Category Archives: Culture

You Might Like Candidates With Hickeys

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I was sitting in my living room this past Mother’s Day watching the final moments of the PGA Player’s Championship which was won by Tiger Woods and thought to myself how much America loves stories about people who fall and get back up.  My teenage son was watching and cheering on Tiger, even though he is aware of Tigers many transgressions.  My wife, of course, refuses to cheer Tiger on and I look on with interest – as I’m sure many sports fans do.  My interest is to see how someone claws back to the top.  I not a Tiger hater or a Tiger lover – I consider myself an observer of a gigantic societal experiment.  How many people can one person offend, and then see how many he can win back – by winning.

I wonder if Tiger was not a Nike poster child and start athlete, if he was just your ordinary every day accountant, how we might treat him differently?  If Tiger, the CPA, came into your office and you knew of his past behavior, would you ever give him a chance to work at your company?  My guess is, the majority of HR pros would say – “No!”   “We don’t want that ‘kind’ of person working in our company.”  “He made personal choices, and now he should pay for them professionally.”

These are the same HR pros that when a talented employees comes to them, whose performance has recently slipped, and tells the HR pro, “I’ve got a drinking problem” – that HR pros will go to great lengths to help that employee find help.  To get them back on the ‘right’ path, and welcome them back to their workforce with open arms.  “But, Tim, Tiger didn’t ask for help, he got caught!  There’s a difference!”  Yes, you are correct – one sought help, one got caught.  That seems to be the fine line to whether we will give people a second chance in our country.

Come forward and admit your sins – and all if forgiven.   Don’t come forward and get caught – and live for eternity paying for your sins.  Both sinned.  Maybe the person who got caught was one day way from finally realizing it was their time to come forward, maybe they were two days away, who knows.  Such unequal treatment to some very similar end results of behavior.

Think about that when you interview your next candidate who has a hickey on their resume.  Tiger was the best ‘talent’ in the entire world at his profession.  Did something horrible.  Now is again the best ‘talent’ in the entire world at his profession.  We are smarter about who he is now – a highly talented golfer with flaws as a man.  We don’t look at him as a ‘role model’ or a ‘hero’ – and we probably never should have.

I think a lot of companies are probably missing out and some great ‘talent’ – that only needs a second chance.  Eyes wide open.  That recovery addict might be your next most talented employee you’ve ever hired.  She might also be a total bust.  I can live with a total bust – I’ve hired busts before.  I have a hard time walking away from truly talented folks because they have a hickey!

 

Exclusively Inclusive

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The CEO of clothier Abercrombie and Fitch, Mike Jeffries, made some comments in an article that have set off women across the world!  Here are some of the comments from the original article in Salon (By the way – the article is from January 2006! – but were brought to light by a local CBS news show looking to get reaction from women):

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids,” he says. “Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. Those companies that are in trouble are trying to target everybody: young, old, fat, skinny. But then you become totally vanilla. You don’t alienate anybody, but you don’t excite anybody, either.”

To keep this going Huffington Post Blogger, Sara Taney Humphreys, wrote an open letter to Jeffries last week on their website – A message to Abercrombie’s CEO from a former Fat Girl (remember this was response to an article from 7 years ago!):

“My first thought was… Is this for real? Am I reading an article in The Onion or something? No. Sadly, this quote was actually uttered by a supposedly educated and successful adult.

My second thought was… Does this guy have kids? By all accounts, the answer is no. Thank God. Can you imagine having this insensitive man as your father? Clearly, he doesn’t have children because if he did, I can’t fathom that he would do what he’s doing….Shame on you for perpetuating the bully on the playground mentality, in the online community and with our youth. The message you are sending is reprehensible and an appalling waste of an opportunity. You could have chosen to use your power and position to promote tolerance and love. Instead, you chose to promote and validate bullies. Your campaign is telling our young people that it’s perfectly acceptable to exclude someone because of the size of their body.”

