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Managers who interview job applicants are usually instructed in the basic questions not to ask, in accordance with the EEOC and the ADA. These include questions about race, color, sex, religion, country of origin, place of birth, age, disabilities, marital or family status.
It can be fuzzy territory. For instance if the applicant comments on the picture of your adorable twins, you can of course respond, "Being a parent is mostly a joy, except for sometimes," with a roll of your eyes. The applicant may well reply, "Yeah, my kids are in high school now. It's a whole different thing," with a roll of his/her eyes. The interviewer has learned a lot without asking a single word. The applicant has older children, is unlikely to be asking for maternity leave 10 months after you hire her, can probably work later hours because he/she doesn't have to run home to relieve the baby sitter.
Disability is a different matter, especially a hidden disability. The other day I got the following email from someone I didn't know. She gave me permission to reprint it.
"A few years back I was applying for a high level job at a very large library system in one of the New York boroughs. The day was going well until the CEO decided to have dinner at a very noisy restaurant so he and two others could interview me. At that point I had not yet purchased a hearing aid, but even if I had the noise was so loud it would not have mattered. I did not get the job and although I do not think it was the key reason I think it contributed. Which leads me to my next thought, which is employers need to hold traditional interviews in business settings, not places that people also come to do other things. On their end they probably thought the interview would be more relaxed (and they would get a nice meal too) On my end it was way more stressful and frankly bordered on not being ADA compliant."
The writer makes the point that business interviews should be conducted in business settings. I can think of others who would be uncomfortable in a noisy restaurant, for reasons that have nothing to do with their ability to do a particular job. The person may be claustrophobic and very uncomfortable in crowded settings. The person may have religious or dietary restrictions that preclude their eating in this kind of restaurant. The CEO and his fellow officers may have predinner drinks -- or two -- and press the interviewee, who may be a recovering alcoholic, to join them. Any one of these is information an employer is not allowed to ask about. What an employer can ask is whether the applicant needs any special accommodations to perform the job he or she is applying for.
Last week when I was in Seattle to give a reading, I had a conversation with the CART operator who was captioning my talk. CART stands for Communications Access Real Time. The operator uses a stenotype machine to simulataneously caption a speaker addressing a hearing impaired person, or a group that includes people with hearing loss. This operator told me that recently she'd been hired by Microsoft to accompany an applicant on a round of interviews. The applicant had multiple disabilities, in addition to hearing loss, and he informed Microsoft before he came for the interview that he would need hearing help.
The CART operator said that as the interviews progressed during the day, the Microsoft managers at first seemed skeptical about his ability to do the job. Many of his disabilities, which included severely cramped hands, were very obvious. But, she told me, as the day went on, they seemed to set aside any concern about health issues and to become more and more impressed with his ability to do the job. He was hired.
I'm sure there are other interview situations that are equally -- and unwittingly -- discriminatory. Please comment on your experience.
