hiring processes and damage the reputation of professionals. He also wondered whether artificial intelligence could help build a fair solution.
The post sparked a lively discussion online, with many users pointing out that candidate ghosting is only one side of the problem.
One commenter argued that lengthy 90-day notice periods often encourage candidates to collect multiple offers and continue interviewing while serving notice, increasing the chances of last-minute dropouts.
Another user stressed that hiring teams should focus on understanding candidates’ career motivations, maintaining regular communication during the notice period and treating candidates as people rather than simply recruitment targets.
A third commenter pushed back more strongly, saying employers frequently “ghost” applicants after multiple interview rounds and warning that a candidate-rating platform could be weaponized by toxic managers to punish employees who choose to resign.
Mittal’s “Ghostdoor” idea may have been partly tongue-in-cheek, but it has reignited a larger conversation about trust, transparency and accountability on both sides of the hiring process.