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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think you don’t take your child to a job interview?

140 replies

Caulk · 23/04/2018 17:19

I was leading some interviews this afternoon. One candidate arrived with her 13yr old son. She said she’d brought him so he could get an idea of what an interview was like.

I said he couldn’t be part of the interview, needed to wait in reception or she could arrange childcare and we would interview her at the end of the day.

She said no one had said she couldn’t bring him, it’s good life experience etc. I said no and she agreed (eventually) for him to wait in reception.

When I called her to say she hadn’t got the job, she said we were discriminating against her because she had a child.

I don’t think I was unreasonable but no one ever does. What would you have done?

OP posts:
ClopChops · 23/04/2018 17:20

Her behaviour was very unprofessional and inappropriate.

halfwitpicker · 23/04/2018 17:20

I have no idea.

WTAF.

Stompythedinosaur · 23/04/2018 17:20

Wow! She is crazy.

HateSummer · 23/04/2018 17:21

Grin really?! What a weird thing to do..I’m cringing on her behalf!

Babyg1995 · 23/04/2018 17:21

Yanbu never heard of anything like this in my life how oddConfused

Trinity66 · 23/04/2018 17:21

Do you reckon she did it so she could say that and try to bring a case against you? Of course you don't bring a child to an interview, she sounds ridiculous

PattiStanger · 23/04/2018 17:21

I can't see that standing up in any kind of court, do you think she's never had a job or an interview before? Very odd behaviour

aaaaargghhhhelpme · 23/04/2018 17:21

Wow. Just wow

Close shave there. Can you imagine what she’d be like to work with

Original poster
Caulk · 23/04/2018 17:21

I’m pretty level headed about stuff, but she was so insistent we were discriminating and that we should have allowed it that I began to question myself.

OP posts:
Mamabear1475 · 23/04/2018 17:23

She would probably bring him.in to do her work for her to. Kids need experience of adult life apparently Hmm or just get them to do work around the bloody house

FuzzyCustard · 23/04/2018 17:23

Yikes! Definitely a bad move on her part.
I got a bit (internally) sniffy with someone who brought two huge Tesco bags of grocery shopping into an interview (she could have left them at reception and looked a lot more professional) but a 13 year old takes the biscuit!

BreakfastAtSquiffanys · 23/04/2018 17:24

She said no one had said she couldn’t bring him

And no-one said she couldn't bring a ferret or a drum kit with her either....
...because no-one with a whit of sense would bring any of those - or a child - to an interview!

JakeBallardswife · 23/04/2018 17:24

If the 13 year old had to come, why not leave them in Reception or a coffee shop close by? Bet the DC was mortified!

phlewf · 23/04/2018 17:24

I can imagine in an absolute emergency id do that with my 7 y/o but I’d be clear that he’d be waiting in reception and id be cringing the whole time. Not a 13 y/o though. Why wasn’t he in school?

Trinity66 · 23/04/2018 17:24

I got a bit (internally) sniffy with someone who brought two huge Tesco bags of grocery shopping into an interview

omg that's hilarious, maybe these people don't actually want the jobs, it's reminding me of that scene in Step Brothers when they do the interviews together Grin

EduCated · 23/04/2018 17:24

I was all prepared to say YABU, imagining that the child was quietly l ft in reception due to a childcare emergency, but no, that’s just plain odd.

Tinkobell · 23/04/2018 17:24

Extraordinary.....I'm guessing he got a first hand view of how NOT to land a job!!

AnneLovesGilbert · 23/04/2018 17:26

PMSL Grin

Sorry OP. Must have been very awkward for you and she’s well out of order.

But I still had to chortle.

Brokenbiscuit · 23/04/2018 17:26

YANBU. At the very, very least, she should have sought your agreement prior to the interview - ridiculous to think that she could just turn up with him in tow and that you'd be happy to let him sit in! And of course you weren't discriminating because she had a child, but her unprofessional behaviour probably did her no favours.

It simply isn't a normal assumption to make that you can take a 13yo to a job interview. If you had been ok with him sitting in, then all well and good, but you were well within your rights to decline.

rainbowstardrops · 23/04/2018 17:27

If she had called ahead and asked if he could experience an interview then fine stillbloodyweird but if not then it's a big no.

bonfireheart · 23/04/2018 17:27

I wonder if he took a day off school to follow his mum to an interview.

Original poster
Caulk · 23/04/2018 17:27

We agreed (as a panel) that if she had asked if he could wait there, rearrange for child care etc we would have done. It’s a pt role so I appreciate it may have been at a tricky time.

No idea about school. Some of the independents go back today or tomorrow so maybe that, but unlikely.

OP posts:
PorkFlute · 23/04/2018 17:28

Crazy behaviour if she wanted the job but if she’s out of work and was forced to apply and attend interview for a job she didn’t want she played a blinder!

DGRossetti · 23/04/2018 17:28

She said no one had said she couldn’t bring him

Sounds like one of the 10 commandments of being a CF ...

Oh, and OP: YANBU ....

LockedOutOfMN · 23/04/2018 17:28

Like a pp I was imagining a much younger child and a childcare emergency in which case ywhbu but in this case ywnbu! Dodged a bullet comes to mind.

Agree with pp who thinks she wanted to stitch you up for discrimination (and has no case...)