I recently applied for, and was offered, a desired position in my current workplace. When the interview was set up, appointments were made on Outlook with my name in the subject, and the purpose of the meeting. The sheet was printed off and used as a reservation schedule for the boardroom for the day. In other words, anyone can walk by and see that I am being interviewed on that day at that time for that position. I felt it was a breach of confidence, as did the hiring manager. She promptly took it to HR, had the information made private, had it reprinted and re-posted on the room.
Of course, it didn’t take long before news got around. Later, when they were interviewing for my replacement in my current position, I asked the HR lady if it was an internal candidate and if it had been a good interview, and told her that’s all I wanted to know. She scoffed and told me that it certainly isn’t confidential information if I wanted to know.
Am I misunderstanding? I realize that unless I ask for confidentiality, I have no reason to expect it. However, I do feel like I should be able to expect this kind of information to remain unadvertised. Is this something I should talk to the HR representative about, or should I report it to her manager, or should I let my manager talk to one of those people? On the other hand, am I completely wrong and I should let it drop?
To read the answer, click here: Internal Job Applicant Has Privacy Concerns About the Interview Process
Even if the schedule hadn’t been posted it would be hard to keep an internal interview under wraps. People tend to notice things like hey your going into to the meeting room with the interview team, or in my case I’m on campus on my day off ooh and I’m wearing a suit.
Yeah, this is a serious case of overreaction.
The only thing that really needs to be kept confidential here is the personal information contained in the candidate’s application for the new position, which HR probably has under lock and key. The fact that she’s applying is something the company can certainly choose to disclose internally–perhaps they feel that it’s important to be transparent about their hiring practices. It doesn’t present the same risk to an internal applicant as it would to an external one.
Exactly. For an external candidate, companies should take care to make sure that the candidate’s current employer doesn’t find out, but that’s about it.
I interviewed for an internal position and to see who I was up against I simply viewed the calendar of the hiring manager and saw all the candidates including me. It wasn’t even an open secret, it was just open.
Even worse is when they not only don’t try to hide it; but, outright ask you who of the other candidates they should hire!
This happened at one place I worked at; about 8 of us applied, all 8 were asked the same question. Of course, if you answered yourself you were told that wasn’t the question. The answer had to be someone else.
Funny, I think it backfired on the hiring managers because 3 of us withdrew our application and refused to answer. I told them that I wasn’t sure since I didn’t have all the information (such as everyone’s resume). I’d also be willing to bet that they didn’t expect the 8 of us to all talk to each other about the terrible experience.
??? I might be missing something, but don’t people send better questions than this? Am I ready this correctly…the issue here is that the individual is upset that the HR person scoffed at her inquiry?