Remote job but employer asking for face to face interview?

[Seawitchandgarden]

I just wondered what are people's thoughts/experience with this.

Due to health issues/a disability I have been applying only for remote roles or local roles that don't require the use of public transport. I made it clear in my job applications/the equal opportunities that I am disabled.

I was offered an interview for a role advertised as remote with a charity yesterday but this is a face to face interview.

The interview is in a random location which I assume was hired for the day and it would take me almost two hours each ways of travel, be costly and they are not offering any support with transport costs.

I am a bit baffled by this. What is the point of a face to face interview when you are not even inviting the candidate to your offices to meet the team or see your work environment and when the role is fully remote?

I have replied to point out my disability and request a Zoom interview instead.

So far crickets...

Ah this ^

It's really difficult.
My company had done a retrospective exercise recently asking all managers to confirm they have met their remote workers in person. Erm no I haven't and they have been employed 5 years!
But with cyber risks etc I do understand why.
In your situation I think that we would hire a meeting room close to you.

I dont see your problem? You are showing them you cant be arsed so they will cross you off the list and move onto the next person, end of

They are probably interviewing multiple people so will pick somewhere central to them all. They won’t be hiring a venue to interview one person,

Can people just not be arsed reading rhe full op. She’s asked!

I would too.

Why exactly is it an issue??

Op can’t you get a taxi? Or ask someone to help you travel, this is an opportunity a job, they are super hard to come by why would you not want to meet them face to face as well?

That a very good point. I have to see ID in person and confirm on the forms back to HR that I have witnessed tgem when I interview - it could be the same here.

She said she explained and asked, not that she used the exact term 'reasonable adjustment'.

Although I'd be rethinking whether I wanted to work for someone whose natural response wasn't "How can we help?" but "Them's the rules".

Of course you would, as i would! I had an interview once for a security company, we had already been told we would be working in an underground secure building and couldnt get out during our shift pattern, long shift 12 hours, all of this we already knew, so they were telling us this all again in the interview and this woman piped up "but how will i pick little johny up from school if i cant leave" !!! We all got the job she didnt

I think f2f interview is acceptable but this they are not offering any support with transport costs is not ok.

This. We’ve had it happen, luckily we caught them out during the interview but it’s actually really hard to spot. There are massive cyber security risks with remote interview, look up North Korea IT worker scam if you’re so inclined, it’s an interesting scam to read about.

How did you spot it?

It's perfectly normal not to receive any help with transport costs from a potential employer.

Something being common doesn't make it good enough. It makes it hard for people with fewer resources to seek employment and is a bad sign for an employer. Good employers do pay.

I wouldn't have expected a remote job to not require meeting your manager in person.

Even 10 years ago I never had a job that didn't intend me meeting my boss / team in person before hand, even if I'd not see them again for months.

If the job means that much, you'll find a way, if it does not, you'll find one more willing to suit you.

As much as I’d agree, I’m not sure she’s said she can’t afford to get there. Simply they don’t support. If she really can’t afford it she should tell them that, but I’m not sure thays the real issue here.

Do they? I haven't heard of anyone being paid to attend an interview in years - by good or less good employers.. It used to be the done thing years ago, but no more - especially not in cases like this where it sounds more like a group interview or a day where they're interviewing a number of people as opposed to an interview where they have a specific person in mind and are willing to pay them to attend.

Regardless, it is what it is - if they are not paying it's up to the OP.

This type of penny pinching in recruitment is an off-putting sign really. A charity needs the best employees - they don't have money to waste, but recruiting the best possible people is a worthy investment. It also shows they take equality of opportunity seriously which is a pretty serious mark of an organisation's attitude to staff in general.

Yes still done in many quality organisations. Obviously less so in either local or generic roles.
It is peanuts really for important roles, the impact of getting a less good candidate is significant.

Not peanuts at all if they're bringing people in from across the UK and beyond - and it's really not standard practice for this type of interview.

They asked a couple of suspicious questions about things like delivery of their IT equipment, one of the things they do is get the kit delivered to an address that isn’t their home address. The whole idea behind the scam is to get a position at a company which would give them privileged access like admin access to the Microsoft environment. They then use that access to steal data and confidential info. The named employee never works there, they have just been paid for the use of identity so the scammers can pass the right to work checks, the equipment goes to a warehouse/office where the scammers log in and start syphoning off everything they can.

I’ve never known anyone to offer support with transport costs.

Bloody hell, half of that wouldn’t occur to me and I certainly wouldn’t have the technical skills to do it. How on earth are employers meant to navigate that. And yes I’d want to interview in person if that was a concern.