Interviewing my old manager ?

[halloweenn]

Backstory:
One of the managers in my office (but not my direct line manager) was very hot and cold with me. I respected her, but she would be very difficult at times. I have literally seen her swear and be discriminatory to do that - lots of complaints. She sort of did her best to exclude me from development opportunities, kicked me out of group chats, would always be in my manager’s ear about petty things about me. Other times she was nice.

The promotion:
I applied for and was successful in a promotion 2 steps above my previous role. I started this job in summer. Eg 2 grade jump in NHS or civil service. So I am now more senior than my old management. Also this manager in question was on temporary promotion, and is now back in her substantive job which was the job I left!

The situation:
This manager applied for a job and I am supposed to be chairing the interview panel. I feel this is unfair because I don’t feel comfortable. I think my presence will throw her off as it’s a proper full circle moment. AIBU? As my manager said it’s unavoidable to interview someone you used to work with and said I can just be professional.

I'm assuming there will be three on the panel and you will shortlist independently. When you meet to discuss who to interview, state you have a prior relationship with this candidate and that you will reserve your comments until they have said their thoughts as you don't want to influence their decision.

To be honest, I find the fastest way to shortlist is identify the candidates everyone said yes to. They're the ones you interview. If someone is really keen on a non unanimous candidate, then discuss as a group and make a decision.

Whey do you need to feel unbiased?

You know that she behaves/behaved unprofessionally in the senior role that she was seconded to, you've witnessed it. She needs to work bloody hard in the interview to convince you she's changed - otherwise if appointed as a senior member in your team, if she hasn't changed it will reflect badly on you.
Personally I'd either reference the previous bad behaviour in the interview, or design the questions to cover 'professional attitude' for all candidates. (and watch her squirm)
The only way she is going to overcome the historic behaviour is by applying for more senior jobs outside the organisation where she'll be able to lie her way through the interview.

I think you should request to come off the panel because not only did you work with her you obviously had some bad blood. You are therefore not a neutral interviewer, and have a conflict of interests. If you interview her and she doesn’t get the job she could claim that the recruitment process wasn’t fair and open, and therefore ask to be re-interviewed (aka a massive headache for your organisation).

That’s true of any interview where you’ve worked with the applicant though.

there isn’t bad blood per se, but it’s only been months since we last worked together, so I still see her as that authoritarian figure over me. I actually would say we get along now.

Ultimately my gut is just telling me to avoid this, especially as the company can just replace me on the panel. I’m sure from knowing the nasty side of her, she’ll read into anything I do too much as it doesn’t take much for her to switch

OP you need to try and get out of your own head here. Depending on the size of a company, it's not gonna be unusual to have people you've worked alongside in the past sit in front of you on an interview panel. It comes with seniority. It's not ideal and should be avoided but sometimes it's gonna happen.

I assume from your post, you didn't have much of a close personal relationship with her, it's just that she's a dick and you know it. Loads of people are dicks and make it through an interview because that's the way of life; interviews can't catch everything. Unless this person did anything that caused an official, on the record intervention, I don't think there's anything you can do at this stage.

You're part of a panel. I assume there'll be questions that are based on experience and competencies and you should score only on the answer she gives. Your scores should be amalgamated with the scores of the other panel members so, unless your bias is wild, you're unlikely to be the single thing that gets her a yes or no. That protects you from complaints. When you're chairing the meeting, if you're doing post-interview chat with the panel, invite the feedback from the other members first to make sure your thoughts on her performance aren't wildly out of sync before you have to speak. You're chairing a panel, you're not personally responsible for the result good or bad and you're not personally responsible if she gets the job and turns out to be shit either. If anything it can be a positive because she'll be in your department and junior to you so you're now in a position to hold her accountable for bad behavior.

It's crap but if you can't get out of it, you just need to get on with it. Hope it goes alright, 7 days is brutal.

@divinededacende I am probably thinking too much into it, I suppose my opinion of her is conflicted because she was always extremely nice to me after she found out I was leaving. At that point the Jekyll and hyde stuff going on for 2 years stopped. I’ve even been to her for advice recently! So overall I’d say there is a bit of a personal relationship there.

I have been in interviewing someone who used to have power over me. Try to separate it all out. It's a totally fresh interview and you need to step up professionally and see everyone with fresh eyes just within that interview window on that basis alone on the day.

After that, if she was amazing, head and shoulders above everyone else, you THEN draw onto what you know from your working with her but it's got to be on her performance or its not fair.

I was on one panel, one candidate did not set me on fire with inspiration and afterward one of the panel members THEN said most of their evidence was BS. But it didn't prejudice the outcome. They would never have got the job as the interview wasn't the best of the lot.

Be prepaired if you then work with them, they might be shitty towards to you forever more. That's also fine. For me it reinforces we made the right choice.

Of course she was nice to you after she knew you were leaving, whether or not she saw exactly this situation arising she knew you were going to be senior to her so she thought she'd better get on your good side and hope you'd forget the other stuff.

But I think you've muddied the water by asking for advice from someone two grades below you. You ask for advice from people above you not below.

So yes I do think you should find a way to not be involved with her interview and from now on, whether she gets the job or not keep your relationship with her properly professional.

I think it's a conflict of interest. I wouldn't be comfortable.

Ahhh just realised I took a sentence out of my OP which makes the rest read inaccurately.

i was supposed to say: she’s good at leading the whole office but I have literally seen her swear and be discriminatory to do that - many people raised formal complaints

I never complained, I suppose her actions towards me were more low level/passive aggressive vs straight shouting and swearing! She’s good at her job but in a “by any means necessary” way ie rule by fear

You need to raise your concerns with you manager or HR partner assisting with the recruitment. I'd say you have too much of a backstory to be unbiased.

On reading your updates, it sounds like you feel there is too much of a Conflict of Interest to be on the panel. This is a legitimate concern and you should ask to be replaced and not take part - put it in an email. If it is refused then fine, you are covered. If you do take part, just follow the process rigorously - use the scoring sheets, put down evidence for your scores, etc, record your notes, in case she asks to see them if she is not appointed. This sort of thing happens all the time. Good luck, it will be fine.

I'd do my best to ensure that the candidate did not get the job, given the discrimination in particular. Challenge for me would be how to do it in such a way that it did not seem obvious.

Though I'd understand if you declined to be a part of the panel.

Just make sure she doesn't get the job. She's a bully, that's enough to make sure someone else gets it. It's not biased to actively know something about the interviewee because they themselves showed who they are. People like this treat people deemed below them a certain way, why should she be promoted?

She’s good at her job but in a “by any means necessary” way ie rule by fear

She's categorically not good if she has to rely on fear to lead a team 'successfully'.

So she started being 'nice' after she knew you were moving up several levels?

Sneaky.

I think @k1233 has some very good advice here.
Perhaps let your interview panel colleagues ask the hard questions, so she can't accuse you of being biased against her.

YABU. She'll reap what she sowed.