awful interview, WIBU to have ended it early?

[cigarsmokingwoman]

I had an interview this week for a fixed‑term maternity cover role in a field I’ve worked in for years. On paper, it looked perfect — but it turned into a complete nightmare.
The current postholder is full‑time, but they want to replace her with someone part time, on a short contract, no team, and still covering the same massive list of responsibilities. Straight away, it felt like they were expecting one person to do the work of several. Its not a senior role, but sounded it as they kept refering to "supporting our staff of over 2000".
Beforehand, I’d asked for some reasonable adjustments, as I have several disabilities, which they agreed to — but when the interview started, they hadn’t done them. I had to ask twice, which was awkward and made me feel like I was being a nuisance. They did send the questions in advance, again as an adjustment, but then on the day they started asking completely different ones, putting me on the spot and making it much harder to answer properly.
One of the panel was so patronising. They asked me to explain really basic concepts that I’d expect anyone in the field to already know. When I started talking about some of my biggest achievements, they cut across me and actually said they didn’t want to hear about the awards I'd won! The question was literally about qualifications, experience and achievements related to the role.
The whole thing felt off. The tone was wrong, the expectations were ridiculous, and there was no sign of respect for my experience or the effort I’d put into preparing. Eventually, I just said I was ending the interview because it was a waste of both our time. I left the Teams call feeling small, upset, and wondering why I’d ever applied.
I’ve done and sat on many interview panels, but I’ve never had such a bad experience.I've never exited an interview before either and I'm still shaken by it. AIBU to think that whatever the role is, the least you should expect is a bit of professionalism and basic respect?

I don’t think a set list of questions in advance is okay. Further questions from your answers should be allowed to be asked. I wouldn’t interview on that basis.

A full time job in part time hours isn’t acceptable from them.

Lucky escape OP! I’m sorry you had a bad experience.

You dodged a bullet there!

I've got loads of interview experience and giving the questions in advance wouldn't work for me as an interviewer. I tend to be a lot more organic with the questions. That said, you should have been made to feel bad asking for adjustments if they'd been agreed in advance.

What disability leads to a reasonable adjustment of questions in advance?

you right in that it sounded like they want a pound of flesh.

What a horrible experience - Don’t feel small, you took control and brought it to a swift end. Who wants a full time job squeezed into part time hours. You’ve had a lucky escape!

should not have been made to feel bad...

Sorry it didn't go well. I never know what questions I want to ask until I'm in the room, though.

ASD, Dyslexia….

I’m really sad with some of the replies so far. I posted about a bad interview hoping for a bit of support, but instead people are asking “what’s wrong” with me and questioning whether my adjustment was reasonable.
For clarity — under the Equality Act, providing interview questions in advance can be a reasonable adjustment for a disabled candidate. There are lots of valid reasons this might be needed — processing difficulties, hearing loss, using assistive technology, etc. You don’t have to disclose your full medical history to strangers to justify that right. (the definition of disability is legal not medical)
It’s upsetting to have people focus on prying into my condition rather than understanding the principle: adjustments exist to remove barriers, not to be gatekept. I thought I'd get support on here but seems I was wrong.

So they wanted you to do full time responsibility in part time hours? Nooo!

I think Yabu. They can ask additional questions to what they have which they didn’t have to do on the first place.

Interviews are a two way process you are sizing them up as much as they are sizing you up.

consider yourself extremely fortunate that you got the measure of them early, the alternative is you could be three weeks into a job from hell.

Questions in advance is a very standard and REASONABLE adjustment for a number of disabilities including dyslexia. I hope that some of those on this thread aren't recruiters... 🙄

Agree that you dodged a bullet. Good for you for getting out of it.

Questions in advance is a reasonable adjustment but I didn’t realise it meant you couldn’t ask any other questions. Some people (me) would struggle to interview with this structure.

They sound absolutely awful! Congratulations on standing up for yourself and leaving the situation. I think you should celebrate NOT getting that job.

Well done on ending the interview early Op and not wasting any more of your time.

Really surprised people don't know about reasonable adjustments being able to include a list of interview questions beforehand.

Not what I was getting from this.... Some curiosity is natural.

The tone was sorry you experienced this.

I am sorry you experienced this, but now I'm wondering if you have a slight chip on your shoulder.

A full time job only working part time is not possible and you did the right thing on that ground for sure.

I think it depends on the questions you struggled with that weren't provided beforehand. You said they asked completely, unrelated questions. Were they asking for you to expand on what you had already said or re-worded the same question?
Was it 'Lovely to meet you, how was your journey?' and you didn't reply?
Or something random such as 'tell me about experience with quantum physics?' (unless the role was clearly in this area)

Wishing you all the best on your next role.

You said you left feeling small OP but actually I think you should feel empowered. You made sure to advocate for yourself by asking for reasonable adjustments and didn’t let them get away with not implementing them. You realised they weren’t the right fit for you and ended the interview early meaning you took control back. I think you’ve had a lucky escape as they don’t sound like an understanding employer when it comes to equality.

Am also disheartened to read comments by posters that questions in advance shouldn’t be allowed. I read similar on another thread. I think there is a huge lack of understanding from people about disabilities and the requirements for reasonable adjustments.

There are employers out there who send questions out in advance to all candidates automatically because they recognise they want the best examples of knowledge and experience from candidates and know it can help candidates showcase these. Interviews are not meant to be a memory test.

As someone who has dyslexia and ADHD and who has worked in an HR environment before I have a lot of knowledge about best practice and reasonable adjustments and I think sending out questions in advance is a great thing.

I think you need to feel proud of yourself and look for companies that actually support employees with disabilities. Ones that have good glass door reviews and/or have staff networks or provide a lot of info on how they support people with disabilities in their workplace.

it undoes the adjustment if you were asked to help eg them process questions easier / read questions in advance they may not hear clearly then throw a curveball into the equation by adding some more into it. You're just disadvantaging them again. I should know, the job in question is legal related (and they should have known too!)

I think rather than the feeling of being small and a nuisance OP you should be proud of yourself for recognising your own worth and valuing your time, and theirs by ending the interview. They should feel small for their treatment especially over your awards.

They are allowed to ask additional questions of course, but they should still follow the general questions they did share and allow you to share your thoughts/achievements and value with them.

Most people seem to forget interviews are 2 ways, they need to sell themselves to you as much as the other way round!

A full time role being covered by part time has managerial disaster written all over it anyway! You stood up for yourself, your disabilities don't define you and you are entitled to be treated with respect and professionally no matter what they are.

Providing the questions in advance is becoming more common and I hope will eventually be standard practice. More and more hirers are realising that it isn't important to test how quickly someone can come up with detailed examples of specific past experiences on the spot, and giving them more time to think gives a more accurate reflection of their performance.

I think you did really well in a difficult situation that they were responsible for. Good for you to take control and leave. Your post reminded me of an awful interview i did once with the National Trust. I travelled 200 miles up to London and as soon as i entered the room I felt the tangible dislike and contempt from one of the panel of three. Although he had my CV with relevant experience in front of him, he asked questions that I could not answer well because they were clearly about a different role entirely - he did not even know what I was being interviewed for. He managed to make me the problem rather than acknowledging his mistake. It was a disaster, but what I remember most was his absolutely undisguised contempt, looking me up and down as though I was a turd on his shoe. I realised later that this was some massive projection on his part - perhaps i reminded him of a sister he hated, or something. So well done OP. They weren't good enough for you and you let them know it.😃

As an interviewer, do you not prepare?