Inappropriate questions?

ManicMum

Hello

I recently went for an interview with a public sector body that is male-dominated and didn't get the role (more than one post). I just wondered if I could get some feedback from you guys here as felt afterwards and still do, that the line of questioning was somewhat discriminatory.

I was asked how I'd feel dealing with incidents involviing children bearing in mind I am a Mother (their words not mine). And note that is Mother, not a parent. I was also asked about my husband's job, whether he did shifts etc which led on to me feeling I had to justify my childcare arrangements. Even if he did shifts as well, how did they know family couldn't help out or some other arrangement?

For one of the interview questions I was not allowed to finish my answer without being interrupted which made it look as though I was changing my answer when i eventually did get it out.

I am willing to accept it if my performance was not good enough so this is not about sour grapes based on that. It is about feeling my gender was called into play and my home life scrutinised unnecessarily. Surely an intelligent, mature woman who has got through several stages of a recruitment process has actually remembered that she has children and has made proviso for this. Plus why would I be looking to do shifts if my husband did and we had no one to look after the children - we wouldn't consider it.

Do they ask the same questions of fathers about how they would feel dealing with unpleasant situations involving children and about their partner's working arrangements?

Do you think I am right here or not? Thank you.

SarEl

I don't think you are right unless you know that they didn't ask men the same questions.

scheming_gypsy

ManicMum wrote: »

I was asked how I'd feel dealing with incidents involviing children bearing in mind I am a Mother (their words not mine). And note that is Mother, not a parent. .

To be honest, that bit makes it sound as though you're trying to find a way for it to be some sort of sexual discrimination, where you're looking for possibilities to strengthen a claim.
If you're sitting there with breasts and looking womanly, why would they refer to you as a 'parent' when you're obviously going to the be 'mother'

tizerbelle

ManicMum wrote: »

I was also asked about my husband's job, whether he did shifts etc which led on to me feeling I had to justify my childcare arrangements. Even if he did shifts as well, how did they know family couldn't help out or some other arrangement?

You could have just said No. As you said yourself you felt you had to justify. They didn't ask you to do so.

ManicMum wrote: »

For one of the interview questions I was not allowed to finish my answer without being interrupted which made it look as though I was changing my answer when i eventually did get it out.

What's discriminatory about that. It might be poor interviewing technique but unless theres more to it that's all.

smileylondongal

I see what the others are saying as in the end you'd have to know the other candidates weren't asked the same questions, however there was no need to ask you about your husband's shifts as this has nothing to do with the role as you, and not your husband, are the candidate.

It's a tricky one as you no doubt are posting as you felt the way you were treated was unfair, however you may have a long way to go to prove you were. There is no harm taking advice, however. Perhaps a call to ACAS to see what they suggest if you really are keen to take things forward?

Personally, I'd chalk it to experience and steer clear.

paddedjohn

smileylondongal wrote: »

I see what the others are saying as in the end you'd have to know the other candidates weren't asked the same questions, however there was no need to ask you about your husband's shifts as this has nothing to do with the role as you, and not your husband, are the candidate.

It's a tricky one as you no doubt are posting as you felt the way you were treated was unfair, however you may have a long way to go to prove you were. There is no harm taking advice, however. Perhaps a call to ACAS to see what they suggest if you really are keen to take things forward?

Personally, I'd chalk it to experience and steer clear.

ACAS? hahaha about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike:rotfl:

Caroline73_2

How did they know you had children?

scheming_gypsy

Caroline73 wrote: »

How did they know you had children?

Either:

1. they've been spying on her.
2. she went in breast feeding
3. she took the kids with her
4. it came up in conversation.
5. it was mentioned in one of her interests on her CV

I know i'm probably being ridiculous and there's no way it could ever happen, but i'm going to stick with number 4 and that it came up. Yes yes i know option 2 is the most likely answer but i like living on the edge; although hopefully my silly answer may help you realise that your question was just as silly.

Savvy_Sue

some people do put on their applications that they took a career break for children. Personally I don't: if you have half a brain you'll realise that having gained much of my relevant experience setting up out of school childcare and running the PTA while working part-time, I've probably got children, and you'll know how old the eldest is. But I'm saying nuffink.

OP, you don't know they didn't ask all applicants the same questions. If you wanted to take it further, you could ask them if they did. But if you're going to admit to having children, you may need to learn how to answer questions about your childcare arrangements. For all they know, you might be a single parent, and your arrangements are still none of their business.

VfM4meplse

Reflect more fully on what happened, try to recall the detail and note it down as accurately as possible.

Then ask for feedback - public sector organisations are usually more than happy to provide this.

Then take the opportunity to ask how well you responded to the specific questions you were asked in comparison to the other candidates.

Good luck, VfM

SarEl

I would just like to point out thathowever ill-advised some of the language in the interview questions may have been - people are running away and making up what was said!

(a) OP was asked hw she would feel as a mother dealing with incidents involving childrem. Yes, and expectionally poor choice of words, but a vaild question to any candidate - and one which mat have been "tailored" to things that individual candidates had said e.g. "as you have no children....", Not all interviewers are able to get the politically correct choice of words, but that doesn't mean that the question is discriminatory or that they are any more or less likley to value the answer that the OP gave. This isn't a smoking gun.

(b) the OP has not said that questions were asked about her childcare arrangements - because they were not! The OP was asked about her husbands job and whether he did shifts - and the OP felt that she needed to justify the childcare arrangements. In other words, the OP was the one that introduced this subject; and she did so because she felt that the question was asked, not that it was asked! For all we know the conversation went:

"The job involves shift working, how do you feel about shift working?"
"Oh that isn't a problem, my husband works shifts and so I know what it is like"
"Oh really, what does your husband do then?"

It does seem that a more likely scenario was that in some way the OP raised the fact that she had a husband and that he worked shifts - because it is a huge leap for even the daftest if interviewers to get to "this person has a husband and he works shifts" from having been told utterly no such thing! After all, it seems unlikely that an interview question would consist of "Are you mariied / do you have a partner and do they work shifts?", leaving the interviewer wide open to the answer "No on both counts - next question".

But one thing is clear - the interviewer did not ask about childcare arrangements and the belief that she needed to explain these to the interviewer was in the OP's own head and nowhere else. Because she said this was the case!