Thousands of women responded to the comments the same way as Ms. Humphreys.  I’ll paraphrase the majority: “This guy is a jerk”, “He doesn’t get it”, “This is what’s wrong with America”.

I’ve never been able to wear A&F clothing – it’s not designed for me – short white guy, built like a fire hydrant.  I get it.   I wish I was a little bit taller, a bit skinner – but alas I’m comfortable with who I am and I’ve found stuff to wear.  I have 3 sons – not all of whom fit the body type of an A&F shopper – but they to have made it through life alright not wearing overpriced A&F stuff.  Because myself and my boys can’t fit into A&F clothing – I don’t think Mr. Jeffries is a monster.  I think he’s an opportunist, who saw a segment and filled it.  He wanted to attract a certain person to his establishment.  He did this knowing it might fail miserably – those cool kids with the skinny bodies – might have hated A&F clothes.  He took the risk of becoming exclusive and it paid off.  Capitalism.

Think about this example as an employment brand (and certainly A&F is an employment brand).  Do you want to be ‘Inclusive’ or ‘Exclusive’ in your Employment Brand?  I know the majority of you will say “Inclusive, of course!”  But a few will see the benefit of being ‘Exclusive’.  Being an exclusive employer will definitely shrink your candidate pool, but it will shrink your pool to your target market (Enterprise Rent-a-car goes after college athletes and has found great success in that pool).  If you like and have success with your target market – maybe an exclusive strategy is for you.  It’s too easy to say “Inclusion” is the answer to everything.  It’s not.

Not Everyone Is Created ‘Professional’

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My friend and HR Pro, Kris Dunn, is fond of saying – “The world needs ditch diggers to”.

I got into a conversation with a couple HR pros recently regarding helping them find ways to find ‘unskilled’ talent for their company.  Today’s ‘unskilled’ doesn’t really mean having no skills – it means the person didn’t have to go to a four year college and get a degree to do the job!  What they need, also, wasn’t professional skilled trades – people who have to go through a certification process – plumbers, electricians, pipe-fitters, toolmakers, CNC machinists, etc.  We talked about a number of various marketing and employment branding things they could do to steal people from their competitors, etc., but the conversation for me always goes back to root cause.

Why?  Why can’t a company find semi-skilled labor when we have millions of unemployed people in this country?  Why?

Root cause?  Our society makes kids believe they only have two options when coming out of high school!

1. College/University route

2. Prison

I’m not joking!  If you look at what our country is doing to public education it’s completely insane.  A kid, who obviously doesn’t want to go the college route, has very little opportunity to learn a skill, or begin to learn a skill, before he or she graduates.  When I was in school, I was college bound from the start (underlying meaning – Timmy didn’t like manual labor!).  Still I was ‘forced’ to take multiple classes in my middle and high school around the skill trades.  I took wood shop and some basic auto repair class – but I had friends that spent most of their time learning how to weld, electrical work, rebuilding engines, etc.  None of these people are unemployed now!  The schools started early to identify kids who had the ‘knack’ for these skilled professions.

I have two high school boys right now.  Great students – neither of which have ever really lifted a tool, used a saw, a drill, changed oil in a machine, etc.  They have almost zero opportunity to do this in their school setting.  So, is public education the problem?  No.  We are the problem.  We equate success with college graduation.  We equate ‘doing better’ with a white collar job.  We equate importance to society by having a title and a desk.  I feel lucky my boys are good students.  I should feel lucky if my kids are passionate about learning a trade – professional or skilled!  Something has to change and it’s not our schools – it’s our mentality to what success looks like in our society.  I find myself envious of my auto mechanic, of my electrician and my plumber – I wish I had half their skills!  I would be proud if my son came and said he wanted to be a toolmaker.  Those are great jobs and skills to have, and as the baby boom generation continues to leave the workforce – more and more of those ‘skilled’ professionals are going to be needed.

As Aristotle said, “Where the needs of the world and your talents cross, there lies your vocation.”

