A few hours after the interview, Angelee knocked lightly on David’s door which was slightly ajar. David looked up. “Oh, hey Angelee, what can I do for you?” Angelee entered the office and sat in the visitor’s chair.
Angelee started. “I wanted to talk to you about those interviews this morning. I don’t think you gave either candidate a fair chance.”
David looked pointedly at Angelee. “I explained to you what my reservations were. I can’t give this position to someone who’s going to have caring for his children on his mind 24/7 and I can’t give the job to someone who may retire in a year. With some of the team working from home, I need a manager who is 100% invested in making the team successful.”
Angelee interrupted, “But, you didn’t give me a chance to ask more about their qualifications. You seemed so focused on their personal lives.”
“Sometimes personal lives get in the way of success. That’s been my experience, anyway.”
“I don’t agree. I don’t think you gave the candidates a reasonable chance.” Angelee responded.
David looked away for a moment. “You’re angry with me for not giving you the manager job for your team, right?”
Angelee’s eyes grew wide. “I’m not going to say I was happy to be turned down, but frankly, I feel your issues with the candidates were the same as your issues with me. I don’t think it’s appropriate to consider someone’s personal life as an indicator of their qualifications for or interest in a job.”
David had a knowing look. “I thought so. You are mad at me. I thought I gave you very good reasons for my decision, Angelee. And I gave you good reasons for not considering the candidates we’ve interviewed. You must understand, I am responsible for making sure all the teams work efficiently. I am answerable to my manager if there are issues. I can’t take the chance of bringing someone on board who struggles to do the job because of kids or whatever. I have a lot to do. By the way, where are you with that audit project?”
“The audit project? I thought we had someone else working on that.”
“Well, I need you to go help them with it,” David said without looking up.
“But, we have another candidate later today...”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take that interview alone. Talk to you later.”
Key considerations:
Encourage honest conversations that can ultimately help your company culture. Get used to the fact that difficult conversations are part of nearly everyone’s work life, and that specialized training often is required in order to have productive conversations at work on difficult issues.
Feedback is a gift, and it helps improve performance and team culture. Consider being open-minded and put yourself in the other persons shoes regardless of which side you are on.
Want additional resources to learn more about the topics discussed in this path?
⚙ Are you a TriNet customer? Learn about DEI Training, click here
⚙ If you are a small to medium-size business interested in learning more about how TriNet can help with talent recruitment, please reach out.
⚙ Learn how to remove bias from the interview process here.
📖 Read about confronting bias without alienating people from this article.
📖 Read about attribution bias and how to avoid it.
📖 Harvard Business Review article, The Case for Hiring Older Workers. https://hbr.org/2019/09/the-case-for-hiring-older-workers
📖 Read this article on how to handle employee complaints.
Legal disclaimer: Resources provided in this story is for informational purposes only; it is not legal, tax or accounting advice. This story may contain hyperlinks to websites operated by parties other than TriNet. Such hyperlinks are provided for reference only. TriNet does not control such websites and is not responsible for their content. Inclusion of such hyperlinks on this site does not necessarily imply any endorsement of the material on such websites or association with their operators.
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