The Advert You Never Took Down

You filled the role in May. The advert is still up.

People are still applying. Nobody is reading them, and each unanswered applicant is a small, specific piece of reputation being spent.

What a live stale advert does

It collects applications nobody reads. ⚠️ Each one is a person who took time and heard nothing.

It makes you look like you cannot keep staff. A role permanently advertised reads as a role people keep leaving — and candidates read it exactly that way.

It buries the real one. ⚠️ When you next advertise, yours competes with your own stale posting, and applicants cannot tell which is current.

It wastes the good candidates. ⚠️ Somebody suitable applied in July and heard nothing. They are now working elsewhere and will not apply again.

Why it stays up

Taking it down is nobody's task. ⚠️ Posting has an owner; removing does not.

"We might need someone." Keeping it up as a general net — which would be defensible if anyone were reading it.

Nobody remembers where it is. ⚠️ Posted across several places by different people, over years.

Auto-renewal. Some listings renew themselves and nobody notices.

The twenty-minute sweep

Search for your own venue as a candidate would. ⚠️ You will find postings you did not know were live — that is the normal outcome.

List every place you have ever posted. Sites, social accounts, local groups, industry boards.

Take down everything not currently being read.

Then note where the live ones are, so next time this takes five minutes rather than twenty.

If you keep one up deliberately

Legitimate, with two conditions:

Somebody reads it weekly. ⚠️ Weekly, not eventually.

Everyone gets a reply. Even a short no. ⚠️ In a local trade, an unanswered applicant tells people — and they are frequently connected to the staff you already have.

Say what it is. "We keep this open and get in touch when something comes up" is honest and it sets the right expectation.

The reply that costs nothing

⚠️ Most venues reply to nobody, which makes replying disproportionately effective.

Two lines is enough. "Thank you — nothing right now, but we will keep your details." ⚠️ And then actually keep them — that list is your next vacancy's shortlist.

Three to hold

Live postings, counted. ⚠️ Search and count. It is higher than you think.

Applications received in the last quarter, and how many got a reply. The second number is usually zero.

Days from application to first response. ⚠️ Under three days wins candidates; over ten loses everyone worth having.

Where the record has to sit

Where you have posted, and who applied, has to be written down somewhere that survives the person who posted it. Otherwise adverts outlive their purpose and applicants disappear into an inbox nobody owns.

tasteck keeps staff records alongside shift history, so how somebody was hired — and who nearly was — can sit with the rest of the record.

Nobody is ignoring applicants. The advert belongs to nobody, the replies belong to nobody, and both have been true since May.