Man walks out of a job interview after 'rude' HR demands to know more about his father's profession
He refused to answer a question that had nothing to do with the job.
A Reddit post by u/MICKY5789 described how an interview ended abruptly after he was forced to walk out when HR pressed him to reveal details about his father’s profession. In the post that has gained 7.1k upvotes, he explained that the process had already been off to a bad start. "I was told to be there by 9 AM. Arrived 30 minutes early, just to be safe. But guess what? The interview didn’t start on time. I sat there waiting for a whole hour until they finally called me in at 10 AM. No explanation, no apology. Just waiting," he wrote.
Once inside, he said the HR representative "asked me to sit down—then proceeded to make two phone calls in front of me before actually starting the interview." According to him, her tone throughout was rude and dismissive. She asked his nickname and then followed with, "What does your father do for a living?" He answered that his father worked at a private electronics company, but when she pressed further, asking him, "Where exactly does he work?" he decided he wasn’t comfortable. "I politely said, 'I’m sorry ma’am, but I’d rather not answer that. It’s a private matter.' Her response? 'Then we can’t continue this interview.' I was honestly shocked," he wrote.
Instead of arguing, he stood up and ended it himself, saying, "Alright then." In the post, he said he left "feeling pissed. "Not only did they waste an hour of my time, but the HR rep was also rude, unprofessional, and condescending. No apology for the delay, playing on her phone during the interview, and then basically threatening to end the interview just because I wouldn’t give details about my father’s workplace," he said.
He wasn’t the only one who felt the line of questioning was wrong. A 2024 study published in the European Journal of Social Psychology looked at how candidates respond when faced with personal questions in job interviews. Researchers Rotem Kahalon, Johannes Ullrich, and Julia C. Becker found that people usually fall back on one of three strategies: "truth-telling," "deflection," or "confrontation." The study showed that refusing to answer or deflecting an intrusive question doesn’t automatically hurt how others perceive you. In many cases, observers saw boundary-setting as justified and even appropriate. The research also noted that such questions do more than throw candidates off. They can affect how fair the process feels, whether someone trusts the employer, and whether they want to continue with the opportunity at all.
The post struck a chord with others who’ve dealt with the same kind of treatment in interviews. u/fenriq wrote, "An hour late and made two calls while you are waiting? Yeah, f*** that. That interviewer is a power-tripping a***." u/Senior_Lime2346 added, "It is ok to walk out on an interview if people are more than half an hour late with no explanation or communication. Set the tone that you are not desperate and won't tolerate disrespect." u/InitiativeOutside951 commented, "That means that you are overqualified. They want someone who doesn’t know what their rights are." u/mraot07 said, "Your first mistake was staying an hour. I would have walked out at 15 minutes past if no one was communicating or apologizing for the delay. We need to start normalizing leaving interviews on our terms, not theirs."
More on Scoop Upworthy
Worker walks out after being asked to do a trial day instead of a job interview, sparking debate
Woman withdraws job application after being asked for SAT and ACT test scores during job interview
Share on Facebook
