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Talking about depression in a job interview
Posted Wednesday 2 May 2012
Hi! I’m Steve. I’m 33, from Nottingham and a chronic depression sufferer for 17 years.
I have been unemployed for just over six weeks. The stress of this is beginning to take its toll. I have been applying for anything and everything with no avail.
So you can imagine my excitement when I received a call from a company who told me they had seen my CV online and the Managing Director wanted me to come in for an interview. I hadn’t even applied for a job there – I had been head hunted!
On the day of the interview I was very nervous. I just wanted to make a good impression.
I arrived 30 minutes early so I could think out my ‘strategy’. I was given an application form to fill in which I started to do. The questions were all pretty standard. No problems there. One question asked if I had any physical or mental health issues which could affect my performance.
I disclosed my depression, as I normally do. It doesn’t usually affect my performance at work but sometimes it can. If I want people to support me during these times, they are going to have to know, right?
I finished completing my application form and waited to be called in by the manager. It wasn’t long before I was sitting in his office, waiting to give the interview of my life.
The interviewer welcomed me, pleasantries were exchanged and then the interview began in earnest. I was asked all kinds of questions about my experience and achievements throughout my working life and I tried to give clear, concise answers. From his body language, I felt that the interview was going well.
Then the interviewer mentioned my depression.
He asked me how long I have had it. Then he said the one thing that I truly wasn’t expecting: “So then, when are you planning on snapping out of it?”
Have you ever been so shocked that you feel your eyebrows lift so high they almost jump off your head?
I was totally thrown. I just wanted to leave. But I didn’t want him to know he’d got to me. I remained as calm as I could and let the interview come to a natural end. I thanked him for his time and left the office.
On my way home I called the company and requested they withdraw my application. They asked why and I explained what had happened and how it made me feel.
How am I expected to get on with my life and manage my disability when ignorant people stigmatise me and people like me?
One thing is for sure – I’m better off unemployed than working in that environment.
My quest for employment continues....
Steve
Update:
I am pleased to say that last week I attended an interview at a company in Nottinghamshire and I got it! I start on 1 May.
Wish me luck!
If you are applying for a job your prospective employer is not allowed to ask questions about your health until a job offer has been made. Pauline, from our legal team, blogs about disclosing your mental health to an employer.
If you’re worried about how your employers will react, please contact us for advice.
16 Comments
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Well Steve I think you need to give yourself a great decal of credit;
1 Seeking work
2 Acting with such restrain and dignity in the face of such an ill informed person
3 and telling them why you didn't want the joband the general public think people with depression have no fight or back bone !.
Well done Steve -
Hey Steve I really admire your honesty and the professional conduct you showed.
If they act like that then they don't deserve you anyway. I was honest about my depression and sadly I got sacked as my NHS colleagues found me/my illness threatening ! Not sure if I'll talk about my depression with my next employer. If the NHS can't cope who can !?!?!Rob
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Excellent blog, Steve, and you're right to expose this kind of discrimination and ignorance, and you've handled it in the best possible way.
All the best with your hunt for employment.
Paul
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Hi Steve
The employer obviously doesn't understand depression as one can't simply snap out of it. You did well keeping your calm and for withdrawing your application, and for telling them why.
I wish you all the best for the future.
Elizabeth
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How you were spoken to in that interview is reprehensible, Steve. In my view, it was proper and right for you to have disclosed your depression, and you should have been afforded the same respect as anyone - perhaps even more for having the courage to admit to something so (unfairly) societally stigmatised. Sadly, though, I think I might be a tad idealistic on this point :(
Much fair play to you for your determination in seeking work, and many congratulations on your new job :) I wish you every success for it, and for the future in general.
Best regards
Karen
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Congrats on your job Steve - I hope it goes really well. i am in shock about what your interviewer told you. Can you take this further - i mean legally? Its disgusting... Good luck with this new stage of your life :-)
Hannah -
Congrats on your job Steve - I hope it goes really well. i am in shock about what your interviewer told you. Can you take this further - i mean legally? Its disgusting... Good luck with this new stage of your life :-)
Hannah -
:) :) Well done steve x
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Good read Steve,
As everyone has stated above, Well done for having the great strength to:
- plough on with the job hunting, especially after this happened.
- keep calm in such an uncomfortable situation and
- do the right thing in reporting this diabolical behaviour
Hope the new job is going well.
Lucy -
Wow..
In US you would have a ground for a lawsuit. Those kind of questions are illegal to ask here during job interview. -
Hey Steve, having known you for many years now I can only say that he was an idiot and it was definitely the company's loss. I'm so proud of how you have coped with job hunting as I know it hasn't been easy for you. Wishing you all the best in your new job x
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Thank you everyone for your kind remarks.
I feel very humble.
Feel free to follow me on twitter @stevieorchips
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what you did was great however - the Jobcentre could have stopped your benefits on grounds of withdrawing your application if you had not found a job and the companies who make millions out of allegedly getting people into work would tell people to not disclose
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@mindreader - I told the Jobcentre Plus what happened and they supported my decision to withdraw my application.
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amazed to hear that given all the evidence of how they are deliberately seeking to sanction - but glad they did support you
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I admire your honesty but to get even a slim chance of employment you
have to bend the truth to the point of lying. I hate to be negative but we live
in a society that is hugely manipulated by the media.
In the past I have have been honest thinking anti descrimination laws would help me, but employers find ways around it easily by saying the level of applicants was very high.
Anyway keep your chin up and keep looking. all the best.
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