You Still Don’t Work 80 Hours Per Week!

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I have to say one of my most read posts, ever, and one that I take the most crap about is –What would it take to get you to work 80 hours per week? People actually take this post as a personal attack to their work ethic.  So, I’m here to say – I still don’t believe you!  And, now I have research to back up how you don’t really work 80 hours in a week.  From Fast Company -The Truth About How Much Workaholics Actually Work:

“A study published in the June 2011 Monthly Labor Review that compared estimated workweeks with time diaries reported that people who claimed their “usual” workweeks were longer than 75 hours were off, on average, by about 25 hours. You can guess in which direction. Those who claimed that a “usual” workweek was 65–74 hours were off by close to 20 hours. Those claiming a 55–64-hour workweek were still about 10 hours north of the truth. Subtracting these errors, you can see that most people top out at fewer than 60 work hours per week. Many professionals in so-called extreme jobs work about 45–55 hours a week. Those are numbers I can attest to from time logs I’ve seen over the years. I’ve given speeches at companies known for their sweatshop hours and had up-and-comers keep time logs for me. Their recorded weeks tend to hover around 60 hours–and that’s for focused, busy weeks with no half days, vacation days, or dentist appointments, and, most important, for weeks that people are willing to share with colleagues. We live in a competitive world, and boasting about the number of hours we work has become a way to demonstrate how devoted we are to our jobs.

That would be funny, except that numbers have consequences. If you think you’re working 80 hours per week, you’ll make different choices in your attempts to optimize them than if you know you usually work 55.”

Look – I get you work hard and you work long – but, I also get all of us think we work longer than we actually do!  It’s not an attack – it’s just the truth.  The same goes for all of you out their working 40 hours per week, when you only have about 20 hours of work – you find ways to stretch 20 hours of work into 40 hours of pay!

Ultimately, we shouldn’t be talking about hours, damn Unions!, we should be talking about results.  I don’t care if you work 10 hours or 100 hours – I, truly, only care about what you get done in that time.  We still have too many leaders who worry about hours and watch and see who leaves ‘first’ and who stays ‘late’.  The reality is – it probably has no bearing at all on their performance – and if anything, probably has a negative influence.

Results.  Set the desired result and manage to that.  If you have those not meeting the result – then you manage that issue (which might include the need to work more hours!).  I know, I know the girls from ROWE will love hearing this – and think they converted me – but they haven’t.  While I really like ROWE – it still doesn’t work for every organization.  Ugh, please don’t let Cali and Jody see this!

A Car Ride To Laramie

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There are times in your life you’ll never forget.  Take a moment and think about your past.  What comes to mind?  It’s funny how we can recall some very important moments – graduating, getting married, birth of a child, etc., but we also recall some very, for what it seems now, insignificant moments as well.  I thought of one recently – and I was able to recall it like it was yesterday.  In the summer of 1988 I made a decision to forgo an academic scholarship at Western Michigan University and drive 1200 miles to attend the University of Wyoming.  I never went and visited UW, and being that it was 1988 – I couldn’t even have looked it up on the internet.  I had a friend who was there and the extent of the conversation was “hey, they have a men’s volleyball team here – come out and play”.

I packed up my 1979 Ford Mustang and set out with an atlas of the United States my father had given me.  It was August and hot, and my car had no air conditioning and an 8 track tape player.  I bought a cassette tape adapter, filled up the tank with everything an 18 year old had to there name and drove west.  Here’s the exact moment I remember –

I’m driving across western Illinois on I80 – it’s basically truck stops and corn fields.  The sun is shining hot, the windows are down and the music was loud (because of how loud the wind noise was driving down the highway with your windows down).  I had this feeling of hope like I had never felt before.  Of wonderment.  An energy that you only feel when starting something new.  It was a feeling of – I’m starting my life.  For the first time – the life I would be living would be mine – and it was glorious.

