Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
But employers still DO discriminate. Every day and every way. They do it covertly. and you can't prove it. BUT....asking questions at interviews regarding protected class issues is just stupid.
I don't know, but I just get turned off. Because it's a red flag. What are they going to be asking or worse, snooping into after they hire me? Some people just want to be in your business 24/7.
I don't live in North Korea so I ain't havin' any of that.. - !!
Oh yeah! I know they do. And how they do it! But in my day I have seen some real doozies of discrimination lawsuits ... totally crazy ... that went to court and had to be taken seriously by employers ... and cost a lot of money to defend even if the employer won at the end. It's just suicide to ask stupid questions in the interview! Just asking for trouble IMO! I also agree with you that this is not an employer I'd want to work for!
Umm...well..in this slow economy, it's an employer's market. They have the boalls to ask whatever they want or behave in other rude ways at interviews..and after. You gotta take it in stride and not focus too much on these dumb ***es. All the weirdos just come out crawling out of the woodwork. You can't let them frazzle you. Poker face and calm responses at least keep you calm. Better to see the red flags now rather than after they hire you.
It's incredible. They want a 2 year commitment from a job applicant. Are they going to commit to not firing or laying someone off in 2 years? Why don't we just put that one in writing: I commit 2 years of my life and you commit to not laying me off in 2 years!! What they really want is you pledging yourself for 2 years but yet, they want to play "at will" for those 2 years. Mmm... see my point? It's just stupid.
Totally agree! Even if the employee/employer relationship is ideal, there are no guarantees as to how long the job will last (i.e. budget cuts).
Yeah it's not an illegal question, I really don't think illegal question really exist.
It's the action of not hiring someone based on discrimation that is illegal. Even then though, it's many times hard to prove (and not worth the fight) to take it to court.
It's an illegal question. If you can't base your employment decision off of it legally, you can't collect that information, be it during an interview, on an application or some other way. From an enforcement point of view, it's much easier to prove that you asked somebody an illegal question than it is to prove that's how you made your hiring decision.
BTW, to the OP, most of these questions have been illegal for many, many years. The Civil Rights Act of 1967 outlawed many of these practices. Kind of find when you find a very senior employee's application and they have race, religion and marital status checked off.
"Illegal questions" are generally acknowledged as those which pertain to:
Race
Color
Sex
Religion
National origin
Birthplace
Age
Disability
Marital/family status
But of course there are exceptions, and questions which touch on these areas can be asked as long as they're phrased correctly and the answers to which are in keeping with the restrictions of the position for which the applicant is being interviewed. Just for instance, if the job entailed dependence on a high level of physical fitness, it would be a little daft if neither the applicant nor the interviewer made mention of the fact that the applicant's leg was in a cast and a brace ...
In this particular case the interviewer may have been guilty of not phrasing the question very well about the OP's marital situation but he did at least explain why he was asking. It's not a totally black and white situation but one with many shades of grey.
I interviewed with a company a month ago. At the interview they had basically asked me illegal questions, as in am I married and do I have kids. The interviewer noted he asked because the department the position was open in was mainly older mothers who tend to have to take time off for kids a lot. I didn't note to them that the line of questioning was illegal to ask (I should have though) but I always seem to notice it tends to be men over 55 that ask these questions. I can only assume it's because 10 -20 or so years ago they were allowed to ask such questions.
Because of this, I bowed out of the 2nd interview when they called me last week (with no contact in between the months time either) plus I already have an offer on the table, just waiting to be sent the offer letter.
Is this still a common theme of employers asking illegal questions? I've been asked a few in my time including some questions I felt were none of the interviewer's business (such as what the other companies I was interviewing with process was for hiring). Is this going on with anyone else?
Employers ask illegal questions because they can. If you suspected you were denied a job opportunity because of an answer you gave to an illegal question (or your refusal to answer and illegal question), how would you prove it? The law is meaningless. What matters is who has power in the immediate situation, and that is always the prospective employer.
It's actually not illegal to ask those questions, but it is very very foolish to do so. What's illegal is basing hiring decisions on the answers.
Of course, it is logical to infer that asking these kinds of questions during an interview might at least create the appearance of illegal discrimination, which is why it is foolish to ask them, and why any employer with any common sense wouldn't do so. I don't think it's common, especially not among any larger companies.
Those are illegal questions because of the protective status that comes with being married, having kids, no kids, being gay, ect. They are not illegal by law but questions that employers shouldn't ask. However they can be turned to be better accepted but yeah, not every hiring manager does that. Some HMs just don't know how to conduct interviews.
"Illegal questions" are generally acknowledged as those which pertain to:
Race
Color
Sex
Religion
National origin
Birthplace
Age
Disability
Marital/family status
But of course there are exceptions, and questions which touch on these areas can be asked as long as they're phrased correctly and the answers to which are in keeping with the restrictions of the position for which the applicant is being interviewed. Just for instance, if the job entailed dependence on a high level of physical fitness, it would be a little daft if neither the applicant nor the interviewer made mention of the fact that the applicant's leg was in a cast and a brace ...
In this particular case the interviewer may have been guilty of not phrasing the question very well about the OP's marital situation but he did at least explain why he was asking. It's not a totally black and white situation but one with many shades of grey.
Marital/family status isn't covered by the EEOC, it is a protected class by federal law but only under Housing, not employment. I agree with you that the interviewer asked the question the wrong way and put the organization at risk for being liable. If the OP would have answered the question, gone on to the 2nd interview and was not offered employment, she could have filed a charge stating that she wasn't offered employment because the company based their decision on the question about family. It also becomes illegal if he only asks women that question without asking the same question to men (not saying that happened here).
After asking the question the interviewer should never have added the phrase that there are "many older mothers that take a great deal of time off to tend to their kids." All of this could have been avoided by asking, "here are the hours that we need filled, there are additional opportunities to work extended hours do you envision not being able to commit to the scheduled hours or additional hours due to outside commitments?" He could have then followed that up by casually mentioning that there are currently some workers that have prior commitments so they are looking for someone who is extremely dependable in regards to regularly scheduled hours." This sets the tone and expectation for the perspective employee.
I have been asked these questions, and many more about my family life, especially once I mention that my daughter is special needs and has been hospitalized due to her medical conditions.
I can say that I am pretty sure that some of the companies I interviewed with discriminated against me, however for the 1st 7 years of my daughters life she spent several 6-8 week periods in the hospital, I never felt it was fair for me to take a job without clearly explaining that if/when my daughter was in the hospital then I would be working less hours, and often be working as many of those hours as possible from the hospital.
Working in sales, I was allowed to do it by plenty of companies, but truth is I was threatened and quit a job where they wanted me at the office at all different time, when my daughter 1st started having medical problems as a newborn, and had no interest in putting myself in that position again.
Where you grew up is not prying into your personal business just small talk. I just don't see how someone would not be turned off if asked that in a interview
So what is wrong with small talk in an interview?? What is wrong with a relaxed,friendly interview. I would not ask the marriage question though.Might get more info than you want.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
- !!
So what is wrong with small talk in an interview?? What is wrong with a relaxed,friendly interview. I would not ask the marriage question though.Might get more info than you want.
