illegal interview questions Forum

[Anonymous User]

OP here.

to reasonable_man: I will never sue anyone who asks the most obnoxious question. As long as I have the opportunity, though, I would not want to work with unprofessional people.

the talk with the paralegal is part of the 'interview'. it was not exactly small talk. I think she's just nosy or overly familiar type. I don't think i would have problem working with such people - as I said, if I had no other choices then of course I would take it.

[Anonymous User]

OP again - wow I did not expect my simple question to generate such a controversy....
the question just struck me odd.

[dresden doll]

Would you like to explain how this is not a "sexist assumption?" You just assumed that virtually no hiring partner, and I'd think, by extension, no man, would ever be open minded or intelligent enough to know a man's wife might earn more than him. You just assumed all men are stubborn and sexist enough they'd never consider the possibility of accommodating their wives career needs by moving. Come to think of it, you just assumed all the people making hiring decisions would be men. Sexist.

Whose alt are you?

[ben4847]

It's an internship. I can't imagine she was asking because it actually makes any difference to them. If you were going to go on maternity leave this summer, it would be pretty obvious without asking. So she was just making small talk.

[PDaddy]

I don't believe they can ask about kids or marriage. But perhaps she was just making conversation.

It's illegal..."conversation" or not! Conceptually, it's no different from a media interview. The first rule is "Nothing is 'off the record'". If it was asked, it was noted.

Was the next question "Are you gay?" If you have other, equally appealing job options, run away and FAST!

[vegeta]

Asking is not illegal. Basing your decision on it is.

[PDaddy]

Asking is not illegal. Basing your decision on it is.

Fail! The law presumes that if a question is asked the answer will impact the decision. Whether or not the employer or landlord actually makes the decision based on the answer is irrelevant. It is presumed under tha law that the question is motivated by an intent to discriminate, i.e. weed out undesirable employees or tenants for reasons that are illegal.

It is illegal to ask certain questions within the employment and housing arenas.

http://www.usatoday.com/careers/resourc ... llegal.htm

There are ways to get away with asking certain questions, namely by posing certain questions" as statements. But asking straight-out whether or not someone is married is illegal. Hence, a crafty interviewer can get the desired information without actually asking an illegal question. In such instances, the question then becomes, was the decision based on what could be illegal grounds, but only if the interviewee suspects discrimination to begin with - in which case he would need other evidence of bias.

[shredderrrrrr]

They aren't supposed to ask. A bigger question is why should the interviewee care? Is your family a state secret or something?

On your list of things to get pissy about at a job interview, this should be last on the list.

Agreed. I can see why it is out of line to ask, but I fail to see why it is worth getting so worked up over.

But then again, I say that as a 30-something generic white dude, not a woman, so I can understand why there might be some reservation. However, I also think there is a big difference between the paralegal making small talk and the formal interview.

If the paralegal was just trying to chat with the OP and inadvertently asked an inappropriate question, I agree with you that OP is overreacting. OTOH, if paralegal asked because it's the sort of a thing firm unabashedly cares about, I fully understand why OP's upset.

Yeah I can see why it was potentially worth getting upset over, but I was mainly trying to say that, offended or not, it seems hard to be so picky in this economy. Hell, an interviewer would have to ask something pretty damn offensive for me to turn down a job offer. I can see why OP would be bitter over this, but I don't think it is large enough of a mistake by the interviewer to refuse to work there (obviously this criticism is moot if they already had better offers).

[kalvano]

Perhaps the paralegal is a lesbian and was seeing if you were available. Take it as a compliment.

[tigyrgrl]

.

[jurisx]

0L here so don't kill me but I fail to why this is inappropriate?

how can you still be a 0L with that many posts?

Over 3500 and posting since 2008?

[Tom Joad]

0L here so don't kill me but I fail to why this is inappropriate?

how can you still be a 0L with that many posts?

Over 3500 and posting since 2008?

Most of them are singles with a few doubles and triples mixed in occasionally.

[jurisx]

Ok better question. Why all the posts if you have nothing of value to add?

Why after all these years are you not enrolled anywhere yet? What did you signup when you were still in high school to start posting?

[TIKITEMBO]

Not sure if Tom Joad is trolling

I think he may have switched to trolling liberals for a few days. I think that might be the reason for the King of Queens avatar. (Not trying to say laws against worker discrimination are strictly appreciated by liberals of course)

Anyway, I'll bite a little...

If I was a young woman I would just go into interviews outright telling employers that I am doing absolutely everything in my power not to get knocked up and make them know you know how serious you take your career. I have a lot of sympathy for employers who routinely hire women and get burned when they have kids right after starting their job.

I would like to know when you think it's fair for educated women who work to decide to have kids where maternity leave would not be a potential hiring issue. Dresden Doll pointed out that an alternative to the "Don't ask, don't tell" option hasn't been floated yet to ensure women aren't disproportionately discriminated against for this reason.

Edited: for unnecessary explanations that probably came off bitchy.

[rinkrat19]

Interesting and tangentially related: New study finds that men in traditional marriages (defined as the wife not working) are sexist at work.

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm? ... id=2018259

Atlantic story summarizing the paper: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/arc ... sm/258057/