Post-flyout ghosting?

[ghosted]

Committee emailed me two months after the interview to say "we're still deciding" and now, two months after that, no word.

Is this sort of post-flyout ghosting common?

Makes sense for people who didn't get an interview, but I've usually heard from the committee within a month after not getting the job.

[it happens]

It definitely happens. Hard to quantify how often, but so far I've had 3 flyouts and one program ghosted me. They also seemed to be a rather dysfunctional department despite being a fairly high-ranked university.

[backchannel]

Sometimes they rank candidates who are above the bar to give an offer to in case the first choice decline. Have had a committee reach out and say that I was ranked 2nd, but ultimately did not get that offer. In another search, a faculty member who had close ties with the other department backchanneled and found out that they went with someone else. The search chair for that university only contacted me months after to apologize for the radio silence, but they were constrained in how they can contact candidates who were not selected.

[ghosted]

I once got an offer months after a flyout from a place I thought had ghosted me. I don't want to give too much hope to anyone being ghosted, because I think it generally means they have moved on to others, but in this rare occasion I did end up getting an offer (which I turned down, since I already had multiple offers and negotiations with other departments in the interim).

I think in general, ghosting is a sign of a dysfunctional department/chair, so I would be wary of any offer from a place that had initially ghosted me.