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Working Moms
WWYD...
Hello, new to the board and looking for a "working mom opinion":)
Just a general scenerio and looking for unbiased opinions:
You are interviewing for a med device sales job and the hiring manager had you do a ride-along with a rep in the job role. During that ride along and visits with clinics, the nursing staff at the clinic we visit asks you questions in front of interviewer like: are you married? do you have kids? how old? (DD was 12 week at the time) I answered them, to not be rude and not thinking too much of it. In future interviews, the rep asks me "we had a lady that worked with us who couldnt cover cases because she had to pick up her kids from school, is that going to be a problem with you?" Also, many other questions regarding balancing my parent-life with work. At the end of the 3 mon interview process, i was told it was a "2 horse race". I mentioned to the recruiter (3rd party) that I was nervous I shot myself in the foot by exposing my new parent status. I ended up not getting hired and I think this is why. As I tell people about the details, they say how illegal the interview questions were etc. Would you pursue a case if you felt this way? I'm offended because I have such a gut-feeling that I didnt get hired for this reason. Gathering thoughts...thanks for reading!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: WWYD...
Wow. It is not any of their business how many kids you have, how old they are etc. The problem is that they didn't directly ask you, right? It seems like the question was asked to you by circumstance and they overheard the answer.
So....that is tricky. If you pursue it, they are going to come up with a thousand (probably illegitimate) reasons why they didn't hire you. Even though your gut is probably right, that they didn't hire you because you have a baby and there is a lot of stereotypes out there that you won't put as much into your job.
All in all that is a crappy situation. I guess I would chalk this up to "this wasn't the right job for me" and in the future, I would sidestep those questions.
That depends on if you can prove a) that it happened AND b) that this was conclusively the reason - the only reason - that you weren't hired.
If you truly believe you have hard proof of both, contact a lawyer. Otherwise, it's going to be a waste of your time and money.
This is a tough one. The people asking the inappropriate questions were not employees of the company you interviewed with but an interested third party. The company itself surely gained a lot of insight from your answers though.
I don't know...as an HR Manager I'd be interested to see what some of our lawyer moms think about this.
My twins are 5! My baby is 3!
DS#2 - Allergic to Cashew, Pistachio, Kiwi
DS#3 - Allergic to Milk, Egg, Peanut, Tree Nuts and Sesame
I'm in pharma sales- so can totally understand the situation.... and my DH is an attorney.
He said that unless you can establish as fact (documented evidence) that the person they hired does NOT have children, or that it's documented somewhere in a memo or in the company policy not to hire people with children --- then you would pretty much not have a chance if you were to persue a law suit.
You don't know what the other person's qualifications are - or if they have kids or not, etc. they may have simply been the better candidate.
Even if the person you interviewed with TOLD you that they feared your new baby would cause you to not be able to do the job- you still would have a very weak case- b/c it would not be documented.
My dh is going through a suit right now with his old company (long story short- they were doing illegal practices, he called them out on it- then he was let go and basically banned from the industry in this area)... so he's learned a lot about employment law.... and does not think it would be worth the time nor money for you to persue it.
We have spent thousands so far on his case (which is VERY strong and has tons of documentation to back it up)... and we're going on 3 years now - hoping to settle in the coming months... it has been VERY stressful and costly.... so i would not recommend you persue a case, personally- from a legal stand point and an emotional/financial one, too.
sorry you didn't get the job- that really does suck.
As an HR person I cringe reading this but you really don't have grounds for a lawsuit- you just don't have enough obvious evidence. If I were you I would just cut my losses- if the company has those sorts of feelings towards working moms would you really want to work there anyway?? Sorry you're going through it- what a sticky situation!
Caden Reese - 8/1/06
Mackenzie Jo - 10/9/09
Wisc bride - thanks, I totally agree. It wasn't the right company for me obviously! Definite learning experience for future interviews!
PS: Nice to see locals, we are in Appleton:)
cchrisler - sorry to hear that this happened to you!
Just wanted to say hi to another Fox Cities resident! I hope you find the RIGHT role for you soon!
I believe you can file a charge with the EEOC at no cost. There is a violation under the EEOC that is for Unlawful Disparate Treatment of Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities.
https://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/caregiving.html Look at Example 2.