In trouble at work

[Dottiemay]

There's been Teams interviews for a junior role at work. The interviews include an on the day task for the first half an hour of the interview. I'm not on the panel but my manager asked me to join the call at the start of the interview alone to introduce the task and say the panel will join the call in half an hour and will ask you to introduce the task. All fine. I did six interviews this week and I was on the call for max two minutes to introduce the task then left. The last interviewee had been scheduled at school pick up time. I'd asked around to see if someone could pick up my kid from school but couldn't. So I asked the school - where I've been a governor for many years - if I could come early to use the meeting room to jump on this call for a couple of minutes. That way I'd be at the school for pick up. The head said yes, no issues. When I got to the school, the head was away at a meeting and hadn't told the deputy, and the meeting room was being used for a safeguarding meeting. They offered me the school reception area but it was full of parents wanting to speak to staff. As I didnt have time to drive back home, I jumped in the car and blurred the background. Introduced the task and then left - took a minute or two. The candidate then sent my manager a screenshot of me on the call clearly in the car. My manager has now raised it with me and said we'll have to chat on Monday about it. I'm shitting myself. They know I'm a single parent. I start work at 7.00 and work through my lunch break to get an earlier finish so I don't think I've done anything wrong and who cares if the background was a car. But I feel like I'm in a lot of trouble. Do you think I've done something terrible?

Good grief, if a candidate did this to one of my team, I would reject them immediately and make sure I explained fully exactly why.

OP has explained that her employers know and agree to her doing the school run on the day in question. Try reading her posts.

I don't see the issue with doing this. I did an interview from a car once (as an applicant). I've also been on an interview panel from a remote location because I accidentally double booked myself. You turned up and did what you were supposed to do. That's professionalism. You can explain you'd booked a room to do it in but there was a mistake with the booking and rather than not showing you did it from the car.

Next time put one of the fake office backgrounds instead of blurring. It looks much more professional than a blurred out mess in the background. People are always commenting on my swanky office! Little do they know I'm in the box room with a huge pile of unpaired socks behind me - or sitting in bed!

@Dottiemay

“lauraloulou1 · Today 20:40

I really don't think you will be in trouble - just explain what happened and the many measures you took to avoid that happening. The candidate has clearly moaned his way out of a job? That was not a smart move on his part. I'd be raising that at the meeting? You were being solutions focused, he was being a moany entitled little prick. Don't panic, all will be Ok. Xx”

This. This shouldn’t be a big deal.

But I think the real issue here is that you didn’t feel able to say you couldn’t do the short introduction for that final interview. You need to work on that lack of assertiveness because none of this needed to happen - a colleague could have done the 2-minute intro. I completely get the desire to look willing and keen but I have learnt the hard way that always saying yes creates more difficulty than sometimes saying no. It’s annoying to managers if you say yes but don’t deliver; you prevent them getting a simpler arrangement in place and you end up creating an unnecessary issue which is what happened here. But we live and learn so try and take some learning from this - that sometimes the right thing is to say no.

Tell the truth and you did nothing wrong.

at my work this would be fine. I can’t believe someone complained

Surely it can't have been the candidate then? Are you saying they took the screenshot and emailed it to your manager while still in the interview? That seems bizarre. They must either know your manager or not want the job, or was someone else sitting in on the interview?

Totally agree.

if work know you do the school run it shouldn’t be an issue.

wouldn’t be an issue at my work

Me too.

I wouldn’t want an arsehole like that candidate in my teams

Should have turned off the camera

But she managed it.

When you go to the meeting, explain the timing and that you had arranged to go early and conduct the task-setting in a quiet meeting room. Circumstances meant the room wasn't available (tbh the Deputy should have offered the Headteacher's office), and you had to improvise.

If I were your manager, this would be a perfectly reasonable response.

I’d never employee any candidate who did that. What a dick.

You introduced the task they had to do. Job done. Why does it matter where it was done from?

I did. She says they are aware she does a school run, but only once a fortnight.

If they thought she was doing the school run at this time rather than being at work, and had given her permission to do so, why did they ask her to work instead? And why, when they did, didn't she simply say no and remind them of their allegedly prior agreement? Why does she now think she's in trouble if what she's been doing is all above board? Something doesn't quite stack up here...

As long as you weren’t driving OP.
Lots of jobs involve visits outside of being behind a desk. Being in a car during working hours is not unusual.
You weren’t in a public place. I think ride it out, apologise for not being able to sort being in 2 places at once, but it’s an excellent example of dynamic working.

This! There was no interview being conducted in the car. What an utter entitled prick to take a screenshot and send it to the boss. Who would want the ‘not only did I find you out but I reported you’ Mr gotcha policeman as a colleague? That is just bizarre.

Be upfront with your manager. You'd arranged a private room at school, but unfortunately it was double booked. You used the car to ensure privacy and provided the candidate with the same instruction as other candidates.

Personally I'm curious to know what he was hoping to gain by screenshotting you and sending to your manager. If I knew he had done that, as an interviewer I would not hire him - he's obviously a shit stirrer. He has no idea why you were in your vehicle and trying to get you in trouble is an extremely clear sign he's not a team player and will cause major discord wherever he works.

Pissed 😂
Presumably not! I assume you mean pissed off!

My guess is the candidate thought you were on the call whilst driving, as you were in a car.
It should be easy enough to evidence that you weren't driving.

It seems like a rather unfortunate set of events, all in all. Realistically, there was no huge need for you to be involved other than convenience for the panel interviewing. Your employers are aware of your need to do school pickups.
Whilst I agree that the interviewee was a bit OTT I'm guessing they were more concerned about safety than apparent professionalism.

I suppose if they didn't think you were driving, they could be thinking that you're having to work all hours/be on call all the time and are concerned that there would be the same expectations of them.

Really odd behaviour from the candidate, marking themselves as someone who causes trouble and undermines colleagues.

What kind of job is it?
retail, corporate etc?

I honestly don’t know how the next generation will cope and how the older people will cope with them!

yes things need to massively change but they all want flexibility yet dictate where you join a call?

who actually cares? How is this even a topic of conversation for him or your manager?

But we don't know why the candidate sent the screenshot. The op hasn't said the applicant made a complaint!

An interview isn't just the employer picking out the best candidate, the employee is also picking the best employer from his options.

It might just be he said how flexible the company was letting people work away from the office. The interview panel have asked him what he means, and he said the op was in her car. The interview panel thoughy
wtf and asked him to send a screenshot as proof.

What am I reading? The candidate is quizzing the employer ? This is very odd. Agree with others ....your circumstances are what they are and you don't have to please everyone all the time.. So maybe work on your boundaries so you don't have to stress so much?

I don't think k there's anything wrong with what you did. If anything, it shows a candidate how flexible the company is.

Just tell your boss exactly what happened. It wasn't ideal but the alternative was that you didn't turn up at all. Would the candidate have preferred that?

The candidate doesn't sound like he's right or the company... too judgey... he'll learn!