New Hint App survey data suggests that workplace ghosting is no longer limited to hiring or awkward office friendships. It is becoming a common way to avoid conflict, delay accountability, and leave professional relationships suspended in uncertainty.
Ghosting was once treated as a dating-app behavior: an unanswered message, a conversation cut off without explanation, a silence that forces one person to interpret what another refuses to say. But new data from Hint App suggests the same pattern has moved into professional life, where silence is increasingly being used not only to avoid discomfort, but to manage it.
According to a Hint App survey of 12,847 adults across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and Latin America, 68% of respondents said they had experienced some form of workplace ghosting during the past year. The behavior extends well beyond recruitment, where ignored applications and abandoned interview processes have long been familiar complaints. Respondents described silence inside active teams, manager relationships, mentorships, collaborations, and workplace friendships.
The clearest pattern is not simply that people are being ignored. It is that many workers now expect professional ambiguity as part of the job. 54% said a colleague had abruptly stopped responding despite an active project or shared responsibility. Another 47% said they had been ignored after what they believed was a positive professional interaction. More strikingly, 42% said they had been ghosted by a manager after raising a concern, asking for feedback, or discussing career progression.
That makes workplace ghosting different from ordinary busyness. It often appears at moments when clarity matters most: after a request, a disagreement, a performance conversation, or a decision that affects someone’s future. In those situations, silence does not simply pause communication. It shifts the emotional burden onto the person waiting.
The survey also suggests that ghosting is not only something workers experience. It is something many admit they use. 38% of respondents said they had personally ghosted someone at work, most commonly because they wanted to avoid confrontation, felt overwhelmed by communication demands, or did not know how to respond. Nearly half, 49%, said they would rather stop replying than have an uncomfortable professional conversation. Among workers under 35, that figure rose to 61%.
The generational divide is especially revealing. For many younger workers, workplace ghosting appears less like a shocking breach of etiquette than a familiar feature of professional life. 67% of respondents aged 18-34 said it now feels so common that they no longer find it surprising when it happens.
The emotional consequences are significant. 62% of respondents said being ghosted at work caused them to overthink what had happened, while 44% said it affected their confidence in professional relationships. More than a third, 36%, said it made them less likely to trust future colleagues, managers, or collaborators.
One respondent from the United Kingdom described waiting weeks for feedback after several conversations about a possible promotion.
“I was not told no. I was not told yes. People just stopped replying. The uncertainty was worse than a rejection because there was nothing concrete to respond to.”
Kirill Liakh, Managing Director of Hint App, said the findings show how silence can become a hidden transfer of emotional pressure.
“Ghosting lets one person avoid discomfort by making another person carry the uncertainty. In a workplace, silence is rarely neutral. It can leave people reading risk, rejection, and approval into the absence of a reply.”
Workers appear to be adjusting to that reality. 57% of respondents said they now assume a lack of response is itself a response. Another 46% said they have lower expectations of professional communication than they did five years ago. That normalization may be the most telling shift in the data: unresolved silence is becoming not an exception, but an anticipated outcome.
Modern workplaces have more communication tools than ever: email, messaging platforms, shared documents, video calls, and project management systems. Yet many workers describe feeling less certain about where they stand. The issue is no longer access to communication. It is the disappearance of closure.
Workplace ghosting reflects a broader change in how people manage emotional pressure at work. Difficult conversations have not vanished. They have become easier to postpone, mute, or leave unanswered. As silence becomes normalized, clarity may become one of the most valuable professional currencies left.
About Hint App:
Hint App is a symbolic, emotional insight platform with over 1.2 million users that combines ancient practices such as astrology, palmistry, and visual soulmate interpretations with modern technology, including artificial intelligence and NASA astronomical data, to deliver highly personalized reports based on a user’s exact birth details. Rather than offering predictions or quick fixes, Hint App serves as a reflective framework, helping individuals map emotional patterns, understand the deeper timing behind personal and relationship decisions, and reconnect with their inner clarity.
Hint App is a symbolic, emotional insight platform with over 1.2 million users that combines ancient practices such as astrology, palmistry, and visual soulmate interpretations with modern technology, including artificial intelligence and NASA astronomical data, to deliver highly personalized reports based on a user’s exact birth details. Rather than offering predictions or quick fixes, Hint App serves as a reflective framework, helping individuals map emotional patterns, understand the deeper timing behind personal and relationship decisions, and reconnect with their inner clarity.