Spousal Interview?

Looking at this IT Position at a Financial Company and one of the steps is an interview with your spouse?
Is this standard in the corporate world?

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TechGromit

I can't say I heard of this before, but from a quick google, it doesn't appear to be legal. They are not even suppose to ask your marital status until after your hired and HR needs to know for benefits. I'd let them know upfront this isn't OK, and if they decline to interview you, I'd contact there HR department and tell them about this. If you wanted to, you could document all these requirements, go through with the process and if you don't get the job, have your lawyer contact them about the discrimination lawsuit your planning to file unless they settle.

Daneil3144

It's not a secret. Just so you know I'm not making it up. The name of the company is Ramsey Solutions. They mention it on their blog and its mentioned numerous times on Glassdoor..

Phalanx

Tell them you're single. End of story. When it comes to HR after, tell them you magically got married between the interview and starting the job.

In all seriousness though, where the hell do these companies get off? Jesus, UK law would have a field day with this.

cyberguypr

Subscribing becasue I'm intrigued. I know that some executive roles invite significant others to dinner as part of the interview process but calling it a "spousal interview" up front sounds plain weird. One of those things I would say "Nope, thanks".

markulous

Unless it's for clearance, that makes no sense. I would tell them they are not interviewing my wife and if they have a problem with it then I'm just moving on.

scaredoftests

for a secret/tsi clearance..but I never heard of such a thing besides that. Wow

TechGromit

Daneil3144 wrote: »

It's not a secret. Just so you know I'm not making it up. The name of the company is Ramsey Solutions. They mention it on their blog and its mentioned numerous times on Glassdoor..

All I can say is WOW, this company is a discrimination lawyers dream.

From Glassdoor:

Cons
Management can claim too much control over your personal life (no opposite sex roommates, etc)

Cons
On the same day they wear a mini skirt, they will call you into their office to tell you that "men are visual creatures, and your clothes fit you too well. you should go up a size."

Cons
They watch your social media and dictate what you can and can't post. You have to travel in groups of three—groups of two of the opposite sex are "illegal" on campus.

Interview Questions
If you made it to the spousal interview, you're basically in.

Interview
… then a few more which can even include a "spousal" interview. The reason for the interview process is to make sure that the candidate and the employer share the same belief system.
(Heavy Christian oriented organization)

Interview
Spousal supper interview
Prayer
Up front about there Christian values and beliefs
(ie if you’re not a Christian, you chances of getting hired are zip, I would like to see what would happen if you showed up to the spouse interview with your homosexual partner)

TechGromit

My big question is WHY would you want to work there, The hiring process aside, if you read past the obvious planted glowing glassdoor reviews, this place sounds like hell on earth, low pay, lousy benefits, koolaid corporate culture.

mgeoffriau

It's a Christian organization. I can't imagine exactly how those hiring/HR practices are legal, given current labor laws, but it's not surprising.

For those who didn't make the connection yet:

Ramsey Solutions = Dave Ramsey (radio financial advisor)

cyberguypr

Ahhh, say no more. This is all making sense now.

markulous

Yikes. Seeing that stuff from glassdoor makes it a pretty easy decision I think to move on here.

LordQarlyn

I would not say no to that.

I would say a BIG HELL N-O! It's bad enough that companies are increasingly trying to control employees' off work life as it is. (Yeah I get it we are not supposed to act in a way that reflects badly on our employer but outside of that what I do in my free time is none of my employer's business).

Daneil3144

Based on some of his readings - could be looking to see if my wife is subordinate enough or if my wife is actually a man.

Fulcrum45

My wife and I are Christian but we drink and swear too much to ever pass a spousal interview.

gespenstern

Religious folks. I give them a pass because of that, they expect their employees to be saints, so it makes sense to interview a spouse.

UnixGuy

LOL just LOL

Daneil3144

For those that don't know

https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/6-steps-to-a-good-hire

Personal Budget

Each candidate at Dave’s company sends in their personal budget during the interview process to ensure they can support their family on what we’re paying for that position. You don’t want to hurt someone’s family by allowing them to take a position they can’t afford. Besides, broke and desperate people do not make good team members.

cyberguypr

This just keeps getting better by the minute.

Ertaz

Mr. Ramsey's financial advice is pretty sound. I think his hiring practices are a bit intrusive...

