Interview - fixed date no alternative?

[debs40]

Hi

I've been offered an interview in London on Tuesday - I live about an hour and a half away.

The advert for the job says that interviews will be in the week commencing 9th March, however,I got an email today saying it is on Tuesday at this time or nothing.

I don't have childcare on Tuesday and would have expected some flexibility.

Can they do this?

I missed an interveiw due to a fixed date and I was away. You could phone and enquire but I got a no.

Right need to think of alternative childcare if they won't change it. Perhaps phone a sitter agency, or check if any local nurseries or childminders do emergency care.

i would do my upmost to arrange childcare... you will be disadvantaged if you try and change the date.. i think..
do you have a dh/p??? who can take time off work?

Yes, dh could help but he contracts away from home so it is a faff.

Is this is not a discrimination issue? I think they are treading a fine line not offering to accomodate personal circumstances. What if I was disabled and needed special help? They are a human rights organisation too. I don't think they've thought it through.

you could be right, i hadnt thought of that. obviously if you were disabled and needed special help - and presumably childcare issues need some consideration.
i wouldnt though, there are hidden discriminations

Have you asked them for an alternative date and got a 'no'? If not, I'd give them a ring. But bear in mind they may have several people to see and limited time.

Call and ask. We send out a date and time as standard then flex it if people are at work etc. When you call just have a lot of times and dates you CAN do so you look available iyswim?

Next Tuesday is short notice so they might be willing to change it. Just be positive on the phone.

Why does everything have to be about discrimination? I'm assuming you're not disabled so what does disability have to do with it? Presumably arrangements would be made for a disabled person, but having childcare issues is not a disability.

Personally if someone couldn't even make the interview I would consider they weren't that keen on the job.

It makes me when women constantly cry discrimination over things like this. It's worth bearing in mind that you need the job not the other way around. If you can't make the interview they will find someone who can. They're not obliged to be flexible until you've worked for them for at least six months so think you're just chancing it tbh.

Agree, you don't want to come over as inflexible on the phone - you need to be making the best impression possible.

Do you have options for childcare if you got the job?

I'm a lawyer. I'm not 'crying discrimination'. It so sad when women accuse other women of that and don't understand that laws are there to protect them too.

Unfortunately, this isn't my area and I know some posters here are HR experts and I wanted to see what they thought. It is not good practice from my experience.

I use disability as a discrimination parallel but I'm sorry if that point confused you.

Fortunately,I don't 'need' this job and I would chose not to work for people with an inflexible attitude.

I wanted to see if anyone knew whether this was bad/normal practice because if they cannot change the date, I will withdraw and politely point it out to them

They may have a panel of people together to do the interviews on a certain day and then discuss to candidates afterwards. It may not be possible to to get everyonme together on another day to interview you.

You could try telling them that you have a 'prior engagement' that day and that you had kept the w/c 9th March clear, as that is when the advert said the interviews were going to be, and see if they can be flexible. However if you really want the job, I would do everything possible to get there for the date & time they have offered. I know it should not be the case, but I think that if you say you can not sort out childcare for the interview, it will put you at a disadvantage.

It's normal practice to give a date and time. People appointing do have their day job to do as well. It may be hard to convene an interview panel for more than a single day.

Seriously, ring up and ask politely.

Thanks. If they don't want to change the date, then I shall withdraw. I wouldn't work for anyone who couldn't take these issues seriously.

I am surprised because they had already said they would allow me to homework if I got the job which is the only reason I was interested in taking it on.

Tuesday is w/c 9th March anyway, so you should've tried to keep the week clear?

but the disability point is totally different. Because for someone with a disability you might need to make arrangements in order that the interview process be accessible, so for instance you couldn't arrange for a candidate in a wheelchair to be interviewed on the second floor of a building with no lift, iyswim? It's not the same as convenience - i.e. not being able to attend an interview because of lack of childcare. That is a matter of convenience, and if a mother or a disabled person were unable to make the invited time/date it wouldn't be a matter of discrimination, and I speak as someone who has been discriminated against on the basis of my disability, by companies who have interviewed me but then told me they wouldn't employ me because I had a disability.

Discrimination against a woman might occur if during interview she were asked about her childcare arrangements.

IMO you have to do your best at interview, make the best possible impression, you (not you personally but one in general obv) can start being less flexible and demanding more flexibility from the company once you actually have the job in hand.

You want them to be flexible, but you don't have to be?

I am part of a recruiting panel at the moment and we are interviewing on a set date. And the decision will be made on that date, so it would not be possible to change it for candidates who were unable to make it.

I think that expecting a company to arrange their interview dates and times according to their candidates' personal circumstances is unrealistic, and you will find it hard to find a company who will be that accommodating.

flexibility is a two way thing IMO. I wouldn't employ someone who wanted everything on their terms.

Speaking as someone who interviews pretty frequently, for example we have three members on our interview panel, myself (line manager), my head of department and someone from HR. We all have jobs to do, which are frantically busy, we have to organise a room as we obviously can't interview in our office. We have tight dates for when the ad goes out, the day the interviews are held, the day the applicants are told and the start date. If one person decides they want to come in on a different day, we all have to stop work, we have to book another room out which probably won't be available etc.

Now I'm not HR, I'm just telling you it from my side as a sometime interviewer. And I have a 14 month old and have just returned to work so I know your side of it too.

You only get one shot and if you don't impress then you're out. It's tough but that's the way it is.

it's also worth bearing in mind that in the current climate there are likely to be far more applicants for jobs than would ordinarily be the case. So often being invited for interview is also a matter of luck, as companies often can't invite everyone, not even all the good candidates, for interview if they have too many. So if you decline then they'll just move on to the next one.

My mum was sifting through applications the other day and they'd had 136 applications for 2 jobs. And they could only interview 20 of them.

Why would you 'expect' flexibility? If it's a panel interview involving getting 2 or 3 senior members of staff in one place for a significant chunk of time, plus organising a room and other logistics, flexibility is very very difficult. And it's certainly not any kind of discrimination issue, not sure why that would even occur to you, unless you were disabled and they were refusing to make adjustments for you.

I'm glad you're fortunate enough to be in a position to withdraw because you don't need the job. But saying you don't want to work for an employer with such an 'inflexible attitude' is a bit much! There's nothing wrong with asking if you can be accommodated another way, and if they are very interested in you and/or don't have many good candidates, they are likely to try to accommodate if at all possible. But it may not be possible, and that doesn't necessarily demonstrate an 'inflexible attitude' and is not anything to do with 'discrimination'.

No they won't accomodate a change of day. Ok, that's fine. I'm overqualified for this post and would only consider doing it because I can work from home while finishing my PhD. So yes, it might be a bit arrogant and yes there are lots of other people wanting jobs, but I don't have to work for people unless I'm happy with their approach to accomodating flexibility. Sorry if life is different for others or others have different views but there it is.

However, that was not the issue I raised primarily and I think it is naive to think that not being prepared to accomodate childcare arrangements for interview is not potentially discriminatory not necessarily in purpose but in outcome

Not sure why their inability to change one interview day is illustrative of their 'approach to accommodating flexibility', and call me naive if you like, but an employer not being in a position to be able to arrange an interview schedule around people's existing childcare arrangements isn't discrimination imo.

Sounds like a happy outcome though.

Sorry I'm sounding off and being an arrogant tw*t! Thanks for all your help on this everyone! I think there is potentially a point here but it's not mine to take.