Inappropriate interview questions

[30andgrey]

I just turned down a job offer because I deemed these questions inappropriate….AIBU?

1. How many times have you been on maternity leave during your current employment?

2. What are the details of your childcare arrangements?

3. What does a normal day look like for you in terms of balancing raising a young family and a senior post?

The above questions were asked in a telephone conversation after a panel interview.

Anyone else think these are extremely discriminatory?

I turned down the offer that was 4 pay scales higher than my current role because it seemed like they were asking me to prioritise work if it came to it and I had to go over and above to assure them that being a parent would not hinder my ability to do the role.

Would love to know if I’m an idiot for turning down a whopping pay increase or if I am reasonable for thinking it would have been a nightmare to work for an organisation with this mindset.

I think you should name and shame them, op!

We would never be allowed to ask this, it’s awful. We can only ask questions that relate to
the competencies listed in the job description. I’d definitely complain.

If it is a job that involved weekend working or unusual travel we would ask questions to check the person has the flexibility needed-but every candidate would be asked the same question and we wouldn’t know who had kids.

@NewYearNewTwatName

forinborin there are other links provided on this thread.....not just this one, amazingly they all say the same.......

Yep. Mostly they quote the EA2010 Guidance Notes.

I agree with @LittleDandelionClock. It’s not nice but understandable why a company is interested in these details.

On the same lines, a company asking any candidate details for their work gap be it mental health or other health related or family commitments is discriminatory.

More than company, it’s the society and your male partner who are treating you unfairly by making you primary care giver to the child.

You can agree. It's your prerogatove.

But an employer cannot. They have to ask a rnage of the more general questions and they have to ask them of all candidates.

It is, as many have said, the law!

And a man isn't going to be called out every other week because the kid is ill, or the childminder is ill and needs the kid to be picked up. And a man isn't going to be taking time off to spend time with the sick child

What? Why?

I did exactly this, I declined and explained that such questions did not have anything to do with my competency to do the role and they could be deemed discriminatory.

I had a reply that said that this suggestion is “baseless and insulting”

I think I made the right choice.

Fuck me, it's 1951 again - or it always was at that place of work. Fuck to them and their questions - but at least it shows what a shit place it would be to work.

First question is dodgy, I'd worry about the people their if they were asking men about having maternity.

The second and third I'd say depends on the role.

If as seems likely the role is a senior position they may well be expecting you to work out of normal hours either regularly or at short notice. If you're not in a position to do that then its not the job for you. I would have expected the job description to say something about the additional needs of the job though if this is the case.

@NewYearNewTwatName

forinborin there is a way to to ask this without bringing up childcare.

in the interview, the interviewer puts it to the interviewee, that there maybe times when they are called in at short notice for extended hours, would this be a problem?

Agree. My point is that asking about childcare is not illegal as such. And it may be to the benefit of the candidate as well (I am saying this from the candidate perspective).

There are jobs that just cannot be family-friendly, no matter how hard the company tried. I know there will be now a barrage of replies with politicians breastfeeding in parliament, or airline dispatchers who can just ask all the flights to hang there for a couple of hours as their child just vomited in the nursery, or surgeons who do an emergency school run in the middle of the operation. But in my experience, choosing a position that is incompatible with my children's needs has rarely resulted in happiness and stellar job performance.

@30andgrey

I did exactly this, I declined and explained that such questions did not have anything to do with my competency to do the role and they could be deemed discriminatory.

I had a reply that said that this suggestion is “baseless and insulting”

I think I made the right choice.

So they didn't deny asking those questions? And you have that in writing?

Wow, I'm even more shocked by the reply than the initial questions!! Did they confirm if they has asked the same questions of any male candidates?
Definitely dodged a bullet there!

Yep. Mostly they quote the EA2010 Guidance Notes.
Examples in the notes are nowhere close to the ones on the thread.

@30andgrey

I did exactly this, I declined and explained that such questions did not have anything to do with my competency to do the role and they could be deemed discriminatory.

I had a reply that said that this suggestion is “baseless and insulting”

I think I made the right choice.

Christ, they sound like cunts. You have dodged a bullet. You did the right thing.

Those saying it's 'understandable', 'valid' and 'normal' etc: sure, if they asked men and women.
But I'd bet my bottom dollar they don't.

@30andgrey

I just turned down a job offer because I deemed these questions inappropriate….AIBU?

1. How many times have you been on maternity leave during your current employment?

2. What are the details of your childcare arrangements?

3. What does a normal day look like for you in terms of balancing raising a young family and a senior post?

The above questions were asked in a telephone conversation after a panel interview.

Anyone else think these are extremely discriminatory?

I turned down the offer that was 4 pay scales higher than my current role because it seemed like they were asking me to prioritise work if it came to it and I had to go over and above to assure them that being a parent would not hinder my ability to do the role.

Would love to know if I’m an idiot for turning down a whopping pay increase or if I am reasonable for thinking it would have been a nightmare to work for an organisation with this mindset.

