Employers Share Their 'Biggest Red Flags When Hiring,' Sparking Online Fury

Numerous purported employers shared in a Twitter thread Monday their "biggest red flags when hiring" and the discussion reached a wider audience after Redditor u/fhetnz screenshotted and shared some popular responses in Reddit's popular "Antiwork" forum Thursday.

Some of the tweets were written by friends of hiring managers, who said their friends put candidates through "tests" to see if they'll fit well within their respective companies. Others were written by the purported hiring managers themselves.

In just seven hours, the post went viral with more than 32,000 upvotes and over 3,000 comments from angry Redditors who said some of the "red flags" were "manipulative" and "ageist."

First up, Twitter user @seattlecynic said that a friend of theirs used to test candidates over lunch.

"A friend used to take sales candidates out for lunch. Had [an] arrangement with his friend who owned the restaurant. Always had the candidate's order screwed up. Noted how they dealt with it. [If they] graciously just [ate] the food or politely [pointed] it out, great. Any p***iness, no hire," they tweeted.

Interestingly enough, a majority of Redditors said they didn't have a problem with this specific test.

"I don't really have a problem with the first one. It lets the employer know how you treat people who have less power than you, in a situation where they have inconvenienced you," wrote u/JadedElk.

u/Heikold said the test "seems like a genuinely good way of judging someone's character."

Meanwhile, u/TwoTeapotsForXmas said: "I quite like the first one. At worst you get a mixed-up lunch and if [you] don't treat people like s**t, you probably get hired. It's manipulative, but it doesn't offend me."

From there, however, things quickly went downhill.

In one tweet, a purported hiring manager said they don't like when candidates ask about salary before an interview starts.

"You know what's a red flag...an employer that thinks it's a red flag to talk about salary," commented u/melpec.

"Bro imagine thinking a red flag is 'asking about salary before the job interview even starts' lmao, what the f**k am I working for? Goodwill? Give me the d**n money so I can live," wrote u/OcupiedMuffins.

u/BardtheGM added: "I wouldn't be so eager to ask about the salary if you'd just f***ing told me what the salary was beforehand. There's no point in us going through this whole interview only for you to offer me less money than I can accept."

Interestingly enough, New York City recently passed a law forcing all employers with four or more employees to post salary ranges on job listings. Failure to do so will be considered "an unlawful discriminatory practice."

"It's been shown that upfront transparency regarding what a position is worth, what an employer is willing to pay, prevents the employer from lowballing an applicant further into the interviewing process—which might be colored by employer biases," Breeana Mulligan, a spokesperson for the bill, told Newsweek.

Other states with similar pay transparency laws include California, Maryland and Washington state.

In the final tweet shared by u/fhetnz, someone named Michael Huffstetler said their friend would ask prospective employees about current events.

"Not sure if I like this or not but a friend told me he asks everyone he interviews to show him their Uber rating and to try to name the last 5 U.S. Vice Presidents," Huffstetler tweeted. Apparently, his friend not only wants to know if applicants "treat people well" but also if they "know what's going on in the world."

Some Redditors slammed this test as being "ageist."

"The VP one is ageist against younger employees. I can remember back to exactly 5 VPs, but only because I'm old enough to have been paying attention during those times. Someone fresh out of college today won't remember Gore or Cheney," said u/Lil_Brown_Bat.

"The President one is weird. Depending on how young you are, you weren't even alive for the last five presidents. Or so young that it wasn't impactful to you. An 18-year-old probably can't name the last five presidents. Maybe they should? IDK but I don't see why it matters," said u/CritiqueG33k.

u/donslimey added: "Guess the VP one is to keep Gen Z away."

Of course, the aforementioned hiring managers aren't the first to receive online flak. In December, Redditors slammed a hiring manager who purportedly told a job applicant's employer that the applicant planned on quitting. That same month, commenters blasted an employer who refused to turn their camera on during an interview and admitted to not reading the applicant's resume, among other things.