Audra-
Am I correct in understanding that you penalize candidates who mention things about thier families? Excuse Me? This is worse then asking in the first place. This is still discrimination! My family is important to me and does play a factor in my decisions and can sometimes be illustrative of my abilities and skills.

I ususally bring up something about my family during my interview. I want to see how the employer feels about families because whether we want to believe it or not, they impact who we are and what we do. There will be times when you must choose your family over work and I want to know how the employer will reaction to this. I will not choose between family and work, because to be honest my family is more important than any JOB! (Yes, I mean that, JOB. Stop kidding ourselves, you can quibble all you want but any kind of employment is still a job.)

That does not mean however that I advocate taking advantage of an employer because of your family, but I have been in situations that once hired I was told that if I left work for family reasons I would be written up. We had to make ALL arrangements for unexpected illnesses and injuries ahead of time. (Like its possible too) So now, I want to know, how they feel about my family and unexpected events. I know what your are thinking, that's illegal, and it might well be but employers can make your life very difficult if they want to regarding your family and thier demands on your time. I also want to see how flexible an employer is regarding school activities, doctors appointments, and other similar kinds of situations, do you have the ability to change your schedule if something you didn't know about comes up.

Tracie

Audra Oliver wrote:

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"As an employer I think it reasonable to ask how an applicant's spouse and/or family might react to moving long distance. "

That would hold true if you were the employer and transferring the employee, perhaps. But as a prospective employer, I question the appropriateness of knowing the applicant's marital/family status. When I interviewed people, I did not ask about family. I did not look favorably upon candidates that volunteered this information that I considered inappropriate. When asked as a candidate, I would say that everyone was excited about the possibility, and sometimes I would say that the "everyone" consisted of a mix of four-legged species.

Isn't equal opportunity about hiring the candidate and not their spouse/kids/mother?

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