Odd Interview protocol?

ThorsMane

Hi,

My friend is going for an interview for a position in a organisation she’s already part of... in the email with the details of time and location of the interview there were some odd instructions

First was, she must turn off her phone in front of the interviewers which she though was over the top and odd.

The other was she would be told before hand if it was/wasn’t acceptable to shake hands with the interviewers

She’s kinda bogled on the whole thing... has anyone ever experienced such strict rules for a job interview ? Is this normal?

Mrcaramelchoc

I can't see Any problem with being asked to turn off your mobile phone.besides the fact that it might distract her they might be thinking of her recording the audio/interview?
The shake hands thing is weird.

Squatter

Mrcaramelchoc wrote: »

The shake hands thing is weird.

Religious thingy? Can a devout Muslim shake hands with a strange female?

s7ryf3925pivug

Squatter wrote: »

Religious thingy? Can a devout Muslim shake hands with a strange female?

A Muslim lady dentist repaired a filling on my broken tooth. She gingerly poked it through a sheet that covered my mouth otherwise so she could work on it without sullying herself on my mouth/face. It was a bit odd. I guess they have these things for people with high risk diseases, or maybe it was her own invention.

Reati

Squatter wrote: »

Religious thingy? Can a devout Muslim shake hands with a strange female?

No. I worked with a guy who would t shake females hands. So it's likely a religious thing alright.

OMM 0000

ThorsMane wrote: »

Hi,

My friend is going for an interview for a position in a organisation she’s already part of... in the email with the details of time and location of the interview there were some odd instructions

First was, she must turn off her phone in front of the interviewers which she though was over the top and odd.

The other was she would be told before hand if it was/wasn’t acceptable to shake hands with the interviewers

She’s kinda bogled on the whole thing... has anyone ever experienced such strict rules for a job interview ? Is this normal?

Unless you're in Saudi Arabia or something, this sort of thing would be a huge red flag for me, and I'd be declining the interview.

banie01

It not only strikes me as an attempt to ensure they accomodate someones religious preference/belief, but also by requesting that they have sight of the interviewee's phone being switched off!
That they are seeking to ensure the phone isn't used to record the interview, for whatever reason they may deem such an odd request appropriate.

Common courtesy would to my mind at least, dictate my phone was switched off for any interview.
That they seem to be making the interview being conducted/concluded, contigent upon their sight of an interviewee powering down their phone is frankly more than odd.

Can I ask if this interview is one of our Charity/Quango bodies?

Reati

OMM 0000 wrote: »

Unless you're in Saudi Arabia or something, this sort of thing would be a huge red flag for me, and I'd be declining the interview.

Can you only have religious beliefs in Saudi Arabia?

OMM 0000

Reati wrote: »

Can you only have religious beliefs in Saudi Arabia?

OMM 0000 wrote:

Unless you're in Saudi Arabia or something

I think it's pretty obvious to everyone I was referring to a strict muslim culture where the women can't shake hands?

I don't think we've implemented that in Ireland yet...

"But what if the interviewer was a muslim woman? :mad:"

Then when the interview starts she just politely says "Oh sorry, I'm a muslim, I cannot shake your hand".

Isn't that much more normal and friendly than this weird e-mail?

Reati

OMM 0000 wrote: »

I think it's pretty obvious to everyone I was referring to a strict muslim culture where the women can't shake hands?

I don't think we've implemented that in Ireland yet...

"But what if the interviewer was a muslim woman? :mad:"

Then when the interview starts she just politely says "Oh sorry, I'm a muslim, I cannot shake your hand".

Isn't that much more normal and friendly than this weird e-mail?

The email is calling it out to make it clear before the awkward "I can't shake you hand moment" at the start of the interview which might be a bigger throw off for a candidate. They are trying to be considerate.

You reply was because they called this out the OP shouldn't take the interview.

