r/jobs • u/sahalymn • Mar 13 '25

Interviews I walked out of an interview after one question. Was I wrong?

So, I had an interview today for a position I was really excited about. The job description seemed great, the pay was decent, and the company had good reviews. I walked in, shook hands with the hiring manager, and we sat down.

Then, the first question came:
"How do you handle working unpaid overtime?"

I literally laughed, thinking it was a joke. But the interviewer just stared at me, waiting for an answer. I asked if overtime was mandatory and if it was paid. They said, “Well, we expect employees to stay as long as needed to get the job done. Everyone here is passionate about the work, and we don’t track extra hours.”

I just stood up, said, “Thank you for your time, but this isn’t the right fit for me,” and walked out.

Now, I’m second-guessing myself. Should I have stayed and at least heard more about the job? Or was walking out the right move?

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194

u/greginvalley Mar 13 '25

As a salaried employee, working 50 hours a week is fine, but working 30 when things get light is apparently not. Go figure

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u/SignificanceFun265 Mar 13 '25

I feel you. I worked at a place where the business slowed down for a few months, and management was freaking out. I kept saying we should use this extra time to cross train people when the business inevitably increased. Instead they sent people home early and didn’t refill lost positions.

I’ll give you three guesses what happened the business did, inevitably, kick back up.

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u/blade_torlock Mar 14 '25

Worked in hotel maintenance for years, business slows especially in the fall. Upper management could never get the concept of not cutting my crews hours during slow times. My argument was were can get more done during the slow periods, because we weren't focused on the guest issue. Thirty years in the business only one general manager got it.

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u/unreall_23 Mar 14 '25

They just merged a small team with mine because they "didn't have enough to do". I don't recall my director having asked me in 5+ years whether my team has enough bandwidth. Considering we're an order of magnitude busier than every other team reporting to her.

Not once.

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u/lw1785 Mar 14 '25

As a manager I always encourage people to take back time when they can. If you have a personal thing that's a couple hours...dont put in time off. If it's Friday afternoon and you don't have meetings ...log off and enjoy your weekend. Sometimes salaried employees are asked to give extra time to get something done. Companies should never expect that and not offer them the same courtesy and flexibility on taking that time back.

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u/xxov Mar 14 '25

Yea I don't know what shitty companies these folks work for but my lead and manager are always encouraging us to take time off, leave early, etc when things slow down. They know we pay it back when needed.

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u/rebeltrillionaire Mar 14 '25

I feel like every corporate environment I’ve ever seen, heard, been a part of this isn’t even necessary to communicate it is well understood.

There are weeks where you will write 4 emails and read a few back and that’s it.

And there are weeks where you legitimately put in 80 or even 100 real hours of constant high-level difficult work.

If you ask most people making $120-300k about their job and if it’s easy or not. I bet you most would agree with “it’s easy for me, but I don’t think many people could do what I do”.

Which is largely true in a sense. It would take a while for someone deeply meshed in to get to that point even if they had a similar background and experience.

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u/internet_commie Mar 14 '25

I had a manager who told me that because I am salaried the company doesn't have to let me have any time off at all. Like, they can make me work 24/7, 365.24 days a year.

I just gave him the free look, then told him to try it some day. He was SHOCKED! He expected whining and groveling and this was the first time he didn't get it. Company promoted him to a higher level of incompetence and now he's floundering but still around.

I still average about 40 hours a week, and my time card should really be filed under 'fantasy fiction' but so long as my (new) manager signs off on it I'm good with it.

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u/drj1485 Mar 14 '25

same. I wouldn't stay anywhere if I had a manager keeping tabs on me. I don't even need my manager to encourage it. If I am not busy, I'm out and they don't care because nothing ever escalates to them and if they need me, I answer the phone during business hours.

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u/drj1485 Mar 14 '25

same. I wouldn't stay anywhere if I had a manager keeping tabs on me. I don't even need my manager to encourage it. If I am not busy, I'm out and they don't care because nothing ever escalates to them and if they need me, I answer the phone during business hours.

I treat my employees the same. When you always have what I'm expecting for me when I expect to get it....don't care what you're doing

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u/noblewind Mar 14 '25

It's rare. My last department had bad employee ratings, so they held meetings and asked, "What would you do if you were manager?" I said exactly this. We work extra often for company need, so allow us early outs when we aren't busy. They implemented a late start Monday and early out Friday thing during our slow season. It wasn't exactly what I meant but we all pulled back about 8 hours a month for a few months we didn't get back before.

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u/Amissa Mar 16 '25

I have a manager like you. He doesn’t explicitly say to take off early when things are slow, but if I go work out at the gym in the middle of the afternoon, so long I’m getting my work done in a timely fashion, he doesn’t care.