It’s not a memory most of us get to have frequently.  Usually once – then real life comes along and kicks you in the ass at some point (Dad forgot to mention that part as he handed me a cooler of cold drinks on my way out of Grand Rapids!).

Starting something new.

Think about that the next time you’re trying to figure out how to get something launched or start something over within your organization.  Starting is where the fun happens – not where the work begins.  Starting is where you still have hope.  Where everything is positive.  When your energy level will be highest.  Don’t waste the start.  Relish in it – make it last – don’t discount it. Crazy how a simple car ride to Laramie can mean so much.

 

A Diversity Plan Even White People Can Live With!

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When was the last time you went to a crowded beach or park, or even went to an outdoor concert where you had to sit on the grass?  I can bet you did something – because everyone does this.  You set up a perimeter didn’t you? A what?! A perimeter. You put down your blanket, maybe an umbrella, some chairs, etc.  You made sure you carved out ‘your’ space, in a public space that is open to everyone.  Hell, let’s face it – if you would have had portable fencing you would have put that up as well.  Humans like to collect, build and attempt to keep all of it.  It’s why the Great Wall of China was built.  It’s why we have a silly fence up between the U.S. and Mexico.  It’s why you have a 6 foot high fence up around your 40 foot by 40 foot backyard in the suburbs.  You’re protecting ‘your’ space.

Diversity is about breaking down those walls, those barriers, so it stands to reason that those barriers that are being broken down are going to cause some folks to be uncomfortable.  In 99.9% of the cases in today’s work world – those folks are white people – and to slice it even further – white men.  Let me give you an example so we can discuss:

Let’s say you work in a company with 100 employees and 88% of those employees are white.  Now HR comes out and says “we value Diversity” (not sure who the ‘we’ is, but we’ll assume our white leadership team who live in the $750K homes and their kids go to schools with zero diversity), and we are going to do a bunch of ‘stuff’ to increase the diversity of our workforce.  Here’s what the 88% hear.  “You 88 white people aren’t good enough.  We need to get rid of some of you and bring in minorities because they can do it better.”  Which might be true.

Remember your blanket in the park?  Someone just sat their chair down in the middle of your white work forces blanket. That isn’t a good feeling.  (It’s uncomfortable for you to hear/read ‘white work force’ isn’t it? Most people who write about diversity/inclusion will use ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ because it puts it in less black and white terms – makes it easier to accept.)

Most organizations and HR shops struggle to do Diversity and Inclusion successfully in their organizations because they are unwilling to recognize this simple reality and address it.   Oh, believe me I hear you right now!  “Tim – diversity and inclusion isn’t about color – it’s about thoughts and ideas!” Then you my friend don’t get the reality of 90% of the organizations out there today.  For most it is still about faces – shouldn’t be – but it is.  To be successful – we have to move beyond that.  So, how do you do that?

There isn’t a perfect solution.  A silver bullet.  But I do know one way that has helped some organizations – but it might give you (HR and leadership) some answers that will be hard for to live with!  Data.  Data doesn’t lie.  It just gives you the truth.  If you ‘truly’ want better performance – through data, find the exact makeup of the highest performing groups and teams in your organization, industry, competitors, etc.  Here’s the catch – data might show you that your 100% all white guy sales team isn’t the most effective.  You might find that the makeup should be 90% 24 year old Asian females and 10% middle age Hispanic males.  You also might find that 100% white guy is the best.  Data will give you truth – most organizations don’t want the truth.  Most HR shops don’t want the truth.  They want to take your 88% white and turn it into 75% white because ‘feels’ better.

I’m not saying your white employees will like to hear that they are all getting let go so you can bring in your all female Asian team, but at least there is a reason based on data – not feelings.  HR and leadership have been sold a false premise that Diversity and Inclusion is good for all.  It makes you better.  And so we march forward like lemmings off a cliff, not questioning the truth.  The truth is – diversity and inclusion might be great for your organization.  The truth is – it also might be disastrous for your organization.  Do the research.  Stop reading USA Today articles.  Figure out what is actually best for your organization.  Don’t blindly follow anything, just because everyone else is doing it.  There is a ‘right’ answer out their for your organization, and you might be surprised at what that answer is.

