Please fucking lie to your employer. Like they donāt need to know your mental health issues or what drugs you do. Ffs
its not lying if its to employers or cops
and look up ur rights on what they can and cannot ask u many places ban asking about ur record and transportation status and things like that resources will also tell u how they reword sketchy questions so ur prepared
Hey. Take it from a former HR personā¦ this goes double right now. I just spent some time putting in some job applications myself (not for HR, lol) and got about 15 interviews. And idk if itās because of COVID uncertainty or if places just donāt fucking care anymore because they know people are desperate for work, but the amount of straight up illegal shitĀ my interviewers asked me was appalling. (Thatās not even counting the questions that were technicallyĀ legal but clearly fishing for information theyāre not legally allowed to ask.)
A tame example? Two questions into a phone interview, the guy on the other end of the line asked:Ā āHow old are you?ā I saidĀ āExcuse me?ā - giving him a chance to rethink that. He didnāt.Ā āHow old are you?ā āSir, you are not allowed to ask me that question.ā āWell, I want to know. Iām asking.ā āAnd youāre legally not allowed to ask me that. Iām not required to tell you my age.ā At that point, I guess he managed to remember an old HR bulletin or something (I hope to god he wasnāt actually HR himself), and he said,Ā āWell, I need to know if youāre over the age of 18.ā (Which is what he should have asked in the first placeā¦ or not, since that was in the application that he could have read.) āYes. Iām over the age of 18.āĀ And we moved on. Two questions later, he tried another illegal question. I called him on it again and ended the interview, citing that a workplace with such a clear disregard for the law, especially upon first contact with a potential employee, was not going to be a good fit. (They offered me the job anyway, lol. I didnāt send a thank-you or a response.)
At a different interview, the majority of questions wereĀ āfishingā questions - just looking for that info theyāre not actually allowed to ask. (This person was also either not really HR or an HR person who was exceptionally bad at their job.)
I could tell they were getting frustrated when I dodged answering the personal stuff, and they actually got extremelyĀ upset when I mentioned later in the interview (re: less relevant work experience) I had worked in HR. They were super flustered for the remainder of our time, and I watched them skip over questions on their sheet they had clearly planned on asking. They KNEW they were being sketchy and were counting on me not knowing anything about HR - or my rights - and so they got upset when I did. These were super tameĀ examples. Iām begging you, if youāre job searching right now, PLEASEĀ know your rights. Please know what interviewers are allowed to ask. Please donāt volunteer information or elaborate more than youāre required to about personal things. Save your words (and everyoneās time) by elaborating why youāre good for the position/what you can do. I may create a resource list on this shit later but PLEASE PLEASE KNOW THIS STUFF BEFORE YOU TALK TO AN EMPLOYER. This goes for anywhere youāre interviewing as well as your current employer. This also goes for HR. HR may be the person you go to when shitty stuff happens, but that doesnāt mean theyāre your friend (or competent). They donāt need to know your age (beyond 16+, 18+, or 21+, depending on the job). They donāt need to know your medical history. (For the love of god, do NOT answer theĀ āhave you been diagnosed with depression?ā question.) They donāt need to know if you have kids or whatever. They donāt need to know a LOT of those things that may appear on an application, including your veteran status, whether youāre on/have been on unemployment, etc. Theyāre not entitled to know specifics about your transportation (unless youāre using that transportation for the job, like Uber/delivery drivers). Look this up for your state/the jobās state. Beware questions likeĀ āWhat year did you graduate?ā if youāre like me and donāt put dates on your resume (I just put amount of time spent at employers, not dates of employment). Theyāre fishing for your age. Itās āOh, you know, 100 years ago,ā if you feel comfortable making a joke, orĀ āAbout [generic number, like 5 or 10] years agoā if not. Also beware things like theĀ āWhat do you do in your free time?ā question, even if you already work there. This is not a friendly getting-to-know-you question. This is a basis for judgement. Not up to an invisible standard? Theyāre going to be biased against you for pay raises, promotions, etc. Mention kids/lots of family/social engagements? Thatās a tick against you for not being the kind of person who lives to work (yes, itās gross and stupid). Mention lots of solitary things? Cool, thatās their mental note to ask more from you because youāreĀ ānot doing anything anyway.ā By all means, be friendly with your coworkers/talk about shared interests if you want, but it is noneĀ of your bossās business, and be aware what could get back to them.Ā Donāt. Tell. Employers. Shit.
We wrote up a handy list of those illegal questions here:
10 Questions You Should Never Be Asked in a Job InterviewĀ
Hopefully people already know this by now, but I saw way too often back when I worked in retail. Donāt add your coworkers or boss on social media. Yes, your coworkers too. You donāt want to accidentally say something to them or have them see a post and mention it to your boss. Iāve seen it happen.ļæ¼ļæ¼
