Handling a Hiring Situation

In My Humble Opinion
1

Note that this is (a) my first OP (please be gentle :)) and (b) a purely hypothetical situation. This did not happen, but was a what-if prompted by circumstances.

Last month, I was on the hiring committee for a new position in our team. I often sit in on interviews for new team members, to give the hiring manager an additional perspective about skills and personality fit, as well as someone to bounce thoughts off of after the interview. The same day I sat in on two interviews, I also happened to run into an ex-boyfriend in the parking lot of my office. I know he wasn’t there for an interview, but it got me thinking…

What if the ex-boyfriend (who dumped me rather brutally about 10 years ago) had applied for the position? He’s probably qualified for the position. What are my obligations to the company? I am the intial CV screener, so my boss need never know that I’d ruled him out without interview. Should I recuse myself from the hiring process for that position? There are others who could assume my role in the process.

What would you do?

2

I’d explain to my supervisor/boss the situation, that although it might not necessarily influence my opinion of his qualification, he or others might think that it did.

If my boss tells me to separate my personal view from the work view (no one else to do your part of the interview process), i’d be professional about it.
You said you are the initial interviewer, correct? Even if he might pass your screening, he might not pass the next.

If he’s hired, does it mean you’d be in contact with him workwise?

3

If there was another person who could handle the screening I would bow out. I’d explain to my boss that I used to date this person, I want the process to remain impartial so I’m handing the resume over to Fred for processing and then I would steer clear of it entirely - don’t say another word about the applicant.

4

I’d excuse myself from the process, but unlike others, I don’t think either you or the company are well served by silence if the position is on your own team.

I’d have to go with “I need to excuse myself from the process because I used to date him. However, things ended badly between us and I’m worried about having to work directly with him at this point. There might be issues.”

Yes, it does tend to rule the person out, but the bottom line is that the company deserves to know if hiring this person is going to cause problems with an existing employee or cause tension in the department. Personally, if I was the hiring manager and you excused yourself but didn’t say anything, then I hired the person and the department blew up because of it, I’d be rather upset that you didn’t tell me that there could be “issues”.

5

Regardless of the nature of my relationship with that person, I would immediately bow out of the hiring process if it turned out that I already knew a candidate outside the context of work. This means I’d be okay with sitting in on and interview with someone I’d worked with before, but I wouldn’t be comfortable doing the same if it was a friend or even a passing acquaintance from my yoga class.

It’s important that the interview process appear to be as impartial as possible (even though we know it rarely is), while any relationship you might have with the candidate makes it impossible to maintain that illusion of total impartiality.

It’s not that no one trusts you to be able to set your feelings aside and to do what’s right for your employer… it’s just that if there’s even the smallest chance that it would APPEAR that you didn’t do so and the candidate wasn’t hired, your employer could end up in some very hot water.

6

seems obvious to me. You have a personal bias toward the candidate. You have to recuse yourself. It is in everyone’s best interest-but most especially yours. Think what would happen to your reputation in the company if you didn’t recuse yourself and news of the situation got out among your co-workers. What would you think of someone else doing the same? Protect yourself, step aside.

7

Yes, I agree. You’d have to step aside, but you should let your boss (or the hiring manager or whoever) know why–no gory details, but an honest explanation.

To offer a variation of Chimera suggested line: “I need to excuse myself from the process because I used to date him. Things ended badly between us, and I’m afraid I can’t be impartial. And frankly, I’m worried about having to work directly with him.” I’d leave off the “there might be issues” part because you don’t want to seem like you’re not professional enough to work with whoever you have to. The “I’m worried” bit covers it nicely.

And since you’re the initial CV screener: Even if he’s genuinely not qualified, I would pass the CV on to the hiring manager with the same explanation. You want to cover your ass.

Whether he’s “qualified” or not, if he found out that you were the CV screener, he might then file suit or something claiming bias. (I don’t know if there are legal grounds for this, but anybody can sue for anything. I assume you are in the U.S.) If you had disclosed it, the hiring manager can respond with “yes, she disclosed the conflict of interest. We eliminated him because he did not have XYZ qualifications. The person we hired for the position did.”

I think it’s generally a good idea to disclose conflicts of interest, if only for CYA purposes. Though I might not automatically recuse myself from the process if it were someone that (to use Mahna’s example) I knew from yoga class, I’d certainly disclose it and offer to step out.

But to throw a wrench into the works–what if it were a homosexual relationship, and you were not “out” at work? Or if it were an extramarital affair?

Perhaps you could say “I know this person outside of work, and I’m afraid I can’t be impartial.” Maybe that would be better for the ex-boyfriend situation too, come to think of it. It probably just depends on how comfortable you are revealing personal information to the hiring manager.

Oh, and welcome to the Dope, Kalea. Good question.

8

Similar to the OPs situation, I was helping my boss review CVs for an additional team member. As the short list got whittled down, I realised that one of the interview candidates was my bosses mate from the theatre group he was involved in. Two things worried me - HR probably did not know about the relationship, and the friend had less skills than other candidates.

In the end, I had to call the HR manager and tell her what I knew of the candidate. My boss did own up to the prior relationship before the interviews to his manager and the HR manager, but I did feel awkward about the whole thing.

In the end, the friend got the job (he was the best interviewee), and he was great - we shared an office for a few years. But I never regretted talking to the HR about the situation.

Si

9

Something similar happened to me when I was told I’d be working with a client who had the same name as someone I’d had a brief but intense relationship a few years earlier.

Turned out not to be the same person but my boss appreciated being given the heads-up.

10

Yes. Our cubes are all within spitting distance of each other, we interact hourly as we work on projects, etc. The person we eventually hired sits next to me.

My personal resolution to the issue was the one others suggested - go to my boss and tell him about it. YMMV, as I work for a great guy, and he believes that the happiness of his existing team members preempts most other considerations. Personality fit is a large part of the reason he has me sit in on the interviews. I would go to him with the list of CV’s saying “I don’t think we should interview him. He’s my ex-boyfriend and I wouldn’t feel comfortable working with him.” Unless ex-boyfriend had outrageous qualifictions beyond every other candidate, I don’t think my boss would even interview him, and ex-boyfriend would probably never even know why he hadn’t been considered, as our company sends out “Thanks but no thanks” letters to everyone who doesn’t rate an interview.

The phrasing Green Bean suggested I really like: “I know this person outside of work, and I’m afraid I can’t be impartial.” That covers all the required bases, without having to give all the gory details. Full disclosure = CYA, and gives the boss the opportunity to have someone else involved in the process should he choose.