OMM 0000

Reati wrote: »

The email is calling it out to make it clear before the awkward "I can't shake you hand moment" at the start of the interview which might be a bigger throw off for a candidate. They are trying to be considerate.

You reply was because they called this out the OP shouldn't take the interview.

Not just that. Also because they are telling them what to do with their phone.

It makes me believe their HR team are extremely controlling.

I really don't think their e-mail makes things less awkward. IMO it makes things more awkward.

facehugger99

Reati wrote: »

The email is calling it out to make it clear before the awkward "I can't shake you hand moment" at the start of the interview which might be a bigger throw off for a candidate. They are trying to be considerate.

It might be more considerate not to employ someone who believes females are so unclean they can't be touched on the hand.

OMM 0000

I was in West China once (xinjiang) and I was introduced to a woman. She was Chinese looking but had a headscarf. I extended my hand and she said "I'm a muslim, I can't shake your hand". I said, "Oh, OK". (I wasn't aware of that traditional). And that was the end of it. No bother.

It's not awkward.

It's kind of like going to a restaurant with someone, and asking if they're going to have the steak, and they respond "I'm a vegetarian, I'm going to have the mango salad". That's grand.

Reati

facehugger99 wrote: »

It might be more considerate not to employ someone who believes females are so unclean they can't be touched on the hand.

Erm, you can't descriminate on religious grounds.

Anyway, that's not what they believe. Research it then come back.

AndrewJRenko

banie01 wrote: »

It not only strikes me as an attempt to ensure they accomodate someones religious preference/belief, but also by requesting that they have sight of the interviewee's phone being switched off!
That they are seeking to ensure the phone isn't used to record the interview, for whatever reason they may deem such an odd request appropriate.

Common courtesy would to my mind at least, dictate my phone was switched off for any interview.
That they seem to be making the interview being conducted/concluded, contigent upon their sight of an interviewee powering down their phone is frankly more than odd.

Can I ask if this interview is one of our Charity/Quango bodies?

Somebody recorded an interview once, and it caused problems for them. So they've come up with this protocol to prevent it happening again.

Unless of course, you have two phones.

Gobsh1tes

FitzElla

Never heard of the phone thing, but I have been told beforehand in another interview that the interview panel will not be doing handshakes with candidates. I didn't think much of it at the time, just figured it was a way to keep it more structured and formal and so I wouldn't have to worry about any of the "do I shake their hand before or after or who's hand do I shake first" overthinking.

Rubberchikken

this type of behaviour makes me think the world of eork/hr is just getting more bonkers.
if the interview is in ireland surely you should accept that handshaking is normal and acceptable and emailing not to is just ridiculous.

how do muslim female doctors manage to examine someone in an Christian country?

this type of controlling over the top pc nonsense is what makes people look on people of other religions with derision.

irishgrover

handshake this is a bit odd - but would not find it too off putting....variety of potential reasons for it..

the thing with being observed turning off your phone is very weird - unless there is a very significant secrecy/security element to the job I would see this as a big potential flag...

skallywag

The phone thing I have never heard of before, and it's pretty meaningless anyway, i.e. if one really wanted to record something (assuming that is the reason it is being requested) then use an ipod in another pocket, etc.

Unless they also plan a strip search?

The shaking hands one is also something I have not come across either, but now that it has been brought up it has made me think. I must say that I was actually not aware that muslim woman could not shake hands. I have been in Asia where I have shook hands (on my offering) with muslim women, though it was always a very limp handshake etc. but I simply put this down to the usual limp handshake that you can find in Asia in general, both men and women.

It dawns on me now though that perhaps they just went through with it not to cause embarrassment etc. Feel a bit silly now, lesson learned for me (-:

kippy

Most likely an initial test to ensure you can read email/instruction and follow instruction to the tee.
Should be fairly straightforward to follow those and get the interview off to a good start......

bmc58

Squatter wrote: »

Religious thingy? Can a devout Muslim shake hands with a strange female?

A Muslim female doctor cannot shake hands with a Christian man.Not sure about the female to female interaction.

