What would be the one thing that put you off hiring someone?

[greyrabbits]

Of all the things that would put you off giving someone a job, what’s the one thing that’s a definite no thanks.

Whiny, aggressive or boastful social media posts. I include LinkedIn in that.

I got all the way to being offered a job then they told me the AL was 24 days. In my industry (professional services) the standard is minimum 27 days + bank holidays and an option to buy an extra 5. The last 3 jobs I’ve had have been 32 days + bank holidays. 24 days is never, ever going to be acceptable. What a waste of everyone’s time.

Being a smoker

Turning up in a big fancy car. Makes me realise I'm paying for that and possibly they're too expensive.

Anyone who started their application "Dear Sir". That got put in File 27b (the bin).

I would have been passed over as now my grey roots are showing the 'coloured hair' criteria would have caught me
😁

I think having tattoos shows you can sit and endure pain for hours on end. Which is not dissimilar to many Teams meetings I’ve been in.

In my job you have to look intelligent and trustworthy. Clients are going to make snap judgments based on looks. So like it or not interviewers have to make a similar judgement. Would you take financial advice from someone who presented themselves like that? A lot of people would say no.

We had a really interesting training talk when I first started as a grad in my company. Someone came in, all Hermes scarf, pearl earrings, fairly swotty glasses, twin set, expensive handbag etc and you had to guess their education, back ground, intelligence etc. Then she went off and got changed into a much slobbier appearance and you had to judge her on the same things. Everyone judged the smarter appearance person as someone much more intelligent than the slobbier. It’s a subconscious bias towards trusting well groomed people more than those less well groomed. And if you have a company that trades on its professional advice you have to recruit for that.

Pronouns. It’s like a beacon flashing “will be hard work and disruptive”.

I interviewed someone once who wasn't wearing a bra. She had absolutely enormous breasts and was wearing a satin blouse. I thought it demonstrated a lack of judgement on her part as it was very difficult not to notice!

Slightly different but I had a look through the social media of someone I was considering hiring for a big job and it was full of Bonnie blue bang bus banter so I told them I wasn’t going to give them the job and told them why.

I can't believe how many people have said pronouns. The others are sort of silly and jovial but not hiring someone because they told you their pronouns is literally illegal. Gender is a protected characteristic. I hope these people are actually hiring managers.

Stating pronouns
Facial piercings.
Face, neck, hand tattoos

Bloody hell! 😳😮😲
You couldn’t make it up!

Many of these are straight out of the “what not to do in an interview” guide.

I hope most of the posters on here aren't hiring managers.

I state my pronouns in my email signature, I've never been hard work or disruptive as an employee. Profiling based on tattoos and hair colour seems outrageous also.

I withdrew a job offer once on finding out that the person had mocked our receptionist who had a stammer. She had told him to take the lift to the relevant floor and stammered on the 'L' in lift. He replied that he would take the "l l l l lift". I made sure he knew why I was withdrawing the offer too. I will not tolerate people who disrespect team members.

Otherwise, I can overlook most things. If someone was obviously drunk or using drugs I wouldn't recruit them but I expect they would have the sense to hide that. There's also some convictions which might mean someone couldn't do a role but I am largely anti DBS checks for DBS checks sake and have recently removed DBS requirements for a whole load of roles in my team as someone with a conviction should be given the same opportunities wherever possible

The immediate thing would be if they were clinically obese, followed by facial piercings and tattoos or any kind of body modification.

Then if they mentioned they had Leftist views.

Gender isn’t a protected characteristic

This Is plain ignorant. My husband is very tattooed and is extremely intelligent, hard working, and excels in his career. He also happens to be one of the kindest humans you could meet and would jump out of his car to help an elderly person cross the road if needed and he does amazing charity work.

Your stereotypical judgment says more about you than it does people with tattoos.

Thank god my employers haven’t felt the same or I’d have been unemployed for 20 years 😂 although, at least I might then be thin due to not being able to afford food

Lots of jobs in a very short space of time. Someone in my department took a punt on someone who had 3 different Civil Service roles in a year...needless to say, they quickly found out why.

I can say, I warned them against it. But it has 100% strengthened my resolve around hiring 'floaters.'

Further, it’s illegal to refuse to hire or to sack people for having “gender critical” views. Hasn’t stopped employers doing it.

Poor communication skills, unable to speak probably, uses 'street slang' and can't pronounce 't' or 'g' correctly - it's lazy (I'm not on about someone who has a genuine disability!). Obviously, if someone came into an interview high as a kite, smelt of booze or bodily odours, that would be a No!!

I really hope this is a joke but judging by your username it probably isn’t. Happy to say you wouldn’t get a toenail in the door of my organisation with those views.

I have no tattoos or piercings but I don’t get the prejudice against them. Who honestly gives a fuck? How does it impact someone doing a job? Whereas someone “non binary” is by that declaration going to be a self absorbed pain in the arse, and best avoided.