The issue of marital status is always a very touchy one in the interview room. Construction companies are particularly interested in this topic for some reason, but it's not always an easy thing to just come out and ask. I'm not sure if it is necessarily illegal to ask, but as an interviewer, it's probably safer to in the least, dance around the subject.
I've never been asked directly if I was married, but I have been asked, "So you may be married, I don't know." I took the bait on this one and said that I was not married. I was hired for a position seventy miles away from the home office in a place to where someone who was married to a working spouse with intentions of starting a family would probably not move.
The geographical challenges facing the staffing of construction projects make marital status a topic of interest when hiring. However, once you work for the company I'm pretty sure that they want you married. I was at a company meeting once where new people to the organization were being introduced to the rest of the company. The person doing the introductions mentioned my name and the fact that I was single, but looking to change that.
Uhh, I don't remember discussing my marital goals with this person, so it left me a bit curious about him taking the liberty to make this assumption in front of the entire company.
In my experience, construction companies want you married and preferably to someone who doesn't work and is willing to move anywhere and everywhere the company sends them. Despite the conservative nature of the construction industry, by now, this is not only difficult to achieve, but is darn near impossible.
So what do you do if you really want to know if someone is married in a job interview? You need to ask questions like, "Is there anything that would keep you from travelling or potentially moving with this company?" Regardless of whether it is legal or not to ask about marital status, it is certainly in poor taste.
And what if you are being interviewed? Well, this is completely up to you. My personal opinion is that marital status should be kept free and clear of the workplace and I'm not going lean one way or the other.
Hell, if I think it will help, I may even throw a ring on my finger for the day.
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In some sense I can see the concern but frankly an employer is hiring the person, not the couple. The concern over married/unmarried is stability although with the divorce rate being what it is the words stability and marriage are an oxymoron.
ReplyDeleteI would look to the person's maturity and skill before I looked at marital status.
I think there is some sentiment out there that a person will work harder if they are married with kids because they have mouths to feed. I don't think this is true after people spents hundreds of thousands on their education and have bills to pay. I will say that single people may be less likely to buy into a crooked corporate plan. Perhaps this is what they don't like about it.
ReplyDeleteFederal EEOC laws strictly forbid a company from asking or making a hiring decision based on marital status. You can ask "Do you have the ability to commute X hours to a job site daily?" You can not be asked "Will your wife have a shit-fit if I send you a hundred miles away every day?"
ReplyDeleteLike religious beliefs, political persuasion, race, gender, and other factors, an employer can ask but they can't make hiring decisions upon the answer (or any other employment decisions after you are hired).
ReplyDeleteMost employers still make decisions based on these factors (at least in part), they just ask in a way that no one can prove.
That is an interesting point of view and a topic worth discussing. I think those of us with family are tolerable when it comes to making exceptions in our ethics, simply because we have much too lose when we loose our job. I have faced my own personal demons in this area, as I am sure many have. However I am truly thankful for an upbringing that stressed the importants of a mans word and honesty. Unfortunately in today’s production driven industry of Construction many of us will be challenged to compromise and none of us can be 100% sure of our ethics until they are tested.
ReplyDeleteJohn:
ReplyDeleteYes, it is illegal for an interviewer to ask if the potential employee is married. But, I agree with the example you give in the post: Employers look to those single employees to be the road warriors. I know single engineer who travels almost non-stop has been moved several times by his corporation, once after just settling into his newly-purchased home. But if they foot the moving costs, if they pay him enough, and he doesn't mind the travel, I guess it's okay. Pretty sure they would uproot one of their married employees like that, though.
I am finding that more of the professionals I know are doing more travel. We work to keep schedules updated so that we have someone at home. Normal business meetings no longer fit the 8 to 5 schedule these days so I have made the adjustment and work at making family time the best it can be.
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