I did this at the interview for the power plant I’ve been working at for the past 2.5 years. There was a 3 person panel interviewing me and I think they were impressed that I not only asked this but kept asking it through vague bullshit answers. They initially just said “the previous guy left.” And I just sat there for about 10 seconds, waiting for more info than that. Then I said “okay, did he quit, get fired, put in his notice, retire, get demoted, get promoted, become disabled, die off site, die while here…?” He had gone to a different company, but I was uneasy from their hesitance to be forthcoming, so I dug into questions about the culture there, work/life balance, advancement opportunities, safety record, management style, and (maybe my favorite) “what does success in this role look like and how are your feedback and expectations of that communicated to employees?”
They seemed uncomfortable and impatient, but because I already had a decent job at the time I had nothing to lose by swinging my dick around and cutting the bullshit. I highly recommend applying and interviewing for jobs while you’re already reasonably well-employed. It’s great practice, it keeps your resume up to date, you learn real negotiation tactics, and you get to decline offers that aren’t a substantial step up. About a year and a half ago, I did a video interview in my underwear where the manager and supervisor running the interview couldn’t hear me so I was live troubleshooting and resolved their issue. I got an offer, rejected it by telling HR to come back with a higher offer, got the same offer a week later, asked the HR lady why she wasn’t capable of listening to my instructions and was wasting my time with greedy negotiation tactics (which really annoyed her), asked for her name and the name of her supervisor while wholeheartedly rejecting any offer that would come from her, reported the experience to her supervisor, got a call back from the HR lady full of apologies (which I didn’t forgive but thanked her for), and emailed the supervisor I had interviewed with to thank him and let him know that everything sounded great but I couldn’t work for a company whose HR department was that shitty to me before I even verbally accepted an offer. Because of the nature of my industry and our relatively young ages, I told him I wouldn’t be surprised if I wound up working with him somewhere within the next ten years anyway, and I looked forward to that within a company that respects its employees as much as he seems to.
For those who don’t already know, HR exists to fuck the workers in order to benefit the company. Do not trust a goddamn thing HR says. Get everything documented. Record everything they say if it’s legal to do so in your state. If not, draft immediate, timestamped memos (like an email to yourself) of everything that just happened and was said, and be objective with your phrasing.
There is always this one person who tries to find an expression of opinion in everything that's said (with a good helping of interpretation of course since there was no expression of opinion to begin with), then attacks that made up opinion in a snarky, moral high ground sort of way... Not everything people say is meant to start a serious discussion, folks!
Okay, so either I've done something that I have reprimanded you for and thus am a hypocrite, or you are starting to do the old "moral high ground" chain of escalation that usually ends with someone mindlessly crying hypocrite just to win a super useless internet argument.
Let's summarize: I made a mediocre throw away joke by making up a conversation to a meme that'd lead to a "makes you chuckle a little" punchline. I deliberately used comedic, very casual language.
You replied with a comment that started with sarcasm and suggested I wanted to invalidate the OP meme because of a made up situation.
I then remarked that you interpreted a statement that was not made into my words, claimed moral high ground and.went about it in a snarky way (sarcasm and all).
So, either you are trying to tell me that your reply to me was a joke as well, which would have the potential to make me a hypocrite, yet I'd like to add that there was neither a punchline not anything else that would qualify your statement as a joke, so how was this "joke" of your's meant to play out?
Or you did exactly what I said, continued to freely interpret stuff that wasn't said into my replies and then attacked those.
This "discussion" is completely irrelevant of course since again, I did not say anything that was grounds for discussion at all and didn't intend to in an way shape or form, so I think this response should suffice to end it. You might want to ask yourself which of the possibilities described fits. You need not respond or anything, I'm not petty enough to need a win here or anything, but perhaps you can learn something about the way you communicate.
Then they tell you the previous person was incompetent or something to try and make it seem like they were a bad employee, not that it’s a bad work environment.
“Oh? And who was in charge of their interview?” because unless they have a large hr department to handle hiring interviews, it was probably the person who hired you.
This is when you take notes in your notebook you should have brought with you.
I’ve noticed interviewers get visibly uncomfortable when I write in my notebook. It’s like they’re either trying to figure out if they just lied about something I will be able to reference later, or they just get that natural “someone is writing about me and I can’t read what it is” feeling, I assume the former.
Simon Pegg wasn’t lying in Hot Fuzz. The notebook is a powerful weapon if used right.
I thought that once too and ignored my gut feeling. It was the most toxic work environment that I've ever experienced, and it essentially killed my software development career. I was eventually laid off and never recovered. I'm now a mail carrier.
