To have left this interview?

[Iwishthaticouldbelikethecoolkids]

I was scheduled yesterday to have an interview at 11am for a casual position. My 3rd interview of 3, which I found a bit OTT but anyway (the first 2 were on the phone) I was 5 mins late which I was stressed about, but I emailed in advance to let them know.
I arrived and it was in a large block of offices, I was asked by the receptionist to take a seat and they'd be with me shortly.
In the seating area, there were a group of 3 young people having a meeting/discussion. It was very heated and then I realised they were talking about the company I'd applied to, and they were employees/management. It was very bitchy and honestly really didn't give me a good impression of the place. They were constantly blaming poor leadership and saying employees are useless, unorganised and so on. Anyway, no company is perfect but the description of it all was so negative.
I was kept waiting for 25 minutes before the receptionist came over and said they'd be with me as soon as the meeting was finished.
Well how long was that going to take? They also must have seen me waiting.
I get meetings can run over, but when you know you're meant to meet someone at 11. It just gave me a really bad impression, plus I wouldn't have had enough time to get to work later as I had no idea how long they'd be.
I waited another 5 minutes then told the receptionist I'd have to reschedule due to time constraints, and left. They said they pass the message on.
Maybe I was rude, but it's also rude to keep me waiting for at least half an hour with no indication of when the interview will start. I also got a very poor impression of the company from what I overheard.

Unless there’s a good excuse, being late is an immediate no for me.

I suspect you stopped being a priority when you showed up late.

Ok... So the answer is to leave me hanging and wondering? Bloody hell, I'm glad I don't work for you. Absolutely nuts

Some of these posters are absolutely batshit, I don't think half of them are actually real managers, this site can be hilarious.

Interviews and medical appointments follow the unofficial but universal "you can't be late but expect to be kept waiting" rule.

Sounds like you've had a lucky escape so all good.

🙄

Exactly! I've interviewed in a couple of schools, been told to arrive for 8:30 or whatever time, and I'm usually met by them at 8:40 onwards. It's just seen as the norm.
Email them to say you'll be 5 minutes late because of traffic (yes, it happens, even if you leave early) and you're scum who doesn't deserve a job.
That's why I said some of them are batshit,they don't live in the real world.

It could have been an hour, it could have been 37 minutes. You don't know. You seem to be getting annoyed about something that only might have happened.

Personally, I think you are overreacting massively to a not very long wait, but that you are this annoyed by it probably means this wasn't the job for you anyway.

I would say 45min/1 hour + is a long wait. Depends on the circumstances.

No it wasn't the job for me. I'm not prepared 37+ minutes unless there's some sort of emergency, it's ridiculous. Some people here seem to have very low but also double standards. As interviewees, don't be even a single minute late, but you're unreasonable if you don't wait an indefinite amount of time for your interviewer to arrive.

Sorry but no, I don't book an interview to be waiting up to an hour after the time I've been allocated. 5/10 minutes is ok,as I was late. But no I'm not sitting there waiting for an hour like an idiot, I've got other things to do.

The irony of this post.

I don't think you've quite understood, but ok. People are going on at me because I was 5 mins late, but my interviewer can be as late as they want and how dare I not wait 35-1 hour for them. No thanks.
If I booked a hair appointment I wouldn't be sitting there nearly an hour later waiting, I'd have gone.

Doesn't surprise me though, people are prepared to put up with all sorts of shit from jobs, work a lot of unpaid overtime and bend over backwards for employers with no thanks, so it doesn't surprise me.

Have they contacted you to apologise and rearrange?

To spell it out simply, tell me why it's not ok for me to be 5 minutes late but it's ok for my interviewer to be as late as they want, almost 40 minutes with no information or timeframe. Tell me why that's ok? I don't think you can.

No one has said that. You are deliberately misinterpreting people’s posts because you don’t want to accept any part of the blame.

Unless there’s a good excuse, I don’t think it’s ok to show up late for an interview. So I can see why they didn’t rush to meet you after you were late.

They should have done the decent thing and met you and sent you on your way rather than keeping you waiting. But the interview didn’t get off to a good start because of you. Own it rather than posting repeatedly that being late to an interview is no big deal.

If you actually need it explained to you that being late to an interview when you’re looking for a job at the end of it doesn’t give a good impression of you as a potential employee, then you’re never going to get it.

Maybe the person they were interviewing after you arrived early so they chose to them first and yes, expected you to wait.

Interviews are a two way process and they have failed.

You were quite right to leave and have had a lucky escape.

No, I won't accept it. They were in a meeting when I arrived. Do you think that if I had arrived 5 minutes earlier they would have magically have not had this meeting? I highly doubt that would be the case. People are 5 minutes late, that's life, that happens. Not ideal but it does happen. But this aibu where people are determined to find anything to criticise the op for (usually bored people with nothing better to do)

expecting a post now about my bad attitude and how they were right to not interview me. I know how this site works. I'm not asking was I unreasonable to be 5 mins late. That was never my question! It's irrelevant.

So don’t post on AIBU if you won’t accept anyone else’s view. It’s a waste of us very bored people’s time when we have nothing better to be getting on with.

I don't have to agree with every word you say. I don't agree that 5 minutes late is some absolute sin. It's a massive double standard.