ThorsMane

I’d like to clarify, the interviewers are not Muslim.

skallywag

ThorsMane wrote: »

I’d like to clarify, the interviewers are not Muslim.

Unless it's on some class of religious grounds then I simply cannot understand it.

ThorsMane

skallywag wrote: »

Unless it's on some class of religious grounds then I simply cannot understand it.

Neither can I.

AndrewJRenko

ThorsMane wrote: »

I’d like to clarify, the interviewers are not Muslim.

How can you be sure?

odyssey06

Sounds like the company should have a general no handshake policy. Anything else confusing as hell...

ThorsMane

AndrewJRenko wrote: »

How can you be sure?

Like I said in the original post, she’s already part of the organisation... she knows who her interviewers are

Purple Mountain

I remember hearing before that in Hollywood, when potential actors go meet a director (or was it agent!) for an interview, they sometimes get a 'no handshake or no perfume/cologne' specification before hand.

s7ryf3925pivug

One of the interviewers has some quirks by the sound of it.

AndrewJRenko

ThorsMane wrote: »

Like I said in the original post, she’s already part of the organisation... she knows who her interviewers are

Do you know the religion of everyone in your organisation? People don't necessarily advertise their religion in work.

Working class heroes

One of my previous managers, just before introducing me to someone advised me not to shake his hand.
He lost his right hand in an accident. You just never know exactly what’s going on I suppose.....

kippy

Working class heroes wrote: »

One of my previous managers, just before introducing me to someone advised me not to shake his hand.
He lost his right hand in an accident. You just never know exactly what’s going on I suppose.....

As mentioned above, some times you just need to follow instruction's. You shouldn't always need to know why.

Westernyelp

Tell them to just go for the hi five

s7ryf3925pivug

The thing is if there is some personal reason one of the interviewers doewn't want to shake hands, their handling of it is a bit sh!t. They could just say 'Don't shake hands in the interview' [which is generally a good idea since it is a vector for transmitting disease, aside from it not being ok for some people for whatever reasons]. By saying they'll tell you whether you can makes a big deal of it unnecessarily.

seamus

The religious angle I can't respect. "My religion says I can't shake hands with you because we're not equals". I would consider that a very disrespectful way to treat an interviewee, it would score black marks against the organisation for me if that turned out to be the reason for it.

However, there may be legitimate other concerns - some illnesses such as severe arthritis or epidermolysis bullosa would make it impossible for an interviewer to shake your hand. So in that case, simply calling it out beforehand saves everyone from embarrassment. But if they haven't confirmed the interviewers yet, they can't tell you whether you should avoid the handshake.

Overall though, the instructions do seem oddly specific. Is there something unique about the company or industry? Is it public service or semi-state?

Oink

1. They assume no one can live without their phone anymore and the interviewee will obviously carry it with them. Obviously you can't trust people to turn their own phone off, just look at what happens on planes. So they want to see it turned off just because of the one idiot who's not going to do it. 2. Handshake. Why the f do so many people jump on the religious thing. Like a previous poster said, there can be many good reasons for that. So I suggest we wait to see what happens at the interview before feeling outraged. Awaiting full report from OP :-)

seamus

Oink wrote: »

Obviously you can't trust people to turn their own phone off, just look at what happens on planes.

I'm not sure that's it. You'd almost want a candidate to forget to turn off their phone and see how they react

I've worked for companies who are insanely paranoid about company secrets. Not only in terms of the insides of their business, but things like interview processes, names of the staff, etc. I've been in training sessions that advised never talking about work to colleagues in the pub or any public place and never using your laptop in public, because you never know who's watching.

So I expect in this case they want to know that the interview isn't being recorded or otherwise monitored. NDAs are functionally unenforceable and companies know this, it's a bit of theatre. If someone records an interview and posts it online, there's basically nothing they can do about it.