Pretty sure you're not allowed to ask those questions. I am a hiring manager and one of my colleagues is a mum of 6 and told me not to hire anyone of 'childbearing age' as they would be likely to be off for maternity leave. I was stunned to hear that from her- pot, kettle ....

You've done the right thing here. It is outright discrimination and I highly doubt that they ask the same or even similar questions of men.

I remember back in the eighties being asked by a male interviewer whether or not I would be having children. I really wish I had stood up to him properly, but as a very "green behind the ears" 22 year old just out of university I just didn't have the confidence. I simply gave a non-commital answer. I felt it was a grossly unfair question, but back in those days there was no legislation surrounding protected characteristics.

I didn't get that job, but after that line of questioning nor did I want it anymore.

Maybe we should go back to the 1950s when women had to give upp their jobs when they got married. Is that what you think @LittleDandelionClock

@Decaffe

All three of those questions are illegal.

Yes. It's astonishing that they asked them. Presumably they don't have a functioning HR department.

Definitely best avoided. If for no other reason than that they're basically incompetent. If they can make an error like this, one has to ask what other huge mistakes they make.

Pretty sure those questions are illegal, the one about maternity would be direct discrimination (as they can't ask a man this, even if they asked about paternity leave that is only two weeks whereas almost no women take this little maternity leave). The others, if they asked them to male candidates too, would be indirect discrimination as women are overwhelmingly the main care providers and so most likely to take on the burden childcare/ balancing life and work.

However, they did offer you the job, so yes, you are right that as employers they would be terrible with work/life balance.

[quote LittleDandelionClock]@30andgrey

Of COURSE it's a bit shit, but tbf, a woman (who has school age children) IS going to be more of a liability to many employers than a man.

People say 'well you know they wouldn't have asked a man that!' Well of course they wouldn't, because their job and the ability to do it, isn't going to be affected by babies/young children as much as a woman.

A bitter pill to swallow, and for people to admit, but it's true. A man isn't going to go off for a year on maternity leave (and possibly never return) is he? And a man isn't going to be called out every other week because the kid is ill, or the childminder is ill and needs the kid to be picked up. And a man isn't going to be taking time off to spend time with the sick child.

You can all argue differently, but as I said, rightly or wrongly, many employers see women - especially child bearing age - as much more of a liability than a man... So yep, a woman is far more likely to be asked these questions. Not great and not nice, but understandable IMO.

@Decaffe

All three of those questions are illegal.

Do you have a source for this statement?[/quote]
Ye gods!

Have I accidentally opened a portal to 1956?

@MeanderingGently

If you really didn't want the job, fine if you turned it down. If you wanted the job and the higher pay, you've given up a chance.

Personally I think the two issues...the job, and interview questions...are separate. The interview questions could, or might not, be appropriate. But of I'd wanted the job I'd still have gone for it, but would have been prepared to stand up for my rights if it became necessary. To any question about childcare arrangements, I'd always answer "I have suitable childcare arrangements in place" and stick to that, without details.

This.

I wouldn't turn down a job that (presumably) I wanted, and was 4 pay bands up from my current role, because they had asked poor questions at interview.
I would accept the job and challenge from within. If people who can bring change don't belong to the company, then they aren't going to change.
Clearly, if offering you the job they must have appreciated the answers you gave.

Quite frankly, given the weekly threads on MN asking if new parents can wfh with a baby, or toddler, I'm not surprised employers want to know if parents have suitable childcare in place. No, you'd like to think they wouldn't have to, but thread after thread on here suggests that what is obvious to most people, isn't obvious to ALL people, so maybe they are making it explicit? That seems pretty reasonable to me, as long as it is asked of all carers, or potential carers.

I'd be sending them this link in reply - www.betterteam.com/uk/illegal-interview-questions

The fact that they're not even acknowledging what they've done is wrong is worrying for anyone else working there/considering working there, especially as they're obviously a big enough organisation to have pay grades and interview panels.

@forinborin

Yep. Mostly they quote the EA2010 Guidance Notes. Examples in the notes are nowhere close to the ones on the thread.

Odd as having just read through them they take very similar scenarios and describe them as work and no work scenarios, direct and indirect discrimination.

Having said that there are quite a few .gov places that various versions if the guidance notes are hung. So it is entirely possible that we are both right and wrong, depending on which version we are looking at.

Asking about your maternity? I'd say that's skating dangerously close to being discriminatory

And yet weirdly its probably the most understandable in terms of risk. I don't mean risk of someone having children, but if the requires 4 years experience which the applicant has, but they were on mat leave for three years of it, you'd want to know!

I don't get why people (usually women) get so het up about this. To me ML just feels so entitled. Don't get me wrong, I know childbirth is necessary for the continuation of our species, but from a business owner's perspective, a key employee taking 6 months leave is just unsustainable.

The business owner didn't make a decision to have a baby, yet they're the one to pay the price. How is this fair? Seriously speaking, how is it fair to place this kind of onerous burden and tax on a business owner, simply because they gave a woman a job? I'm all for equality, but it seems a huge price is placed on the business owner, who shouldn't have to shoulder the burden for all of society.