5 Things That Make Great HR Partners Great!

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I use to think the title ‘HR Partner’ was played out – and it probably was for a time.  There was a point a few years ago when every HR Pro had to change their title from HR Manager, HR Director, etc., to HR Partner.  It always made me feel like we were all apart of a bad cowboy movie – ‘Giddy up, Partner!’  I’ve actually grown to really like the “Partner” in the title of an HR Professional.  While many HR Pros just changed their title, I’ve met some great ‘Partners’ in HR who have changed their game, to match their title change.

What makes a Great HR Partner Great?  Here are 5 things I think makes them game changers:

1. Great HR Partners know your business.  Now wait.  I didn’t say they ‘knew their own business’ – they know the business of who they support. But wait, there’s more!  They know the business of who they support, the way the person or team they support knows it. Say what?!  It’s not good enough to know the business of your organization.  You have to know how those you support know and support the business. That could be different, based on the leader.  One leader might be ultra conservative in their business practices, another risky. A great HR Partner knows how to support them in the way those they support, want to be supported – while still being able to do the HR part of their job.

2.  Great HR Partners have short-term memory. Great baseball pitchers don’t remember one pitch to the next.  Each pitch is new. Each pitch has potential for success.  If they remembered each pitch, the last one, that was hit for a home run, would cloud their judgement about the next pitch.  Great HR Partners are willing to change their mind and try new things.  They don’t carry around their experiences like a suitcase, pulling them out and throwing them on the table each time those they support want to try something new.  Don’t forget about your failures, but also don’t let your failures stop you from trying again.

3. Great HR Partners allow risk.  A great HR Partner is able and willing to accept that organizations have risk.  It is not the job of HR to eliminate risk, it is the job of HR to advise of risk, then find ways to help those they support, their partners, to achieve the optimal results in spite of those risks.  Far too many HR Partners attempt to eliminate risk and become the ‘No’ police.  Great HR Partners know when to say “No” and when to say “Yes”.

4. Great HR Partners don’t pass blame.  If you are a great HR partner and you work with great partners, you will all support each other in the decision making process.  A great HR Partner will never pass blame, but will accept their share as being one of those who supported the decision to move forward.  This doesn’t mean you become a doormat.  Behind closed doors, with your partners, you hash out what there is to hash out.  When the doors open – all partners support the final decision that is made.  A Great HR Partner will have the influence to ensure they can, and will, support that decision when those doors open up.

5. Great HR Partners don’t wait to be asked.  A great partner in any capacity is going to support those they support with every skill they have available to them.  In HR we have people skills – so when those who we support have issues, we offer up our ideas on what we can do to help the team.  Great HR Partners don’t stop at HR advice!  In a time of brainstorming and problem solving the idea that goes unshared, is the worst kind of idea.  I might not know operations, and I will say that up front, but I’m going to put myself out there and tell my partners that eliminating the rubber grommets on bottom of the widget is a bad idea, because while it saves us $.13 per unit, it also makes our product slide around and that ultimately will piss off the customer.

Being an ‘HR Partner’ has very little to do with HR.  Those you support expect you have the HR expertise – what they don’t expect is how great of a ‘partner’ you can be.  Great HR Partners focus on the partnership, not on the HR.

The Project Mail Bag

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One of the great by products of writing an HR blog is I get people contacting me who now believe I know what I’m talking about, when it comes to HR topics.  Before I started writing – I was an idiot in HR who didn’t know anything. After you write for a while I’ve become a ‘Subject Matter Expert’ – so people ask me stuff.  It’s funny how that works!  Its like going to work for a really cool company – everyone wants to hear you speak.  A year ago I was at ABC Dog Food Co. and now conference in America would accept me to speak.  Now I have a job at Google – and people are calling me begging me to speak and offering to pay me!  Same person, same knowledge – now with new branding!?

