Ask Slashdot: How Have You Handled Illegal Interview Topics? 714
kodiaktau writes "Salary.com profiles 14 questions that interviewers may or may not ask during the interview process such as the standards of age, gender and sexual orientation. They also profile several lesser known illegal or border line questions like height/weight, military background, country of origin and family status. With the recent flap over companies asking potential employees for passwords during the interview process it is important to know and review your legal rights before entering the interview. Have you been confronted with borderline or illegal interview questions in the past? How have you responded to those questions?"
Discrimination (Score:5, Insightful)
Even then, the link is to the last page. Here's a slightly better page [uwec.edu].
Anyway, on-topic, do you really want to work for a company that requires you to know your legal status prior to a job interview? Discrimination is disgusting, and as much as it may hurt, you're better off being knocked back for the job than having it present 40 hours a week.
People need to feed their families, but degrading one's self respect by accepting work where it happens is only inviting more trouble.
As a business owner (Score:5, Insightful)
As Peter Schiff has said [slashdot.org], hiring someone in the United States is one of the most expensive and riskiest things a business owner can do.
I'm sure you'll all mod this "-1, I disagree with you," but I am speaking very honestly. Keep throwing taxes and regulations at something, and you'll get less of it. Like jobs.
Re:As a business owner (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes because the thing you need to know about someone is if they're a homosexual Muslim from Norway to do a job.
Please.
Re:Citizenship (Score:5, Insightful)
Though apparently it is just fine to get hired as non-US citizen by the DoD.
On November 25, 2008, US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates signed a memorandum authorizing the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force to implement a new non-citizen recruiting pilot program for the United States Armed Forces. Titled âoeMilitary Accessions Vital to the National Interestâ (MAVNI), the new pilot program allows certain non-citizens who are legally present in the United States to join the military and apply immediately for US citizenship without first obtaining lawful permanent residence.
http://www.visalawyerblog.com/2009/02/fast_citizenship_the_armys_new.html [visalawyerblog.com]
"service guarantees citizenship!" (Starship Troopers)
Re:As a business owner (Score:5, Insightful)
"I'm sure you'll all mod this "-1, I disagree with you," but I am speaking very honestly. Keep throwing taxes and regulations at something, and you'll get less of it. Like jobs."
There is so much fail in that logic, it boggles the mind. Regulation and taxes have been increasing for a 100+ years and the economy has boomed exponentially. Granted, most of the boom in the 2000's was due to UNREGULATED BANKERS, but your statement is almost 100% ignorant of history.
Re:As a business owner (Score:5, Insightful)
It is a shame that these laws have to be in place. It is a shame that people were so vile and disgusting that they decided to discriminate based upon age or marital status or a host of other reasons. But they did, so now YOU have to deal with is. Suck it up and deal. Dont get mad at the government, get mad at the morons who decided to abuse their power as employer.
The thing about people like you that shocks me no matter how many times I see them post is that you don't seem to realize that most of these regulations were created for a REASON. People don't (usually) make laws in a vacuum. I would be more than happy to discuss how we can regulate BETTER and SMARTER, but to imply that regulations are evil in and of themselves is to ignore the entire first 150 years of the industrial revolution.
Re:As a business owner (Score:5, Insightful)
Ahem! As a business owner too, I'm glad there are regulations in place to level the playing field for everyone. If not being legally allowed to discriminate based on irrelevant information causes your business to suffer, you were doing it wrong in the first place, and I'm quite happy to replace you in the market. I work with people on 5 continents, and all are at the top of their game. If you base your staffing decisions on whoever seems "whitest" or worships the same imaginary friend in the sky, you are severely limiting your ability to compete in the global market.
Hiring is expensive because it is a serious relationship that must not be taken lightly. If it were any cheaper, there would be absolutely no job security because bosses like you could hire and fire people on a whim. Do you really expect an employee to perform well if they're under constant threat of losing their job ? You need to look beyond the tip of your nose and realize you need them as much as they need you.
Re:As a business owner (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:As a business owner (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, strictly you don't, but the smaller the company the more important it is to get someone who fits the office culture, and religous, poltical and even sexual orientation can have a massive impact. Nevertheless, most governments have said, mostly rightly in my opinion, that an office culture that cannot accomodate these things is inappropriate.
questions on military background?? (Score:4, Insightful)
"I'm sorry, that information is classified."
Hey, fuck you. (Score:5, Insightful)
You're wrong because most of that should not even come up at the office.
If it is an issue then the owner needs to be informed on the realities of operating in a multi-cultural nation.
Say what????? (Score:5, Insightful)
Try hiring someone in Germany. Or better yet, try firing them. No wonder the German economy is doing so poorly compared to the United States.
What? Germany's growth is at 2.9% Unemployment is at 5.9% Youth ( Now, we in the US have the following: 8.3% unemployment rate. As of July 2011, the youth unemployment rate was 18%. The debt % of its GPD is at 103.3%
Where the US leads Germany is in GDP per capita (Germany: $37,935. US: $48,147) and in America's post-HS education (in particular with grad-level education) and R&D. Where the US and Germany seem to meet is the rising level of incoming inequality.