OMM 0000

I worked for a company which handled passport data for a big country. As a staff member, I had access to everyone's passport details. We had a biometric scan at the door, cameras everywhere, a rule where you can't throw any papers in the bin, a rule where you can't leave your desk without locking your computer, the USB ports on our computers were disabled, our company website didn't state what we do, and lots of other stuff... but in my interview there I could bring my phone, and at my desk I could mess around with my phone.

So I agree with Seamus that this is probably due to them not wanting the interview to be recorded, but as another person pointed out, what kind of security is this? Just bring an extra phone.

It makes me think the HR person might be thick, or seriously lacking social awareness.

It's bizarre and a really bad sign IMO.

s7ryf3925pivug

seamus wrote: »

The religious angle I can't respect. "My religion says I can't shake hands with you because we're not equals". I would consider that a very disrespectful way to treat an interviewee, it would score black marks against the organisation for me if that turned out to be the reason for it.

However, there may be legitimate other concerns - some illnesses such as severe arthritis or epidermolysis bullosa would make it impossible for an interviewer to shake your hand. So in that case, simply calling it out beforehand saves everyone from embarrassment. But if they haven't confirmed the interviewers yet, they can't tell you whether you should avoid the handshake.

Overall though, the instructions do seem oddly specific. Is there something unique about the company or industry? Is it public service or semi-state?

It's worse than just saying you're inferior, it's saying you're going to debase them when you get your jollies off touching their hand. And it's saying women who allow such things are dirty/loose etc. Active dehumisation of anyone who's not part of their group.

AlanG

ThorsMane wrote: »

Hi,

First was, she must turn off her phone in front of the interviewers which she though was over the top and odd.

The other was she would be told before hand if it was/wasn’t acceptable to shake hands with the interviewers

She’s kinda bogled on the whole thing... has anyone ever experienced such strict rules for a job interview ? Is this normal?

As an interviewer, where I work the chairperson on the day will decide if candidates should shake hands. A lot depends on the room used and number on the panel. It is a pain for 4 or 5 interviewers to shake hands with every candidate if there is a large table in the room, it is also uncomfortable for the candidates so we usually give clear instructions before hand.
Regarding phones, usually the person greeting the interviewee with ask them to switch it off.
I wouldn't read too much into these rules.

uck51js9zml2yt

Bria Bald Miser wrote: »

A Muslim lady dentist repaired a filling on my broken tooth. She gingerly poked it through a sheet that covered my mouth otherwise so she could work on it without sullying herself on my mouth/face. It was a bit odd. I guess they have these things for people with high risk diseases, or maybe it was her own invention.

Or more probably it was to keep the tooth dry while she worked on it !!

Colonel Claptrap

I once worked with an absolute genius of a man. He could computate huge volumes of data in his head, something the rest of us mere mortals needed spreadsheets to do for us.
He was a huge asset to the company and promptly got promoted up the ranks. Well deserved might I add.

He was incredibly awkward when it came to social situations. His small talk was blunt. He didn't really 'get' taking the p1ss out of yourself or having a bit of banter with a colleague. If you made a mistake he would make you feel horrible about yourself. There was no sugar coating.

As you have probably guessed, the man is on the autism spectrum in some way or another. It was never openly discussed but everyone in the office kind of figured it out themselves.

One manifestation was a very very strict adherence to personal hygiene. He would wash, dry, then re-wash his hands after using the bathroom. He got very upset if the sinks were in any way dirty or the bin overflowing.

I wonder if the interviewer may have OCD or something similar...

s7ryf3925pivug

Seamus Full Shinbone wrote: »

Or more probably it was to keep the tooth dry while she worked on it !!

Doubt it.It broke repeatedly and the same procedure was carried out by numerous others. Noone else did that. It's my front tooth so it wouldn't get wet unless I made it so deliberately.

Zirconia

kippy wrote: »

As mentioned above, some times you just need to follow instruction's. You shouldn't always need to know why.

