I just started a new job, but yesterday I went on another interview, because it’s a possibility for a better job (more pay, better hours, more responsibility).
I was asked, “Are you married? Do you have children?”
It’s illegal to ask these questions! I was definitely given the impression that as a single mother of three, I’m “less qualified” than someone that’s married and/or has no children.
What should I do? Anything? Now I wish I’d just stood up and terminated the interview immediately- if nothing else, at least the interviewer would have been educated, and may have avoided asking others these questions.
This question may be more suited to IMHO but the advice I’ve gotten is to redirect this kind of thing. You might answer by saying that you are fully committed to the work. If the interviewer persists you may have no choice but to answer and/or remind them that the question is not a legal one for job applicants.
I’d be on the phone to the EEOC immediately.
Well, as soon as I got out the door anyway.
But if she redirects it the employer will know she has something to hide. That’s also true if she just says that the question is illegal…
Exactly how is this law enforced?
By law suits.
If trublmakr feels like she had a good chance at the job and isn’t made an offer, she could visit a lawyer specializing in employment issues. If she could show that the answers to the illegal questions hurt her chances for a job, she may be able to collect damages.
I am not a lawyer, of course.
-ArrogantTwit
When the EEOC gets complaints they will send in “testers” - people posing as job seekers while really working for them. Company asks testers these questions, gets in big trouble.
Handling Illegal Interview Questions
Inappropriate Questions
What I do find disturbing with the above links (and others I found) is a repeated comment that, “The interviewer who asks an illegal question may not know he or she is breaking the law. It may be intended as idle small talk, an attempt to get to know you better as a person - so try to put the question in its intended context.”
I’m sorry but in this day and age, this is not accidental or unknowing small talk.
ArrogantTwit’s comment that, “If she could show that the answers to the illegal questions hurt her chances for a job, she may be able to collect damages,” is not accurate. The fact remains the questions cannot be asked in the first place.
I would follow ruadh’s advice and contact the EEOC or local EO office.
I disagree. At my last company, which employed about 250 people, hiring managers were not trained. In fact, my replacement was someone I promoted from the ranks and she had exactly ZERO training in how to interview to hire her own replacement. Therefore, inappropriate and/or illegal questions could very well be accidental. We always wanted to find out candidates’ zodiac signs but I was instructed by HR that would be inappropriate to ask. In smaller companies, people just interview and hire. In really small mom n pops, I’d hazard a guess that many or even most do not even bother to find out what is appropriate to ask and what isn’t.
In a Fortune 500 company… I agree there is no accidental interview question or unknowing small talk.
I filled out an application for a liquor store.
They asked if I was married and my spouse’s name and social security number, if I had kids, my sexual orientation!!, and my age (not just if I was over 21).
I stopped filling it out halfway through and asked the guy that was working (an aquaintance of mine) why all these illegal questions were on there. He said they had to report all of those things to the ABC (Alcoholic Beverage Control).
My boy works for a liquor store (and has worked for several others) and all the ABC needs to know is your name, if you’re over 21 and if you have any alcohol related felonies on your record.
I went to another store with the same name as the first to get an app from them (to see if the questions were the same) and I was told to go to the first store and ask for an app. Owning more than one liquor license in Kansas is illegal… we just had another store busted for this very thing (he had one, his wife had another and he took all the profit from a third).
I defies sense that in this day and age, a company would want to know the zodiac sign of the applicants…
And you had to be instructed that it wasn’ t appropriate??? Why not throw a die, and if it turns a odd number, the applicant is denied the job?
At first I agreed with Clairobscur but on reflection, I think maybe the company was being cunning. I’ll bet that anyone who knows their zodiac sign doesn’t get hired.
Companies are getting more sophisticated nowadays. They can’t just rely on the weirdo’s to wear tin foil hats to interviews anymore. 
I doubt that. At least in the US I would wager that over 90% of the population knows what their zodiac sign is, whether or not they have any inclination to believe in astrology.
Do you believe that there are no people who believe in the zodiac or do you believe that there are no people who believe in the zodiac who also run companies? Neither is true. It might defy (your) sense, but there are a lot of successful companies run by complete nutjobs.
There is nothing illegal or inappropriate about random selection. In fact, it might be the best way in some cases. I’m frequently confronted with hiring situations where I have several candidates who are equally qualified, both on paper and in person, who all fit in with the other staff, etc. In this case, throwing a die might be the most fair way to decide rather than letting some unconcious bias of my own come into play.
A quibble here. In general, it is not illegal to ask a question at a job interview. It is illegal to discriminate based on the answer.
See, e.g., http://jobsearchtech.about.com/library/weekly/aa022403.htm
Of course, this knowledge is little help during the interview.
One of my best employees was hired kinda randomly. We had interviewed 10 or so applicants, and didn’t care for any of them. One kept calling to see if the position had been filled yet. She also stopped by to see if there was a reason she was not yet hired.
I “jokingly” suggested we hire her just to stop her annoying calls. We hired her, and she has worked out splendidly.
I was asked a lot of these “illegal” questions, and got my current job anyway. We’re a Fortune 5 company, and trust me – hiring managers aren’t trained in how to hire people.
I don’t know how it is in other companies, but every job I’ve ever had since leaving the military has never had initial contact with any HR person – interviews have always been with the hiring supervisor and sometimes his/her supervisor. I’ve never seen an HR person until after being hired. Yeah, yeah, anecdotal evidence, but this is three companies, four jobs, and interviews where I wan’t hired (yeah, it happens) or wasn’t interested (thank you God that I’m not an IT person and have this luxury).
So regarding the illegal questions – really, it was small talk in this case.
I wouldn’t call that random, I’d call that an example of persistence paying off.
My mother thanks you.
Which is exactly why most employers make it a big deal that all interviewers stay away from any of those questions. It opens the doors for a costly lawsuit, regardless of if the company will win in the long run. In all the jobs I’ve held where I did interviews we were told never to ask a question that could be read as an attempt to identify any information that it was illegal to discriminate on.
Why isn’t this considered entrapment? Slight hijack, I know… 
Entrapment consists of a government agent leading a person along a oath to crime that the person otherwise wouldn’t have traveled. Like an undercover cop who suggests that you both steal the ATM machine, and then arrests you if you agree and start to help. Applying for a job, accepting an interview, and listening to the questions asked would be hard to stretch into “entrapment”.
Disclaimer: IANA lawyer.