But considering all other indicators (growth, unemployment debt/GDP ratios), your comment is completely off the mark. As an American, I wish we had those numbers.
Re:Fine, don't believe me (Score:4, Insightful)
So what, you'd refuse to hire a worker to increase output when the demand's there, just because the government's being mean to you by protecting the person's civil rights?
Make all the questions legal (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't want to work for anyone who doesn't want to work with me. That is a bad relationship which will end in nothing but misery.
I don't care why they don't want to work with me. Pounding square pegs into round holes is a stupid idea.
nonsense alert! (Score:5, Insightful)
Fail, dude. Just fail. Ever hire in Europe? There is a lot more red tape to go through. Europeans have mandatory vacation time, and they will take it.
It's not just that we will take their vacation it just because it's been _earned_. It's actually legally required. Something called a work life balance
Overtime pay goes up exponentially.
Want to cite some sources for this nonsense rhetoric?
And they actually enforce this as opposed to burying it in some court docket.
So you think that laws to protect citizens of a country and their rights should not actually be enforced?
Firing is worse.
So you think that citizens should have zero rights to actally know they have a job for longer than the 5 minutes you can be bothered to pay them?
Don't forget that you have to pay a lot more taxes (think 60% VAT for starters.)
You think that anywhere in the EU there is a sales tax of 60%? What the hell have you been smoking?
Stop disparaging the US until you get a clue.
Stop disparaging the system in other countries until _you_ get a clue
Of course they do. (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course they do. And they can do that all they want in their personal lives.
On the job though they're expected to behave professionally.
And part of "professionally" means not bringing up issues such as religion or politics and so forth. Or being able to deal, professionally, with others who have differing views.
And when an employer is selecting for religion / politics / whatever then there is a problem.
Re:Say what????? (Score:4, Insightful)
I would argue that GDP per capita is more important than unemployment in terms of economic indicators. To see why this is the case, consider the following policy - raise taxes by around 2% GDP and use the money to hire all the unemployed people to dig holes and fill them back in at minimum wage. This will drive unemployment to zero and have a small (and probably negative) impact on GDP. If people truly consider unemployment to be more important than GDP, you would expect for this to be a very popular policy. But it obviously isn't (or else you would hear about serious politicans suggesting it) so people obviously care more about GDP.
Re:As a business owner (Score:5, Insightful)
I take it you've never worked with an obsessive Christian who's always asking you to pray with him. Or an extremist from either end of the political spectrum who sarcastically criticizes anyone who disagrees with him.
Small businesses are frequently marginal affairs, and it only takes one bad employee to sour the work environment, cause the good people to quit, and destroy the lifetime investment of the owner. It isn't bigotry to be sensitive to the sensibilities of people who already work for you, and reject a newcomer who'd destroy the existing balance. It is bigotry to yell "BIGOT" when an employer can see that someone won't fit in.
--
Just because you have air flowing between your ears doesn't mean you have an open mind.
Re:Maybe you need a longer time sample (Score:5, Insightful)
every country has a rick santorum. Not every country has a large group of people that tolerate having a rick santorum being a serious contender for president.
Re:As a business owner (Score:5, Insightful)
No. You're wrong. The whole point of this is that you don't need to know anything about somebody's family status, sexuality, national origin, and so on in order to get to know somebody beyond the basics. Education, interests, experience, general conversation...
If you think you need to know something protected in order to hire someone, you're doing it wrong - at best. At worst it means you're (consciously or subconsciously) going to not offer someone a job because of their sexuality or something, which isn't OK. You should want to prevent even the possibility of that, so if you hire someone more qualified, the guy you didn't can't sue you alleging that you discriminated against him.
Re:As a business owner (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:As a business owner (Score:4, Insightful)
Yea, I agree the laws in question are rather pessimistic and assumes the worst of the employer. Then again, do you think getting rid of these laws and allowing employers to ask if you're a certain religion/ethnic group/political party/etc would be a good thing? That we'll have more cases of disruptive members of society being kept out of companies, instead of employers refusing to hire good people simply because the very notion of working with a homosexual/republican/whatnot is offensive?
Re:Say what????? (Score:5, Insightful)
I would argue that GDP per capita is more important than unemployment in terms of economic indicators. To see why this is the case, consider the following policy - raise taxes by around 2% GDP and use the money to hire all the unemployed people to dig holes and fill them back in at minimum wage. This will drive unemployment to zero and have a small (and probably negative) impact on GDP. If people truly consider unemployment to be more important than GDP, you would expect for this to be a very popular policy. But it obviously isn't (or else you would hear about serious politicans suggesting it) so people obviously care more about GDP.
Exactly. It isn't (which is a shame, for there is nothing in capitalism or free market ideas that would preclude such a policy.)
Also, it's not like we are comparing the American GDP vs, say, the one from my country of origin (Nicaragua, the 2nd poorest country in the Western Hemisphere with an annual $3,185 GDP per capita, 6.6% the US GPD/capita, a whooping 93% differential.) The German per capita GDP is about 78% that of the US, a 22% differential.
