Cross posting from r/askHR.
[US-FL]: In February I had an interview with a local community college for a summer adjunct professor position. I was surprised at the end that they basically assured me I had the job.
The interviewer (head of natural sciences) told me all I had to do was send in my letters of recommendation and he would forward everything to HR to get me onboarded.
A couple weeks later he sends an email to me and another professor to let him know I’ll be hired for the summer and that I need to shadow the professor. IMPORTANT NOTE: he had not sent my info to HR yet and I had not signed anything yet. The email word for word was :
“[professor], I am bringing on board a new physics adjunct for the summer semester. I am including [OP] on this email so that the two of you can set up a time to meet and discuss preparations for teaching PHY2048 or PHY2053 in the summer. Thanks.”
You can see from this email that it was strongly implied I had the job even with nothing signed yet.
For months I never got any email from HR to sign an offer letter. In the last couple of months I called HR to ask about the process and was told to wait. A few weeks ago I emailed the interviewer to ask what’s going on. He said quote:
“Sorry about the delay. We have been hiring a lot of full time faculty this month and have prioritize getting them onboarded. I will submit your application for processing on Monday. “
Classes are supposed to begin Monday May 11. I emailed on Monday May 5 and asked one more time why it’s taking so long. He emails back Monday May 5, one week before classes start, quote:
“I did not assign you a course for the summer C term since we did not have enough enrollment for additional sections. I sent over your application to HR with the intent of possibly doing a class during the summer B session that starts in June. Again, this is dependent on enrollment for the summer B session. I will keep you posted. “
At no point before this was it made clear to me that they might not actually be hiring me. He always made it seem like it was a sure thing. I was really counting on this.
Is there any way I can report this to HR? I feel like it was handled so unprofessionally and disrespectfully. I didn’t sign anything so no breach of contract. But this was the worst I’ve ever been treated in my job search. I really don’t want him doing this to anyone else in the future. What do I do?