Job applicant lauded for walking out of interview after manager's excessive 45-minute lateness
'It was extremely unprofessional to leave me waiting for 45 minutes...'
A job applicant decided to walk out of an interview after the interviewer made them wait for 45 minutes. The story was posted on the r/antiwork subreddit and gained widespread empathy.
The candidate had applied for a senior management position in a big retail company and the interview was scheduled with the district manager a week before. "I arrive at 12:20 and check in at customer service. The team member there said she notified them, and they said they would be 'right down.' 20 minutes later, nobody has come down. That team member walks past me again and says she notified them a second time, but they must be in a meeting," the author wrote. The candidate waited for another 25 minutes, but the interviewer didn't show up. "I get up and notify that same team member that I'm leaving, and if the district manager does eventually come down, let them know that," they wrote. As the candidate was leaving, the district manager appeared, apologized, and said she was busy. "I said that's fine, but I have other things I have to do, and it was extremely unprofessional to leave me waiting for 45 minutes, and I continued to walk out," the candidate recalled. Moving on, the candidate said they were usually quite patient and had never walked out of an interview before this. "I have a ton of experience and multiple job offers on the table, but the one today was the one I was gung-ho for. "Oh well," they added.
Reacting to the Reddit post, u/questn4lyfe commented, "Sometimes I think they do this on purpose just to see how desperate you are for this job, but it's a sh***y way to go about it. I remember one time I was brought into the guy's office and waited over 15 minutes for the interview, and when the manager finally did come, he didn't apologize; he just said he was busy. I told him then and there that I wasn't interested in it anymore because I was busy too. Funny thing, though: that business went out of business. Guess he isn't busy anymore."
u/thevoicesofbrian said, "This is why I always make sure I have a team or pair to interview. If someone's stuck, the remaining people can start the interview. Many interviewers fail to understand that they are being interviewed as well. Being rude, being late, being unprofessional? Well, the good candidates are going to walk away from you." As surprising as it may sound, that's true. In fact, a 2024 Monster Work Watch Report found that nearly half (46%) of surveyed U.S. workers said the interviewer‘s attitude or behavior, and 43% noted the recruiter's attitude or behavior was the top reason they pulled out of the recruitment process. Even in the Reddit story, the author was mad and decided to just end the interview from their end because the company didn't respect their time. Meanwhile, u/appa-ate-momo wrote, "Being late isn't the end of the world. Being late and being radio silent is a borderline-unforgivable rudeness. How f****** hard is it to let someone know what's going on? Unless you're riding in the back of an ambulance, dead, or otherwise unconscious, the list of excuses for not having the common courtesy to send a text is pretty short."
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