Then you have to consider the price of the common basket of goods, and other quality indicators like overall health, health coverage, public transportation and infrastructure, the widespread use of technology (where Japan knocks the shit out of Germany and/or the US for example.)
With those things combined, the GDP/capita difference between the US and Germany is/might not be as significant as it might be. I would argue that having a greater GDP per capita is important only if, say, the difference is half an order of magnitude or more (and/or combined with severe income/social inequality as found in, say, Latin America.)
The reality, a sad reality, is that we are the most powerful and richest country in the world, and yet we are lagging in every indicator (except military might and academic research) compared to other developed countries with smaller GDP per capita and we have the greatest economic disparity of any developed nation. This status quo is unacceptable.
Re:Full article (Score:2, Insightful)
Some ways that employers get the answers they want without appearing to do anything illegal:
* age: what year did you graduate?
* race / country of origin: where did you go to school?
* citizenship: have you had or are you able to obtain a security clearance?
* membership in clubs: what activities do you engage in, in your free time?
* family status: what would you costs be to relocate to our new location?
Re:Say what????? (Score:5, Insightful)
I would argue that median income of working age people (including unemployed) is an important measure.
Re:Maybe you need a longer time sample (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd rather live in a place where most people are not the products of public schools.
I'd rather live in a place where most people are not the products of "public is always bad, private is always good" propaganda.
Re:Maybe you need a longer time sample (Score:5, Insightful)
And you realize that, if we're going to use your standard, the German state has only existed about 21 years?
It's quite revealing how weak your argument is that you have to cite the overall rate of US economic growth, all the way back to the founding of the republic, to find a standard by which the US is doing (present tense, as in now) better than Germany, never mind that it is a completely specious standard.
I actually thought someone could answer how the US economy is still doing better than Germany *right now*. I guess not.
Re:As a business owner (Score:3, Insightful)
You know what isn't illegal to ask: "Are you a bigot??"
Seriously, rather than asking the candidates if they ARE a Muslim/Gay/Transgender whatever, how about you ask everyone if they would HAVE A PROBLEM working with such an individual. Don't hire bigots and do fire the bigots. Then you'd have a nice "office culture" or whatever it is you're after.
But yea, punish the person who "sticks out" rather than all the people who irrationally have some sort of bigoted problem. How expedient.
Re:As a business owner (Score:5, Insightful)
It isn't bigotry to be sensitive to the sensibilities of people who already work for you, and reject a newcomer who'd destroy the existing balance. It is bigotry to yell "BIGOT" when an employer can see that someone won't fit in.
I think you're just trying to defend bigotry by institutionalizing it. If someone can't get along with someone for the sole reason of skin color, then the problem is that person and they need to go. You can call not hiring black people "not upsetting the existing balance" if you like, but nobody is really fooled by that. That's just simple racism. If you're really saying "Gee... I think he wouldn't really fit in" when someone in the company doesn't like someone because of a protected class (sex, national origin, race, religion, and sometimes sexual orientation) you're actually breaking the law. The law doesn't really give a shit about your balance, nor should it.
If you REALLY want to avoid this situation, I'd suggest not hiring Archie Bunker in the first place. It's perfectly legal to discriminate on the basis of douche-baggery. Douche bags can be fired at will. In fact, your company is actually liable for workplace harassment suits if 'old Arch starts harassing people based on a protected class. Don't believe me? Ask Herman Caine about workplace harassment.
It is NOT illegal (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course it makes it difficult sometimes. We were told not to ask where someone lived (could indicate living situation as in living in the poor part of town. But when I used to walk a candidate back to my office, I used to talk about the weather. And I liked to know where they lived, so I could compare our weather to what they are used to.
BUT IT IS NOT ILLEGAL! Just strongly recommended you don't ask certain questions.
Re:nonsense alert! (Score:4, Insightful)
+1.
Heaven forbid that people actually have rights, and a measure of protection against exploitation.
It amuses me that some Americans apparently think it is offensive
a) to have a right to holidays
b) to actually take your holidays
c) to have some measure of protection against termination without cause.
Re:Say what????? (Score:5, Insightful)
When we consider German GDP per capita versus US GDP per capita, we must remember that the average German works a 35 hour week and has 6 weeks paid vacation, vs the average American who works a 40 hour week and has only 2 weeks paid vacation. Germans nominally have a 1610 hour work year, vs a 2000 hour work year for the aveage American. 37935/1610 = avg. $23.56 per hour, while the US is only slightly higher per hour, $24.07. I suspect the Germans have a far higher quality of life for their money.
Re:As a business owner (Score:3, Insightful)
So you ask them questions about the curriculum they will be teaching. If they cannot display adequate knowledge about it, then don't hire them. If, after you hire them, they refuse to teach the set curriculum to your satisfaction, let them go. You should definitely monitor the classroom way before the examinations, since a bad teacher who is unable to teach the subject is just as bad as one who refuses to teach it. If the students do not pass their exams, you have failed them and they go out into the world with your failures holding them back.