HeartsAfire

We have created a new position in my department and are in the process of interviewing. Here is what happened during an interview today:

Question: "What do you do in your down time?"

Answer: "I drink" *nervous laughter* "I'm kidding of course."

This is someone who is already employed by our district and is looking to switch positions. I'm not sure if she just felt completely comfortable because we all know each other very well and joke around a lot or what, but I can't figure out what in the world would posses her to answer that during a job interview unless she was drunk at the time.

At any rate, it troubled me the rest of the day and into part of this evening. I'm not sure if it was the answer itself that troubled me or the sad fact that I probably would've laughed right along with her not too long ago.

Am I just being hyper-sensitive or is this completely inappropriate interview behavior? She's not in consideration so it may all be a mute point, but I thought I'd throw it out there.

heartcore

Hey, heartsafire, we're sobriety sisters; my date is 8/16/14...

Yup, inappropriate, and the nervous (likely accidental) outburst of a likely alcoholic.

Alcoholism is everywhere, and I wouldn't let it occupy too much of your thought space. If for any reason, the candidate calls you to ask directly if she said anything disqualifying in her interview (and I doubt she will, but you never know), you could point to that comment and let her know that it concerned you.

More likely, she will replay it over & over in her head, & someday might connect it to her own story of alcoholism. When we're inside it, we seldom notice how distorted much of our thinking is.

We live in a world drenched with alcohol. I'd just put on my jammies, shake my head in wonder, & call it a night. Congratulations on your sobriety! It sure feels good, huh?

ESD907

don't know until you actually know the person. some people joke about drinking when they rarely drink. some joke because, like us, we ddrink way too much. candidate may have been a nervous wreck? trying to fit in? trying to be funny? who knows. I don't think I'd read too much into it. I'd see how this person does his/her job before making this judgement.

pulltight

A little hypersensitive, I wouldn't read anything into it.

doggonecarl

Not to veer too far off your OP, but I'm curious. What kind of question is that to ask in a job interview? What kind of answer are the interviewers expecting?

Talk about a none-of-your-business type question. I dread having to look for a job these days....

hopeful4

I think it's a quite common question. Sort of just getting to know the person.

That being said, what a terrible answer! Why would you say such a thing?!

I am a manager and interview people frequently and if anyone volunteered that as their FIRST CHOICE of things to do off time, they would be out. Just being honest here.

My mom is a HR manager for a big company. If you don't bring your own pen during an interview, she will not hire you. She says if you don't have brain enough to bring a writing utensil you don't deserve to work there.

In this day and age, you have to be very very careful what you say during an interview, and what you put on your social media when you are trying to get hired.

Ionray

Yeah that story hits close to home for those of us who've lost jobs or come close to losing jobs because of drinking. At work, I used to joke about "tequila Fridays" before I got sober. Needless to say, I don't make those jokes anymore.

The social media is a good point. It never ceases to amaze me what people post online. I'm not on Facebook anymore, but when I was, I knew people who posted lots of pictures and in every photo they'd have a drink in their hand.

zjw

my boss on a conf call first thing he says is that he's ready to go have a beer promptly after work!

I dont particularily care for this guy (I'm being polite) but i had compassion for him. I thought to myself if he feels this way he needs a new job or a new hobby. It reminded me of my drinking days. I got new hobbies myself and I realize in my case i still need a new job.

Its sad more then anything.

that being said yeah i can see the humor in it but if people only new that there is a very good life without alcohol weather your an alcoholic or not this is still true.

Soberwolf

Isnt it wonderful that you spotted the diffrence

hypersensitive but understand

leviathan

dumb thing to say, but not necessarily a marker of alcoholism. its extra trendy right now to talk about drinking big. social media and pop songs are full of this blowhard stuff right now. have you listened to a new-country station lately? you'd think that alcohol was just invented last year. at my local convenience store theres a big display of reuseable mugs and glasses designed to look like red solo cups. all of the many slogans on them are "funny" proclamations about drinking in semi-rebellious ways. ie) ITS 5 OCLOCK SOMEWHERE! or DADDY's HAPPY JUICE, or MORNING BEER, BEST OF THE DAY!, etc...

most of the professionals I partied with would have NO use for such things. the common accessory in my crowd is a keychain beer opener.

although most of this kind of talk is meaningless blather, I think it may be enabling some of our younger alcoholics to feel more accepted as extreme users. they may use this crap to rationalize "well pretty much everyone's doing it!".

zjw

yep thats true. the socially acceptable nature of it makes it totally ok. which is fine for those who got it under control but for people like me I sure didnt need any encouraging or enabling haha. I was dang good at making excuses all by myself.

PurpleKnight

I get that question all the time in interviews, it must be more common over here, it's designed I think to see what else have you got to offer other than being career orientated, is there a personality somewhere in there, so it's similar to what hobbies/interests do you have!!

So on the OP question, "drinking" should definitely not be anywhere near the answer to that question.