Blog entries July 2010
07/23/2010Those Dreaded Interview Questions Because You Asked!
Janice Worthington
07/12/2010Illegal or Inappropriate Interview Questions
Welcome to the world of controversy. As if job seekers didn't have enough to worry about now comes the issue of inappropriate or illegal interview questions.
The most important fact to remember is that illegal is a term related to the use of a question that has been deemed unacceptable by law. Inappropriate is a totally different subject.
It is illegal not to hire candidates because of their race, color, sex, religion, national origin, birthplace, age, disability or marital/family status.
So for example while it is illegal to ask, "That's an unusual name; what does it mean?" It is acceptable to ask, "Are you eligible to work in the US?"
It is illegal to ask, "Are you planning to have children?" But it is acceptable to ask, Would you be able to work a 9:00AM to 6PM schedule?"
It is illegal to ask, "Do you attend church every week?" but acceptable to ask, "Can you work on weekends?" only if asked of all applicants and weekend work is a business necessity.
If asked an illegal question you have four options:
- Briefly answer the question anyway, if you are comfortable doing so.
- Respond to the intent of the question.
- Ignore the question and change the subject.
- Refuse to answer the question, telling the interviewer that the question is illegal and not relevant to the job.
To me inappropriate questions though legal are worse! They may involve personal questions that have more do with personal conversation on other activities that have no business in the workplace. I've always said that if anyone addressed me inappropriately, I'd just leave.
Remember some employers really might not know the legalities of asking on which continent you were educated, but they all know what they are harassing an individual who very badly needs to go back to work!
Resource - University of California at Berkley
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Janice Worthington