Unethical Or Unprofessional Interview Question- I Am Shocked

hi,
Well every position has certain requirements and constraints....i think they need to informed much ahead of the interview process so that both the parties involved can decided to go ahead or not with the laid conditions for the concerned position, thats saves time and avoids such kind of situation which is not appreciated by anyone.
Thanks!
S Kumar.

I do not know what sort of discrimination laws you have in India, but here in Australia, asking such a question is illegal. Similarly, interviewers may not ask questions about religious affiliations, sexual orientation, marital status, medical history, living arrangements etc. None of those things have any bearing on whether a person can do the job as specified in the job description.

When a professional HR person interviews a candidate for a job, they seek to find out if the person has the skills, knowledge and experience to fulfill the duties competently.

Sadly, merely having laws does not prevent it happening. Unscrupulous employers will ask these questions knowing full well that you cannot do much about it if you need the job or lack the resources to take legal action. The problem being of course the ability to prove a case. Usually there are no witnesses when the illegal question is asked and the interviewer will deny having asked the question.

Saying that the company needs to ensure the person will stay merely to protect the investment in recruiting and training the new person is not a satisfactory defence for such an offensive and irrelevant question.

I would hope that our members here are far more professional and mindful of our obligations to treat ALL people fairly and judge them only on the skills and abilities they bring to our organisations.

Hi there,

Its good point have been raised in this forum........I feel that it should be asked in diplomatic manner once the candidate is comfortable after few minutes of healthy conversation........It might happen that the Interviewer would having the target of interviewing so many candidates in days and hence he/she is asking such questions in first while where as such question should be asked at the end after explaining the urgency and importance of the his/her role in the organization. I m sure that all the HR professionals are asking long term stabilty questions to all prospective candidates. It make sure that selected employee is not going to take long leave within a year.........

It seems that HR are too much pressurised that they are skipping their main core skill set creating comfortable environment for people as well as listening to them.

I believe there is no harm asking such question while interviewing but with proper manner. Now a day, there are ample of cases you may come across in the corporate world that Employer is hiring external agency to get very minute minute details about either existing employee or prospective employee.

Thanks & Regards,

DN

HA HA HA

here all suggested that the question is relevant but asked in an irrelevant manner. OK fine

many suggested first to make the candidate comfortable and then ask the question.

But what I mean to convey is that, IS THERE IS A NEED TO ASK THE CANDIDATE PERSONALLY.

An application form of company can be designed and the question can be included with education, experience and other details. In personal details

the sex, age, maritial status can be asked from candidate.

But asking about kids is too over and not needed at all for the HR. The HR here need not be so loyal to company like a dog. They need to have common sense, which they are lacking here in India, almost all who said that you need to see from employer point of view.

Here the senseless HR are expecting that the female employees should not take the maternity leave or other leaves etc. OK

But if I give u a situation what can you about it.

Just think if u have any brain and reply to me.

You interview an unmarried female candidate, and train her for about 3-4 months, during these 3-4 her parents or herself fix marriage, and after 4 months her marriage is fixed, now I guarantee atleast she will go on marriage leave for a month, which would mean loss for the company, if u hesitate to give leave she will kick ur job and go as at that time marriage would be on priority rather than job, so ultimately u have to give her one months leave, then again after marriage in about 2-3 months her husband is shifting to abroad, or some other place, and she will give resignation and go, or other case within a year she may apply for maternity leave, which again would mean you loyal HR crying over loss of company work.

So ultimately there is loss of company of training her and paying her for whatever time she worked.

But why the hell you look at it as a loss, she worked for the period she was paid. And its none of your business to poke into personal matters of employees.

And many think that girls have a flair to join company and take maternity leaves????????

Think from a different angle.

Dont know what will happen if the HR keeps asking something foolish and still term it as ethical

I Agree with Jaysree's opinion that it is a must for a recruiter to know the importance of the tenure of the new hired person after a lot of struggles. The process of recruitment became so tough that even a recruiter miss a part of a day the offered candidates may get to different options.
One thing is sure that the interviewer should have asked with a little of fun to avoid dissappointment by the candidate.
The candidates should be ready for taking and accepting more bold & straight forward Q's considering the current employment situations in India.
Rajan 8)

I agree with Ravi !
About prediction for the future of candidates, why dont the ask 'How many times you are planning to get sick?', How many relatives of yours are likely to get married in next 6 months?, What are the probabilities of your meeting with an accident?
The interviewer is free to have the candidate undergo medical examination prior to employment offer to see if she is pregnent. He can judge from the age and family histry (mentioned in the application form) about her likelyhood of getting pregnent. He may decide based on report and judgement about hiring her. But there is no point in asking and offending her.
I have seen these flashy HRs in BPO thinking they are god. I have experienced them asking questions like 'How did your father die?' 'Are you planning to seperate from your joint family?'
I think there has to be more professionalism amongst HR as well. Many a things are not taught in best of Bschools. That is known as common sense.
- Hiten

Its all about sentiments of a person specialy a specfic gender, but guys just understand putting your self in the same situation, you are running a small company of 3 people and all the team mebers are female for example and unexpectedly 2 employees have taken maternity leave. I am sure business will go for toss...same situation works in big organizations as their teams functions as a small business where contribuation of each team member is must and keeping this in mind either company will look out for male employees or without gender bias they will invistiagate personal side of prospective employee, where family planning and other softer issues comes in the picture....

its absolutely base less but business is like war front where no one likes to see there soilder weak at any front mind it guys its not an charitable organization its a business and profit making insituation... respect the stake holders hard earn money which gives you emplyment and earning...

hopes this answer your doubt..

Hi
As discussed by some other experienced professionals on the site, i d not think the question put forth to you had anything to do wiht ethics or no ethics. It was purely a concern for her because she might have had cases like this in th past and she wants to ensure that it doesn't repeat itself.
Yes, it could have been put in a better way. which she did not quite realise herself.
These things should not be of any concern to you, and one need not get emotional about such things. You have to look at a bigger perspective in life and not such miniscule things which will not get you anywhere.
Ultimately it's upto you what you think and whether you want to go ahead with this or no.
Regards
Ankita

Unethical and Illegal... no doubt in that....
You just cannot frame such kind of question... we are HR for gods sake... we are not filling the blanks...
If i had some bad exp in past, it doesnt mean that i start asking these kind of questions. It would just show my incompetency for this job... We are HR, and we are the best when it comes to playing with words... there are 100 ways to frame this question or put some point ahead...
India,US, UK, Aus, Canada... almost all countries except some 3rd world countries follow equal employment opportunity...
How ever... there is nothing wrong is informing the candidate earlier to interview about the do's and dont's of the job....
Cheers and have fun...

Rose,
It is unethical no doubt. the company may have 1001 reasons to justify themselves, but they are hiring humans and not machines. to get a job we can not force ourselves to our personal values. I dont think anyone should be justifying the question. Things are gettign too commercial these days and these Recruiters are forced to ask such questions. but the person concerned should have soem common sense to decide which question to ask and which to avoid. sounds really ABSURD!!