Messages that stop after a couple of dates. Paying for premium tiers to get better matches. Settling for something that seems good enough until something better comes along.
These aren’t descriptions of modern dating. They’re increasingly familiar realities of the 2026 job market.
The parallels are hard to ignore. Technology promised to help us navigate an overwhelming number of options until we found the perfect match. Instead, both job hunting and dating have created environments in which people feel overwhelmed by choice—and disposable to the people on the other side.
Just as relentless swiping has taken some of the humanity out of dating, automated screening and mass applications have made it harder for job seekers to be recognized as serious candidates. Many are also exhausted, mentally and financially, by having to invest in services such as LinkedIn Premium or Indeed Pro simply to improve their chances of being seen.
When employers start ghosting
Ghosting has also migrated from dating into the workplace. A candidate can have what seems like a promising interview, only to hear nothing from the hiring manager afterward.
And the practice appears to be growing. A 2026 paper titled Post-Interview Ghosting Casts Dark Shadows on Applicant Reactions, published in the Academy of Management Journal, argues that ghosting can have significant consequences for both candidates and employers. Candidates may feel angry and treated “like commodities,” while organizations risk damaging their reputations.
Job seekers are responding in kind. A 2023 Indeed survey found that 62% of respondents planned to ghost a prospective employer during a future job search, up from 37% in 2019.
Jennifer Dulski, CEO and founder of AI leadership-development platform Rising Team, says she has even seen people apply the dating concept of “NATO”—“not attached to outcome”—to job hunting.
The mindset is essentially: apply everywhere, expect nothing, and don’t get emotionally invested.
“I’m just going to spray and pray and apply to all these jobs and not really feel anything,” Dulski says.
The result is a vicious cycle. Candidates who expect to be ignored apply to more positions while investing less effort in each one.
Getting the job is only the beginning
Landing a position doesn’t necessarily end the frustration.
Leena Rinne, vice president of leadership, business, and coaching at Skillsoft, says many employees now find themselves in “situationships” with their employers. Their current jobs become placeholders—something to occupy them until a better opportunity appears.
The data reflects that detachment. According to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, global employee engagement declined for a second consecutive year in 2025, reaching its lowest level since 2020. The first half of 2026 has shown little improvement: only 31% of U.S. employees report being engaged at work, while 18% are actively disengaged.
For some, that disengagement means checking out in hopes of being laid off. For others, it means endlessly scrolling through job listings while wondering whether a better opportunity is waiting somewhere else.
Rinne says this shouldn’t surprise employers. When companies create systems that make employees feel insecure and increasingly view career progression as transactional, employees naturally respond in kind.
“We can’t create these systems in a corporate environment and then be surprised when employees also look at it like, ‘Well, this isn’t permanent. I’m going to put in a year or a year and a half until something better comes along,’” she says.
A workplace situationship isn’t necessarily bad, Rinne adds. An employee who stays for 18 months can still create enormous value for a company before moving on to another opportunity.
The problem arises when neither side enters the relationship expecting it to last—or investing in making it work.
The human solution to a technology problem
If technology helped create the problem, the solution may involve something decidedly less technological: human connection.
Neil Costa, CEO and founder of recruitment marketing agency HireClix, points to a shift happening in dating. Younger people who are tired of dating apps are increasingly turning to in-person singles events. He believes hiring could benefit from the same approach.
Real-world recruiting events allow employers and candidates to meet as people rather than résumés and algorithms. Instead of one application disappearing into a pile of thousands, both sides can determine whether there is a genuine connection.
Online platforms are also experimenting with ways to make expressions of interest more meaningful. Daniel Chait, CEO of job board Greenhouse, points to the company’s “Dream Job” feature, which gives users one token each month to signal that a particular position is the job they really want—a concept similar to a dating app’s “super like.”
“That scarcity forces you to really think, which one do I want to use it on?” Chait says. The idea is to help candidates stand out while giving employers a clearer signal about which applications deserve attention.
Stop looking for the perfect match
The workplace may also benefit from abandoning the idea of a perfect candidate.
Rinne argues that no employee—or job—will check every box. Someone who is 80% or 90% of the way there may have the potential to become an excellent fit if an organization is willing to invest in them.
The distinction is between a genuine mismatch and a skills gap that can be addressed through coaching, training, and development.
“You don’t have to go out and hire new people if it’s a bad fit. You can invest in the people you have,” she says.
Costa makes a similar point. Expecting a job to be perfect, he argues, is as unrealistic as expecting a relationship to be permanently exciting.
“Every job has its ups and downs, just like life has its ups and downs,” he says. A sustainable career, like a sustainable relationship, requires learning how to navigate those inevitable periods rather than assuming every difficult moment means it’s time to leave.
Macaire Montini, VP of people and culture at HR platform HiBob, believes the skills needed to navigate this new workplace are surprisingly low-tech.
“Knowing yourself and emotional regulation are the two most important things in the workplace going forward,” she says.
That may be the biggest irony of all. After years of building ever more sophisticated systems to help people find the perfect job, employer, or employee, the answer may ultimately be something technology can’t automate: knowing yourself, communicating honestly, investing in other people, and accepting that no relationship—professional or otherwise—is going to be perfect all the time.