Why Companies Keep Reposting Jobs While Great People Can’t Get Hired

A systems-level look at the job-market drift no one is naming

Something strange is happening in the job market. Companies keep reposting the same roles. Talented people keep saying they can’t get hired. Teams feel overwhelmed. Leaders feel pressure. Candidates feel stuck.

It looks like a hiring problem. It feels like a talent shortage. But underneath, it’s something else entirely:

It’s organizational drift, playing out at market scale.

And the patterns from our own readership reinforce this. More than 10,000 people have engaged with this work so far this year, and the same groups keep showing up: owners, presidents, senior ICs, strategists, operators, and specialists with deep management and financial skills. In other words, the exact people who feel organizational drift first. When thousands of readers gravitate to the same themes (misalignment, unclear roles, leadership overload, structural friction) it tells you something about what the market is experiencing.

Companies Don’t Know What They Actually Need

Vision Drift

When a company reposts the same job over and over, it’s rarely because they can’t find talent. It’s because they’re unclear on the problem the role is meant to solve.

This is classic Ghost Ship energy:

• lots of ideas

• lots of enthusiasm

• no follow‑through

• no strategic spine

And it blends with Diluted Generalist behavior:

• too many priorities

• too many directions

• too many “maybe this will fix it” attempts

So they post a role that’s really three roles.

Or a role that’s not tied to a real outcome.

Or a role that’s meant to “relieve pressure” instead of solve a system constraint.

The result?

The job market becomes a mirror of the organization’s confusion.

Roles Are Frankensteined and Misaligned

Structure Drift

Candidates aren’t imagining it, job descriptions have become:

• vague

• contradictory

• overloaded

• unrealistic

• stitched together from multiple functions

This is Fragile Empire behavior:

• looks strong from the outside

• brittle on the inside

• unclear communication

• inconsistent expectations

And it pairs with Overextended Crew dynamics:

• teams stretched thin

• leaders trying to hire “one person who can do everything”

• no infrastructure to support the role once hired

Good candidates sense the misalignment instantly.

So they hesitate.

Or they apply and get ghosted when the company realizes mid‑process that the role doesn’t make sense.

This isn’t a talent shortage.

It’s a clarity shortage.

Companies Are Trying Harder Instead of Thinking Clearly

Execution Drift

When organizations are overwhelmed, they don’t slow down to think.

They speed up.

They:

• post more roles

• interview more candidates

• add more responsibilities

• increase urgency

• chase symptoms instead of diagnosing causes

This is Grinder’s Treadmill energy … flawless execution, zero strategic pause.

The hiring process becomes a sprint inside a maze.

Everyone is moving.

No one is progressing.

Leaders Carry Too Much, So Hiring Becomes Emotional Instead of Strategic

Leadership Drift

Many founders and executives are unintentionally shaping the job market through their own overload.

Benevolent Bottleneck shows up as:

• “I’ll just do it myself until we find the right person.”

• “I need someone who can think exactly like me.”

• “I don’t have time to clarify the role, just find someone great.”

Burnout Blueprint shows up as:

• leaders who care deeply

• teams who depend on them

• roles created to “support the leader” instead of support the system

This creates roles that are emotionally loaded, not operationally defined.

Candidates feel that weight, and they back away.

The Market Is Stuck Because the System Is Stuck

Culture Drift → All Archetypes Converge

When drift accumulates across Vision, Structure, Culture, and Execution, the job market becomes a reflection of the organization’s internal misalignment.

Companies feel: Misaligned. Overloaded. Stalled.

Candidates feel: Confused. Discouraged. Invisible.

Both sides are experiencing the same system failure, just from different altitudes.

And you can see it in the patterns across the thousands of people who read this work. The posts that resonate most are the ones that speak to people carrying real responsibility, the ones who feel drift before anyone else does.

They’re not here for inspiration. They’re here because something in their system isn’t making sense, and they want language that makes the invisible visible.

What’s Really Going On?

The job market isn’t broken.
The talent pool isn’t broken.
The candidates aren’t broken.
The companies aren’t broken.
The system is drifting.

And when the system drifts:

• roles blur

• priorities scatter

• hiring becomes reactive

• teams overfunction

• leaders carry too much

• candidates lose trust

• execution becomes frantic

• clarity disappears

This is the same pattern we see inside organizations every day, just scaled across the labor market.

So now what??!??!

The job market isn’t suffering from a talent shortage. It’s suffering from a clarity shortage. And the thousands of readers who engage with this work each month (owners, CXOs, leaders, strategists, operators, senior ICs) are the ones trying to navigate that fog in real time.

The pattern is clear: when organizations drift, the market drifts with them. Roles blur. Expectations fracture. Hiring becomes emotional instead of strategic.

But clarity is a choice.
Alignment is a choice.
Systems can be rebuilt.

If you’re a leader trying to make sense of this, the first step is understanding where drift is shaping your system. Clarity starts with naming the pattern.

If this resonated, these pieces will deepen the pattern:

• The Chaos Cycle: Why Agencies Stay Stuck
  How drift compounds inside teams long before it shows up in the market.

• The 3 Archetypes of Leadership Drift
  The predictable ways leaders get pulled off course, and how to recognize the signs.

• Why Organizations Fix Symptoms Instead of Systems
  The hidden mechanics behind misalignment, overload, and reactive decision‑making.

🧭 Map Your Leadership System

Take the 20‑question Unified Business Leadership Diagnostic (UBLD)
Get a clear read on where drift is showing up across Vision, Structure, Culture, and Execution … and what to do next.

📚 See How Drift Plays Out in Real Organizations

Explore case studies where misalignment, overload, and unclear roles were replaced with clarity, structure, and sustainable performance.

🛠️ Build a System That Doesn’t Drift

If you’re navigating misalignment, unclear roles, or leadership overload, here’s how we help organizations rebuild their operating system.

👋 Not sure where to start?

Tell us what’s going on. We’ll point you in the right direction.