Internet commenters were immediately skeptical of one employer’s motives after a prospective employee detailed the line of questioning they received about a short gap in their resume during a recent job interview.
In a viral tweet, Twitter user @sarahbellumPA said they were asked about a 17 day period in which they were unemployed last year.
“I just got asked to explain a gap in my resume from September 17 to October 4,” @sarahbellumPA tweeted.
“Like I don’t know I was just breathing for a quick second,” she added.
Posted yesterday, on March 24, the tweet has received nearly 13,000 retweets and has been liked more than 284,500 times.
For many employers, gaps in a prospective employee’s work history can be a major red flag.
In an interview with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), ResumeGo CEO and co-founder Peter Yang said that gaps in employment can be indicative of work habits that hiring companies usually try to avoid.
“Those with gaps in their work history run the risk of being seen as lazy or unfocused with their careers, and not as an in-demand asset in the eyes of potential employers,” Yang told the SHRM.
However, despite data which shows that prospective employees with gaps in employment are 45 percent less likely to even receive an initial job interview, employers making decisions solely based on workless windows can miss out on great candidates.
Laura Mazzullo, owner of New York City-based recruitment firm East Side Staffing, said that applicants with gaps in their resumes are not entirely defined by times when they were unemployed.
“Making assumptions without first asking questions and gathering information could lead to bad hiring decisions,” Mazzullo told SHRM. “Do we know for sure that this person is disloyal? Do we know for sure that they are unable to hold a job for long? No, we don’t.”
Many Twitter users responding to the viral tweet posted by @sarahbellumPA echoed this sentiment, and remained adamant that a prospective employee’s workplace abilities should weigh more heavily than gaps in their employment history.
“I never understood that question,” Twitter user @exceptionalfood wrote, in a tweet that has been liked nearly 2,000 times.
“They only need to determine if you are qualified and a good fit for the advertised position,” they continued. “Who cares if you took a break sometime in your past?”
In a separate response, which has been liked more than 16,000 times, Twitter user @BlindGrigori said questions about employment history are designed to enforce lopsided power dynamics.
“I spent two weeks in interviews answering invasive and irrelevant questions designed purely to create power differentials in a predatory system predicated on the denial of my worth,” they tweeted.
“Like this one,” they added, referencing the original tweet.
Twitter user @TriageNurseMD, whose response has been liked more than 3,200 times, said they try to make employers uncomfortable when answering questions about employment gaps.
“I am unabashedly annoying about explaining my 4 month gap in employment,” they tweeted. “I work to make them feel bad for asking.”
Adding to many of the top responses to @sarahbellumPA, Redditors responding to a repost of the viral tweet (in a Reddit thread boasting more than 36,000 votes) speculated that certain questions from employers are intended to gauge an applicant’s ability to survive financially without a job.
“[Do] you think employers ask about gaps because they are wondering if you have the financial ability to just up and leave?,” one Redditor asked, in a comment that has received more than 2,000 votes.
“In other words: ‘I am concerned that you are not living paycheck to paycheck and if you have enough savings to just quit one day then you aren’t trapped here, and this is a risk for us’,” they added, taking on the perspective of an employer.
“I genuinely believe it’s this,” another Redditor responded. “Really it’s the only way (apart from the soft pull credit check) to try and estimate how much of a nest egg you have in your accounts.”
Source: Newsweek