The questions coming from readers are cool – because I feel the pain from the HR and Talent Pros who pose them.  I’ve been there – I have a least one or two things they can try – many times we end up going back and forth and coming up with something neither one of us thought of!  I wanted to share some of those questions and interactions – because quite frankly most are better than anything I could write to begin with.

Question:

From Mary – HR Pro in Eastern Pennsylvania, at a mid-sized Manufacturing company –

“Dear Tim (starts off like a Casey Kasem long distance dedication doesn’t it!) –

I can’t stand the people I work with in HR.  We have a small team – 5 people – who have all been here for at least 3 years – and they don’t want to change anything.  I just graduated with my degree in HR and couldn’t wait to get started – and now I feel like I’ve made the wrong career choice. How can I get the HR team to try new things!?”

My response:

“Dear Mary (she started it!) –

Quit.  Send your resume to Google – I hear great things about their HR program, apparently, they do HR way different than everyone else.  Kidding – don’t quit!

People only change when they are forced to (which you don’t have authority) or they see ‘major’ benefit in it for themselves.  So you have to find one of these two ways to entice your team to want to try new things.  First way (assuming one road block is your actual leader in HR) – make friends outside of HR and find their pain points, things they need better or changed.  In most organizations – those outside of HR have more influence – getting them pushing for change, will force HR to react.  Since you’ll be shaping that from outside of HR – you can start to drive the change you want to see inside of HR.   Your HR peers will see you trying to talk with those outside your HR Departments locked doors – be vigilant – don’t let them stop you – make friends outside of HR!  Second way – come up with ideas that make your HR peers look really smart, helpful and at the same time they get to do less work.  This is harder!  But if you are willing to give credit to them, for your ideas, you might trick them into changing some stuff.  Be sneaky good.

You are not going to change the culture within your HR team.  Culture always wins.  You are new.  Within 6 months – you’ll think the exact same way they do, unless you do stuff really different – without embarrassing them, or pissing them off.  Manage up to your HR leader.  Stay positive and helpful.  Keep a constant pressure on moving your ideas forward in ways that doesn’t cost your team to do more work, or cost more resources.

If that fails – join Google.

T.”

 

Tweeting on the Job

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For those who don’t know one of the greatest times of the year has started – the NBA Playoffs! – and being a starting member of the 8 Man Rotation – it’s my duty to post something about the NBA playoffs and tie it back to HR.  It’s what we do.  It’s what we are ‘famous’ for.  It helps us profile our audience.  So, the playoffs get started this week without one of the greatest NBA players of all time, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, who was injured this season and will be out the entire playoffs.  Kobe is the Laker’s leader and because he just had surgery can’t attend the games in-person, but he did the next best thing – he live Tweeted his feedback on his teammates during the game!  As you can imagine this went over like doing a live performance review of your CEO at the annual company picnic!

I was wondering what a live tweet stream would like if your team was live tweeting during your monthly town hall all-employee meetings.  I’m guessing something like this:

