Avoid These Questions in Job Interviews

When you sit down for a job interview to screen out possible employees, you likely don’t think about discriminating. Your questions are likely probing and relevant and your conversation is friendly–or so you thought. Until you don’t hire a particular candidate and there is a discrimination lawsuit filed against you.

How did that happen? What could have happened just in an interview that got you in trouble? The answer is that there are a lot of questions we ask in job interviews, or comments that we make–comments that seem friendly or warm or conversational–that in fact, can get you sued.

Pregnancy and Gender Questions

You may have no intention of discriminating based on gender. But a simple question about a woman’s desire to “start a family,” or asking about childcare (for example, “with 2 young kids at home, do you think that you would be able to work the hours necessary at this job?”) can be construed as gender and pregnancy discrimination.

Likewise about questions related to safety. Asking female employees if they are comfortable in dangerous environments, can be construed as you feeling that the job is “too dangerous” for women–and that is illegal.

Immigration and Nationality

Citizenship and immigration issues are hot political topics nowadays. And you, as an employer, also don’t want to run afoul of employment laws related to immigration.

But the problem is that questions related to immigration status can easily be interpreted as questions related to national origin or nationality–and discrimination based on nationality remains illegal.

The best route is to ask whatever immigration status-related questions are legally required (or better yet, have the employee fill out a form, with the information necessary, so there is no “he said/she said” about what was and was not asked).

Age Discrimination

Questions about age can also lead to legal problems. Many seemingly innocuous questions can lead to claims of age discrimination.

Employers often ask about, for example, whether someone can handle advanced technology, or whether someone has the physical ability to handle the physical stresses of the job.

Talking about “younger employees,” or “today’s generation” or other comments that suggest that the possible employee is older than your usual employee, can lead to age discrimination claims.

Disability Discrimination

One of the first things you may notice about someone’s resume is a gap in employment. It is permissible and valid to ask about such gaps. But remember that many gaps in employment may be because of health or pregnancy issues.

Be very careful about probing in these areas; asking about whether the medical condition could happen again, or whether the employee will need to see doctors regularly, how many days the employee missed in his or her last job, whether prescription medicine will make someone tired, or whether the disability or illness is in remission–all of these can be seen as disability discrimination.

Stay out of trouble in your business. Call our Fort Lauderdale business litigation attorneys at Sweeney Law P.A. at 954-440-3993 for help.

Source:

shrm.org/topics-tools/news/inclusion-equity-diversity/discriminatory-questions-are-plaguing-the-interview-process