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My brother went to a job interview with the president of a government contracting company in the information services industry. Several uncomfortable questions or comments were made to my brother, including

A) Was the war in Iraq a mistake?
B) We provide services for the military so they can go out and kill bad guys.
C) How old are you? 45
D) Do you have kids? No
E) Are you married, gay? Married
F) You should have kids, why don't you?

Since the guy flat out said that they weren't going to hire him, because of his reactions to some of the questions, should he write a letter to the HR department saying he felt like he was being interviewed by the RNC? Are these questions more than inappropriate?

HMac's picture

HUGELY inappropriate - probably illegal.

But your brother should consider whether he wants to invest the energy and time into an angry letter. Really what's the HR department going to do, even if they disagree with the president's behavior?

Your brother might just get the pleasure from venting through a letter. And if that's the case, consider this alternative: write the letter / ENJOY writing the letter / Don't mail the letter - because most of the enjoyment is in the writing and venting, not in the sending...

-Hugh

AManagerTool's picture

Who was he being interviewed by, Anne Coulter!?

OMG! The ARMY can't even ask you if you are gay!

I used to have a top secret clearance when I worked for a defense contractor. The Defense Security Service didn't ask me questions like that when I was wired to a polygraph!

If this were me in your brothers shoes, I would seek legal council knowing full well the ramifications of that action. Think lost time, expense and the possibility of being blacklisted or worse...shipped to Gitmo!...Just kidding...not really....!

Those kinds of questions are offensive and illegal. I see it as a moral outrage that a "business leader" should be making decisions with these as the criteria that he uses to make them. That is true even though our government of late gives me the impression that they think they are in vogue.

Comon people, someone has to stand up for basic human decency and freedom.

[quote]All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

Edmund Burke [/quote]

There Hugh you were right....I feel better already.

maura's picture
Training Badge

What could that guy have been thinking?! The paranoid part of me wonders if it's some ill-conceived sort of trick question - where they are really trying to see if he'd easily give up private information?

Nonetheless - horrifically inappropriate (so much so, that I could actually picture it as an episode of The Office), and I think your brother should be glad he wasn't offered a job working in a place where the leadership makes such galactically stupid decisions.

thaGUma's picture

C onwards would be actionable in the UK.
A and B are designed to check out your outlook. Very crude and not productive.

If the interviewer was going to be your brother's boss I would be rejecting any offer. He is either inexeperienced or there are more fundamental problems in store.

Lack of fit - look elsewhere.

Chris