The Advert You Never Took Down
A job posting from four months ago is still live. People are still applying, nobody is replying, and every one of them is telling somebody about it.
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.
The list you have never written
Job boards the obvious ones
Social posts still pinned, still first result
Directory listings someone set up years ago
Third-party pages an agency built, nobody has the login
Your own site the page you forgot links to itself
⚠️ Four and five are where the old ones survive, because nobody remembers they exist to check them.
Finding them once
Search your venue name plus "hiring" and plus the old role title
⇒ ⚠️ Do it as a stranger would — logged out, on a phone. What you see signed in is not what applicants see.
What a stale advert actually costs
Applications you must reject time
Applicants who feel misled reputation, quietly
Real vacancies buried under it the expensive one
⚠️ Three is invisible. When two adverts are live, the wrong one gets the traffic and you conclude the channel does not work.
Take-down is a step in the process, not a chore
Hire made → advert down, same day
⚠️ Attach it to the hire, not to a weekly sweep. Anything on a sweep happens late; anything attached to a moment happens.
Where it belongs
⇒ On the same checklist as the new starter's first shift. One line.
The one you should keep up
An always-open role, clearly labelled as such
⚠️ Say so in the text. "We always accept applications for X" is honest and works. An undated advert for a filled role is neither.
Reply to everyone, briefly
"Thank you — this role is filled. We will keep your details for three months."
⚠️ The cost is two minutes; the return is the next vacancy. People who were treated well apply again and tell others.
⇒ ⚠️ If you say you will keep their details, know your obligations for holding personal data — these vary by jurisdiction. Take advice from a qualified professional.
The number worth keeping
Applications per live advert, by source
⚠️ Without this you cannot tell a dead channel from a stale advert — and they look identical from the outside.
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.
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.
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