UnixGuy

I just did some wikipedia search:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Ramsey
[h=2]Controversy/COLOR][URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dave_Ramsey&action=edit&section=10&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro"]edit[/URL][COLOR=#54595D[/h]According to interviews with nearly two dozen current and former employees of his Nashville-based Ramsey Solutions, Mr. Ramsey has engaged in what they describe as an increasingly paranoid campaign to identify and silence several critics—mostly former employees—who have appeared on Facebook and Twitter. Bizarre episodes allegedly involving online spying, gag orders, random firings, and offers of large cash bounties for information have created a climate of fear inside the Lampo headquarters, intensifying a discomfort many employees have felt the past several years with Ramsey’s management.

Basic85

This is definitely not in the US as the employer can get into legal trouble for asking such a question. I find it quite odd and probably wouldn't want to work for such company but that's just me.

EANx

I wouldn't blame anyone for not wanting to work at a place like this, I wouldn't either, but I'd suggest that it's important not to express a legal opinion in an area you aren't trained in legally. In the U.S., while age, gender and disability are what's known as a "protected status", marital status is not. The EEOC provides waivers against some employment regulations for religious entities that otherwise affect every other company.

markulous

Something not being protected still would look pretty bad on a company and could result in a civil suit. If someone like Wal-Mart refused to hire someone because they are homosexual, they would probably win a huge settlement.

EANx

I'm going to say it again, if you have no legal experience, you probably shouldn't be expressing legal opinions that others can take action on.

markulous wrote: »

Something not being protected still would look pretty bad on a company and could result in a civil suit. If someone like Wal-Mart refused to hire someone because they are homosexual, they would probably win a huge settlement.

"Looking bad" is not a valid reason for an award to be granted. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act makes no mention of sexual orientation or gender identity but the EEOC does look favorably on people discriminated against based on orientation. But huge awards? Hardly. The average award is under $10,000. But that would be Walmart, not a religious organization.

LeBroke

Tell them to talk to the hand... I mean, interview your hand.

TechGromit

EANx wrote: »

The EEOC provides waivers against some employment regulations for religious entities that otherwise affect every other company.

Not sure how this business could be considered a "religious entity", after all it's business is financial education, NOT preaching the gospel of any religious denomination.

I like the line from "6 Steps to a Good Hire", "Most companies don’t do any of these things.", probably because they most of them are illegal.

EANx wrote: »

But huge awards? Hardly. The average award is under $10,000. But that would be Walmart, not a religious organization.

I wouldn't be so sure, the biggest EEOC settlement ever was 250 million dollars and the ten highest was over 50 million dollars, given the company has a number of blatantly obvious discrimination issues, a large class action lawsuit settlement or award isn't out of the realm of possibility. A good legal team could argue that a slap on the wrist isn't going to make this employer change there ways, only a multi-million dollar will.

beads

And we only eat at Chick-fil-e on Saturdays after our weekly trip to Hobby Lobby for crafting supplies.

This sounds like an invitation to a Title 7 complaint if I have ever read. My first thought was you need to interview with your spouse - on the opposite end of the desk? I mean I have worked with my wife for many years while she was HR but by no means did she screen me before being hired.

Weird doesn't begin to describe how wrong this sounds.

- b/eads

volfkhat

Bwahahaha!!!

what a great thread :]

Obviously, you can NOT work there.

BUT, you Should TOTALLY t.r.o.l.l them.

Tell them its "no problem at all" for the spousal interview;

but inform them that you will need to interview their spouse prior to accepting any job-offer.

:]

EANx

TechGromit wrote: »

Not sure how this business could be considered a "religious entity", after all it's business is financial education, NOT preaching the gospel of any religious denomination.

I like the line from "6 Steps to a Good Hire", "Most companies don’t do any of these things.", probably because they most of them are illegal.

I wouldn't be so sure, the biggest EEOC settlement ever was 250 million dollars and the ten highest was over 50 million dollars, given the company has a number of blatantly obvious discrimination issues, a large class action lawsuit settlement or award isn't out of the realm of possibility. A good legal team could argue that a slap on the wrist isn't going to make this employer change there ways, only a multi-million dollar will.

The largest is a highly unlikely outlier. What is more likely are the thousands they work on each year, for instance "EEOC resolved a total of 1,135 LGBT charges in FY 2015, including through voluntary agreements providing approximately $3.3 million in monetary relief". So for 2015, the average over 1000+ successful cases was an award of under $3k. Source: https://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/wysk/enforcement_protections_lgbt_workers.cfm

Mdaud

Its laughable situation. I never heard such thing in my entire life.