ButtKisser @ButtKisser
Sitting in the front row at Town Hall – can’t wait to hear what our CEO has planned for us this month!
BrownNoser @BrownNoser
@ButtKisser running CEOs dog over to the groomer, keep me updated on what she says! Instagram a photo! #BrownNoserProbs
ZombieEE @ZombieEE
@ButtKisser sign me in at the meeting I’m with @BrownNoser taking the dog
BrownNoser @BrownNoser
@ButtKisser don’t listen to @ZombieEE he is not with me!!!!  #SlackerLoser
RunnerGurlEE @RunnerGurlEE
So upset, dumb Town Hall meeting getting in the way of my lunch 5K! YOLO – looks like 10K tonight! #RunnerLife
ButtKisser @ButtKisser
Oh, CEO is looking sharp in Nautical Navy JCrew Blazer!  #GetItStarted
BrownNoser @BrownNoser
PIC! PIC! PIC!
TheCorpHRLady @TheCorpHRLady
All EE’s – Town Hall is starting in the West Atrium – Mandatory Attendance! #Cookies!
CorpCommunications @CorpCommunications
CEO expects the month to last all month and be another month. #ThisStatementReleasedToAllStakeholdersAtSameTime
CorpLegal @CorpLegal
@CorpCommunications please delete last tweet, we can not guarantee the month will last all month.
ButtKisser @ButtKisser
CEO said we should all continue to forth great effort and good things will happen. No layoffs planned!
CorpLifer @CorpLifer
Layoffs!?  We are having layoffs!  #WTH
ZombieEE @ZombieEE
Layoffs!  This sucks…
RunnerGurlEE @RunnerGurlEE
Layoff! Timing couldn’t be better! Have 26.2 coming up – need the time! #TrainingLife
CorpCommunications @CorpCommunications
The CEO said “No Layoffs”!!!
CorpLegal @CorpLegal
@CorpCommunication please delete your last tweet we can’t guarantee we won’t have layoffs.
BrownNoser @BrownNoser
I know some folks who need to be laid off! #Zombies
ButtKisser @ButtKisser
@BrownNoser LOL! #Zombies
TheCorpHRLady @TheCorpHRLady
There are still Oatmeal Raisin cookies left! #ChocChipAllGone
Am I close?  Do you think it might go something like that.  Probably closer than we want to admit!

3 Stupid Questions To Ask In An Interview

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I’m sure at this point you saw the news from this weekend – Reese Witherspoon’s husband got arrested for DUI and she did what any drunk celebrity wife should do – threatened a police officer with the best question ever asked by celebrities – “Do you know who I am!?”   Yep – Mrs. Legally Blonde herself asked the one question celebrities are trained to never ask, under any circumstances.  She broke Rule #1 of being celebrity – and it was glorious!

This got me to thinking, from a candidate perspective, what are the questions who could ask that would ensure your interview went from Fab to Drab in about 3 seconds!?  My Catfish Friend, Kathy Rapp, over at Fistful of Talent had a great post this past week – 3 Questions Freakin’ Awesome Candidates Ask – which gave candidates three absolute home-run questions to ask at the end of the interview to show you’re a Rock Star candidate.  My list does the opposite!

The cool part of my list – is that each of these questions are from actual candidates asked during interviews that I’ve been apart of:

1.  Do you drug test?   Nope!  But we do now!  I’m pretty sure the person who asks this question has already made up their mind they don’t want to work for your company and they use this to ensure you won’t hire them.  Believe me there are plenty of people who interview, to get their parents, spouse, etc. off their back, but they don’t really want to work – so they sabotage themselves.  Asking dumb questions at the end is one of the best ways to sabotage an interview! Other question on this path – Do you do background checks? Do you do credit checks? Do you hire felons?

2. How long before I get to use sick time?  Never!  Because you wont’ be working here!  Again, the person who asks this question asks it for a reason – that reason is they ‘plan’ on being sick.  Quick HR Pro Rule of Thumb – if someone plans on being sick – you aren’t going to be happy with that hire.  Other questions on this same path:  When would I get a raise? How soon can I use my health insurance?  What happens if I’m late to work?

3. Can you date co-workers here?  To be honest – my immediate follow up question to this, without answering his question, was – “Are you dating one of the employees here?”  To which he said “No” – but that he ran into this at another employer and didn’t want to ‘have any problems’ again.  So, you’re assuming we have folks here who are just not going to be able to hold themselves back and must date you!?  Is what I’m hearing!  Again, I’ll come clean on my next response – I told him “You’re allowed to date employees here, you just can’t sleep with them.” (That wasn’t actually our policy – but it was fun to say!) At which he had no response and I ended the interview.  Other questions on this same path: Can you drink alcohol on the job here?  Can you smoke pot in the work bathrooms?  Can you steal office supplies?

What has been the dumbest question you have ever heard during an interview you were apart of?