<p>Just sat through another series of interviews for a position in my office, with co-workers.
After the last time, I vowed to NEVER do this again, but gave in to pleas to sit on committee from office manager.</p>
<p>I try to be fair and compare candiates on an equal scale. My coworkers find it humourous to mock, or mention things that have no bearing on someones ability to do a job, and contribute to our office. In short, they are cruel. </p>
<p>I’m so angry that I’m finding it difficult to be here and listen to them</p>
<p>If fellow employees do this to candidates, what do you think they are saying about you when you’re not around? We overlook a lot of flaws in candidates because we’re looking for specific things that they can do and there is no such thing as a perfect candidate in our area.</p>
<p>You begin by telling them that you want only professional constructive evaluations that pertains to the candidate’s qualifications/disqualifications for the position.
This is not the time for gossip, to air dirty laundry or to ridicule the candidates.
Immature comments and behavior will not be tolerated.</p>
<p>Raise the issue to the office manager. This is the type of issue a manager should address.</p>
<p>People, especially the manager and other management, need to consider how this can come back to bite them. In addition to possibly not offering the position to a good worker just because of random gossip, if it gets out that the person who didn’t get the position had points raised not related to the professional working environment they may end up with grounds for a lawsuit against the company or even individuals for false allegations (slander), or possibly areas protected by law (race, religion, age, disability, etc.).</p>
<p>I have worked in a a lot of different firms and done a lot of recruiting for my own area and for my colleagues. My business is fairly cut throat and people are not always the nicest. That being said, we don’t spend the time to bash or make fun of candidates. Our normall procedure is to do a write up after each interview (sometimes it is quite informal), and the hiring manager would then decide what to do after he/she has read all everyone’s writeup. </p>
<p>It sounds like your supervisor is very unprofessional or just not able to run a meeting very efficiently. I assume you are not in a position to change anything. In that case, I would just tune them out, say what you have to say and get out (the meeting AND the company).</p>
<p>One way I cope with long, boring meetings is by bringing my laptop with me. My company has wifi through out. I would answer all my emails and write some reports. If I run out of things to do, there is always CC.</p>
<p>If you can’t even say that our time may best used by focussing on viable candidates and specific job skills, it would be distressing. Could you have a list of criteria and discuss how particular candidates make the grade or not when it is your turn? Sometimes people can be gracefully “shamed” into doing the right thing.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it sounds like all your co-workers are trying to win favor with the manager by engaging in this. If you can’t do anything, oldfort has a great point. Tune it out. Sorry for your work environment.
In larger companies these days, much effort goes into preventing this from occurring. It is not only unprofessional, but as ucsd/ucla dad says, gossip and generalized insults can lead to legal issues at times. Is this a small office where there are few checks and balances?</p>
<p>Talk to HR and ask that it be kept anonymous. As a previous posted noted, some of these comments may violate EEOC and open your firm to a lawsuit if they made their way to a candidate. The best thing for HR to do is hold a session on appropriate and inappropriate questions in interviews. (There are lots of taboo areas besides the obvious ones that you are not allowed to ask)</p>
<p>I would very much discourage you from speaking with HR, unless you want your boss to find out about it. I have a dedicated HR person who supports my area, but her real job is to support me, therefore I know everything that is said to HR (good or bad). </p>
<p>If there is one thing you could tell your kid about starting a new job is do not complain to HR unless it is absolutely necessary. It´s important to be on a good term with them, but if you have any issues with your boss or colleagues, they are not the best people to go to unless you want it to come to a head. They do not keep anything to themselves - they tell the department head they support, and they also tell other HR colleagues, which means other department heads also hear about it.</p>
<p>I was on a hiring committee for the first time a few months ago. I was amazed at the rigid protocol that was in place to protect the candidates and to insure the best practice for selecting the hire. We were not allowed to discuss the interviews or content of the meetings outside of the meetings and we were not allowed to discuss or raise the issue of any factors that were not directly related to the candidates ability to do the job. I felt good about serving on the committee. I credit this process to the facilitator. She kept it clean, professional and moving along.</p>
<p>In your situation, you didn’t have that leadership in place. I have a couple of suggestions on ways to proceed. You might:
a. Go to your boss and address your concerns. Keep it about protecting the company so that you don’t look accusatory.
b. Talk separately or a few at a time to the other people on the committee. Share your feelings and ask them how THEY feel about the process. It is quite possible that they share your feelings. Take a constructive approach and suggest that there are better ways to do this. Maybe do some research on training programs that teach facilitators to lead these committees. Volunteer to be on the task force to look into it.<br>
c. If none of that is realistic…abstain from participating again.</p>
<p>Note: Option b… I did this once when I was on a committee that, I felt, was becoming a place to be vindictive and negative. I raised my concerns to the other members, ONE ON ONE and told them that I didn’t feel good about being on the board anymore, and told them why. Some of these people were guilty of bad behavior in a group, but, when I got them alone, they wanted to take the high road. As a small group, we addressed our concerns with the leader of the group. Was he happy? No. But at least he started to behave himself a bit more and I felt less “dirty” about being a part of it.</p>
<p>Let it go, you gain nothing by making a stink and could jeopardize your position and hurt your working relationships. Breathe deep, go for a run, take yourself out for an ice cream cone, go shopping, whatever… get past it. Yeah some people are meannies.</p>
<p>Avoid being part of the evaluation process by sending detail interview notes on the candidate qualifications via email. Give some excuse on why you can’t be there in person but say you will call in. If it starts getting uncomfortable on the phone, jump off with some valid excuse but apologize profusely and assure them that they already have your feedback and you trust their decision. Then you don’t have to hide your facial expressions and you only half listen to their stupid comments.
The only time I would really make a stink is if the candidate would be working directly for me and I felt strongly about the hiring decision. In that case I would have a private conversation with the boss.
If you really hate working with these people you will need to look for another job or learn to accept them. Sorry.</p>
<p>^^^
I disagree with this. I think that there are ways to address and confront problems in the workplace without feeling like you are putting your job in jeopardy. In most cases, if handled correctly and professionally, it will garner respect and appreciation rather than scorn. If the OP feels this way, there are, undoubtedly others who do as well.</p>