I think that's a terrible philosophy for life! I think you should generally have a good understanding of the reason to do anything, including in a work situation. I don't blindly follow instructions from others as a general rule.

Squatter

Zirconia wrote: »

I think that's a terrible philosophy for life! I think you should generally have a good understanding of the reason to do anything, including in a work situation. I don't blindly follow instructions from others as a general rule.

I bet that you always unquestioningly obey instructions from Boards.ie Mods!

kippy

Zirconia wrote: »

I think that's a terrible philosophy for life! I think you should generally have a good understanding of the reason to do anything, including in a work situation. I don't blindly follow instructions from others as a general rule.

I never advocated it as being a great philosophy for life, in fact I qualified it by saying "sometimes". There are times you need to do as you are told without any deep thought as to why. This is most definitely one of them.

Zirconia

kippy wrote: »

I never advocated it as being a great philosophy for life, in fact I qualified it by saying "sometimes". There are times you need to do as you are told without any deep thought as to why. This is most definitely one of them.

I don't agree, particularly in this circumstance - I would be definitely asking for clarification as to why the phone must be switched off, i.e. is it okay if I just set it to silent, and regarding being informed that I would be told whether on not I should shake hands, I would look for a reason for this as it is clearly odd, as per the OPs point, and I don't believe it is crossing any line to forthrightly look for an explanation.

Sure there are times in life where you need to proceed with something requested of you without having all the details, but they should be critical situations. These particular requests and the apparent situation they seem petty and meaningless unless a valid reason is put forward.

kippy

Zirconia wrote: »

I don't agree, particularly in this circumstance - I would be definitely asking for clarification as to why the phone must be switched off, i.e. is it okay if I just set it to silent, and regarding being informed that I would be told whether on not I should shake hands, I would look for a reason for this as it is clearly odd, as per the OPs point, and I don't believe it is crossing any line to forthrightly look for an explanation.

Sure there are times in life where you need to proceed with something requested of you without having all the details, but they should be critical situations. These particular requests and the apparent situation they seem petty and meaningless unless a valid reason is put forward.

What difference does having an explaination for either request actually make to the interviewee?

Augme

The hand shanking thing could simply depend in which roomnis being used. I've worked somewhere before that uses a lot of rooms and often for interviews. Some of the rooms had bug tables and meant reaching over it is difficult and awkward(quite often people ended up knoxki g over the glass of water that was placed out for them) and walking around the table to shake hands and then go back and sit down is just awkward. So often people would just be tied nit to shake hands with the interviewers. Also, cutting out the hand shaking saves time.

The hand shaking thing doesn't strike me as odd at all but I guess I'm used to that protocol.

Jim2007

kippy wrote: »

Most likely an initial test to ensure you can read email/instruction and follow instruction to the tee.
Should be fairly straightforward to follow those and get the interview off to a good start......

Probably the most likely answer.... one of my former bosses used to do this because he was fed up with people not following instructions. Especially since they were traders and they cost him money.

Another used to place a brush on the floor with the handle across the door saddle... once I asked him what the story was and he said you either step over it or pick it and then went on to say: “it’s the ones that stop and stair you gotta watch’. And to this day I have absolutely no idea what he was trying to achieve!

odyssey06

Jim2007 wrote: »

Probably the most likely answer.... one of my former bosses used to do this because he was fed up with people not following instructions. Especially since they were traders and they cost him money.
Another used to place a brush on the floor with the handle across the door saddle... once I asked him what the story was and he said you either step over it or pick it and then went on to say: “it’s the ones that stop and stair you gotta watch’. And to this day I have absolutely no idea what he was trying to achieve!

People are more likely to follow instructions if they know the reason why it's important to follow said instruction.

If you just want a robot, a random test like that makes sense, well, assuming there was any sense to it. Was the idea he wanted the kind of people who would remove the obstacle?

But if you are looking to hire someone to show initiative etc, don't be surprised if you get automatons who can't think for themselves.