I actually work for Canada Post. We've heard rumblings of the pre-sequenced mail coming our way, and some people have lost large chunks of money from it. Contract negotiations are coming up though, so we'll see how things go. Though it is nice having a union that is willing to fight the company for the workers...I've never had that before this job.
Had a similar experience. Toxic company that was awarded a contract hired in a bunch of people, gave us starting dates then a week before we were supposed to start they delayed our start data by 4 months. It only got worse and worse from there. I eventually quit when I was doing 4 other jobs, like with different pay scales and supervisors and everything, by myself. Killed any chances I had with IT since every other company around here doesn’t want to risk yet another burnout from that place. I had the same place interview me twice 6 months apart and both times as soon as they saw that company on my resume they frowned and kind of cut it short.
It was because I believed the lie "if you start in Support, you'll have a chance to move over to Development". I spent 5 years waiting for them to keep their promise. I did everything they asked me to do, I even wrote code in order to demonstrate that I was able to do it. None of it mattered. And after 5 years of doing everything they wanted, chasing that goal post that kept on moving back on me, they laid me off unceremoniously. I then tried to apply to development jobs but I kept on getting asked the question why I haven't held a development title in more than 5 years. No answer I gave was apparently good enough. I spent the next five years bouncing from a tech support job that I got laid off from, and then a technical advisor job (which was really just tech support for the development team) that I got laid off from. After that, I decided I either get a development job, or I'm leaving the industry. Tech Support was killing me, and I refused to go back. And now I deliver mail for a living. It's a lot less stress than I had to deal with before. And I now get a true chance of a six-figure salary.
Actually, I’ve had more than one interviewer comment on it saying it “shows (I’m) prepared” since many people don’t bring anything to write on and sometimes have to ask for a paper.
As for whether that could be a bonus in getting hired? Meh. 110% depends on the field.
If the question is “will asking unnecessary questions and writing down answers help get this job” then I’d ask if the interviewer isn’t prepared for a couple innocuous questions, then it shows a severe lack of preparedness on their part and I’d question whether I want to work for a place where someone gets shook by their underlings daring to question them.
I fully admit I am already biased against nearly any company that I would be interviewing at, so I’m already more willing to get confrontational in interviews if I feel I am not getting the respect I deserve (you know, the basic human decency of treating every random person you meet as an equal until they prove otherwise worthy), and drop them to keep looking than the average person. I’ll eat ramen and peanut butter sandwiches for a few more weeks if I need to. I’ve walked out of interviews before.
I’ve walked out after the opening “greeting”. “alright let’s make this quick, I’ve got a dozen other interviews today” okay well if that’s how you treat someone here for a simple interview I can’t imagine how you treat your employees on a bad day, get fucked. I literally said “excuse me? You don’t talk that way in a professional setting.” and left.
This is absolutely true. My former employer (a big box retail company) reduced my pay while I was on holiday. I had been there for years and accrued a bunch of pay rises - but the company got bought out and the new owners thought they could strip me of these because they felt they were temporary and non-contractual.
I got some legal advice that basically said they can’t do that sort of thing and had a meeting scheduled with HR. I went in with my notepad, I stayed calm - pleasent even - no angry shouting or slamming tables with fists, I just politely asked them questions and wrote down everything they said, then read their answers back to them to confirm thats what they said. I had about 6 questions prepared and by the 4th they were visibly uncomfortable, it was an amazing feeling making them squirm like that. After I got done asking my questions, I dropped the legal advice I had been given on them and it was obvious the answers they gave supported my case very heavily. They panicked and reversed all there decesion plus I got back-pay.
But if the first thing I had done is charge in making accusations and quoting the law I know nothing constructive would have happened.
See the goal is to bury them in their own words.
Edit: predictably the company went bust the next year. So long Office Outlet!
Always get them to bury themselves before dropping your intentions.
My wife is currently dealing with her employer and their complete lack of handicap spots, despite over 200 regular car spaces scattered all around a warehouse lot. She doesn’t quite get how to “play the game” like this but she’s learning.
One party recording state so I’d like her to go in to talk about it while recording, but her anxiety is completely stonewalling her from bringing it up.
Hit record on the phone, slip it in a pocket that has good clearance for the whole conversation, and get them to say the things they’ve said when they think nobody else can hear them.
Apparently the front office woman screamed at her to move her car (she parked there because the offices are isolated from traffic and have access to her work area)and “it’s not our goddamn problem we don’t have handicap spots, it’s yours so deal with it”
I’m about to just skip around waiting for her to do things and file a complaint with the EEOC or at least the ADA government site complaint form. I’m sure that would take months, if not years before anything ever happened, but I can’t hold her hand and be there when she confronts the owners about their 6-8 missing handicap spots.
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