Is this a sexist job interview question?

[Missp1980n]

In a job interview situation where you have an ‘in-tray’ exercise for the interviewers to see how you prioritise work, would you expect one of the things to prioritise being about your unwell child?
The other items are all job specific tasks but one states that your child has text you saying their abdo pain is worse.
Am I being unreasonable to think this is sexist because as a single mother of course I would prioritise my child over work?
Should I call it out?

I don't know if it's directly sexist as both sexes have children. However women are more likely to pick up family duties which they know, which makes it sexist.

Either way It's very shitty and I wouldn't want to work there

No necessarily sexist, but my understanding is that questions/scenarios have to be equally applicable to all candidates. So it would discriminate against a working parent compared with someone without children.

Do they ask men this question too? Then we would know if it’s sexist or not. I’m not a single parent but will still always prioritise kids over work, everyone I know would, female or male.

It depends if the same scenario was offered to male and female candidates and whether their responses were reviewed in the same way, also odd interview question in general & what if the candidate doesn’t have kids?

Does it have an asterisk saying “only to be answered by single mothers*?
Is this a straight forward “order the tasks” exercise or do you comment on each? I’ve seen both formats.
Perhaps the company is signalling that they understand that this is a situation that might occur for any gender parent.
It doesn’t disadvantage any applicants because they’re all equally able to lie if they think it will get them the job 🤷🏻‍♀️

Of course it's bloody discriminatory. They should not be asking about your personal life in an interview, and this is a sneaky way of ferreting out information. I'm guessing that this is a position that is likely to be filled by a woman - admin support, etc?

How is it ferreting out information? It doesn’t give the option to write “n/a - don’t have kids” does it?

So a 19yo single male has to answer it just the same as a 38yo female single mother.

Totally inappropriate.

I don’t have kids so have no idea how I would respond.

is there a right or wrong answer?

whoever designed this is an idiot.

Where I’ve seen in-tray exercises used, it’s as a feed for interviews. So in our place, 30yo man applying for a team leading role might put that at the bottom, then when questioned why, say, “personal life should never interfere with work”. And that would count against him (or her) as unrealistic, not understanding very real demands on people. We’d be looking for, “I put it high - work and family life is a balance. Just being able to take 5 minute out to call a teen and check they’re OK and tell them where the paracetamol is can be a real bonus to a valued employee. It’s rare something at work can’t wait 5 minutes for something that easily dealt with. I feel you attract and retain good people when you understand and work with this.” Genuinely, that’s the culture where I work.

I once sat on an interview panel alongside a hired in hr specialist. The panel chair was very pleasant and as part of the opening few lines of the interview asked a woman what age her children were.She had referred to traffic problems, leaving children at school etc. HR specialist intervened saying the question was withdrawn. It doesn't seem like an appropriate question at all.

So what do you think a 19 year old male with no child is going to prioritise

Or a 19 year old male with child is going to prioritise

Or a 38yo female singlenmother with a nanny

See how you assumed that the 19yr old male was unmarried / had no partner and also had no children

“See how you assumed that the 19yr old male was unmarried / had no partner and also had no children”

Don’t be silly 🤣
I didn’t assume the 19yo male had no partner… I created him! I sorcfu

I'd prioritise my cat if she was unwell.

I specified he was single. That’s my theoretical candidate who isn’t a single mother like the OP. Sure, I assumed rather than specified that my creation had no children. Which is pretty likely at 19 😉

My point is that all varied candidates have the same exercise.

This is not a question that any candidate has to answer honestly. Or according to their own personal circumstance.

👏🏻 And in my company, that would be acceptable. I’ve had meetings cancelled because a senior manager’s dog died the day before. If it was an investor board meeting he’d have chosen to push on, but a minor brand presentation? Everyone understood. Not all employers are arseholes 🤷🏻‍♀️

Like I said, at my place the interview discussion is more important than the exact order in in-tray priorities. How the candidate reacts when you ask them, “so in your team, do you think they would also complete the report before calling home? And how would you handle that?”

My answer would be 'I'd assume this was a scam text as I don't have a child, so I'd forward it to Action Fraud'.

It would still piss me off because I don't have kids. So I might put it as 1 - meaning I deem it the most unimportant, because in my life its irrelevant - which in your scenario would count against me. Because the scenario the Op is describing would describe how I prioritise my work, not a hypothetical persons work.

Feels very unprofessional to me.

It may not have the option to write no kids, but that's going to be pretty apparent pretty quickly, either through discussion or body language.

In an ideal world, it would play out like Testina's example. In reality, for many workplaces, this is a rarity, and women with kids are seen as a liability. Men with kids are usually seen as more reliable. It's a preconceived notions thing.

@Covidagainandagain again, it’s all about the interview discussion where I am. I’d ask why you put it so low. You’d say because it’s not relevant for you. I’d say, got you - OK, so how would you feel about a colleague in this situation coming in late to a meeting with you because they’d called home? And your answer to that would be far more interesting and useful to me in determining how you’d fit our culture than simply where you placed it. I’ve interviewed after in-tray exercises. There are usually a couple of obvious right and wrong answers to get people off to a start (a report due next week…) but genuinely there isn’t a template of right and wrong answers that we score against.

I think it’s perfectly valid for OP to question this. It’s also perfectly valid to wonder if even if added for the right reasons, it inadvertently puts single mother candidates off track / off the company. But I can’t jump to the conclusion that it’s a discriminatory trick question to weed out single mothers. Those companies often don’t even interview women in the 30-50 bracket. Obvious from employment history even if no DOB 😕

And presumably the childless 19 yo male will pick his job over an imaginary child.

It's all gone a bit dream inside a dream though and I'm struggling to keep track.

And yes, OF COURSE it's discriminatory.

Yes - it's not a question the childfree person could answer hypothetically because there are too many variables - most importantly, while you are at work, who is in loco parentis for the child, and do you trust them to deal with any medical emergencies that arise? Has the child already seen the doctor over the pain and it's being managed, or might it be a potential ruptured appendix?

Having said that, even as a parent I'd imagine you'd need more information to give an accurate answer. If (e.g.) your spouse looks after your child while you were at work, the question would be why they were texting you, not letting the husband/wife deal with it.

Silly question IMO.

You may not use it in a discriminatory fashion yourself, but can you honestly say the same of every single one of your colleagues?

I conduct a lot of interviews in my role. I would never agree to run this scenario or countenance the follow up questions.

I don't think its a trick specifically to weed out single mothers. I do think its a trick to weed out mothers.

If the world operated like you describe your workplace, then this would be a fair question.

As it is, a 20yo single mother is going to be seen (by many employers) as irresponsible. She is going to be aware of this, and the question is more likely to put her off her stride.

A 20yo single father with sole parenting responsibility is going to be perceived as responsible and self sacrificing. He will also be aware of this.

It is totally illegal to ask someone if they have children in a job interview, I suspect this is a way of trying to get around it. Not ok.

Also as an aside I have been massively judged in life for not having children. I have had very intrusive questions as to why I haven't.

And actually the fact I haven't got children is a very emotional subject for me and the absolute last thing I want in an interview is questions that mean I have to explain I don't have children.

Its an incredible sensitive subject and quite frankly I'm very unimpressed with the type of 'culture' that encourages this conversation.

I understand in a team leader role being asked how would you react if one of your team was in this position, but that's very different.