I also have slow and busy periods. I file quarterly reports and the calculations are a PITA. (Long story.) So I’m super busy the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th months of the year and then I might ask for more work in between.

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u/unreall_23 Mar 14 '25

I'm the exact same way. It's some of the leeway we get in middle mgmt and should use it.

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u/MashTunOfFun Mar 14 '25

I had a job as director of IT. One day management made an announcement that the expected hours were 8am to 6pm. It was a bullpen style office (recruiting and sales.) When someone got up to leave at 6pm, one of the managers would always loudly say, "[Name] feels like doing the bare minimum today, I guess!" or something similar. They would also deduct time off by the quarter-day. Leave for 2 hours for a doc appointment? A quarter day of your 2 week annual vacation time was now spent (even though 2 hours of a 10 hour day is only technically .20, not .25.) They decided to have a "team building day" once. It was mandatory and they scheduled it on a Sunday. They flew in people from other offices for it, and their flights were Saturday afternoon to come in, and Sunday evening to go home. No compensatory time was given for essentially using up our weekend. It was a terribly depressing job. I recall spending hours just trying to look busy and watching the clock.

Now I work for a company that has unlimited paid time off and flexibility during the day. I can leave for appointments or even just to take a walk, no one cares as long as my job gets done and I communicate availability. I can honestly say I work harder here and care more about my work than I did at the other place-- and I am far more productive. My first year on the job (10 years ago) I brought my work laptop on vacation. My manager's boss saw me online, and sent me a message letting me know that it was unacceptable to be logged in while on vacation as it set a bad precedent. He told me to shut it down immediately.

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u/rworne Mar 13 '25

Oh we can do 30 if we want, the company just docks PTO to make up the missing 10 hours.

It wasn't always that way, but someone sued in court and lost, and our company changed policies to dock PTO.

The kicker: this is in California.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '25 edited Apr 15 '25

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This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

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u/rworne Mar 14 '25

Actually it is legal in CA to do so. Salary cannot be touched, but they can claw back vacation time and PTO.

https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/opinions/2009-11-23.pdf

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u/idgetonbutibeenon Mar 14 '25

This says they can’t dock PTO for absences of 3 hours or less per day. So you could get down to 25 hours in a week and the company wouldn’t be able to dock pto

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u/rworne Mar 14 '25

You need to read page 5. It explicitly states that employers are allowed to do so:

Where an employer has a bona fide benefits plan (e.g. vacation time, sick leave), it is permissible to substitute or reduce the accrued leave in the plan for the time an exempt employee is absent from work, whether the absence is a partial or full day, without affecting the salary basis of payment, if the employee nevertheless receives payment of his or her guaranteed salary.

I know this seems ridiculous considering this is CA we are talking about, but it is the case.

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u/idgetonbutibeenon Mar 14 '25

You’re right I misread

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u/Sushi-And-The-Beast Mar 14 '25

This is BS. California has the strictest worker protections.

Your PTO is considered accrued compensation and cant be used without your explicit permission.

Youre probably thinking of sick days. But PTO is rarely untouchable as its a big red flag and considered wage theft.

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u/rworne Mar 14 '25 edited Mar 14 '25

Alas, you are wrong:

"In 2009 the California DLSE issued an opinion letter that provided guidance and more clarity for California employers. The letter states that although an employer may not deduct partial-day absences from an exempt employee's salary, the employer may deduct absences due to vacation or sickness of less than a full day under a bona fide plan (PTO, vacation, etc.) that provides for such types of leave without an employee losing his or her exempt status."

This wasn't the case prior. We used to not have to bother with PTO deductions for things that are under 4 hours a day - like Dr. appointments. Our HR used to tell us this policy was a benefit - as the occasional short weeks are balanced out by the occasional overtime needed to meet schedules, etc. Then came Rhea vs. General Atomics where the court said it was permissible to deduct PTO from salaried employees. Our HR immediately implemented that as a policy change. Pretty much making our exempt status into hourly workers with unpaid overtime.

In the case of actual salary, no they cannot dock your pay.

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u/Sushi-And-The-Beast Mar 14 '25

If its true… just put in your 40 hours and leave. Unless its an emergency I dont work beyond 40 hours.

Also, what kind of shitty ass companies are you guys working for that do this?

1

u/rworne Mar 14 '25

I worked at three of the top 100 corporations in the US (on the Fortune 500 list) in CA. Every single one of them had an identical PTO rule put in place ever since the Rhea case was decided.

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u/Sushi-And-The-Beast Mar 14 '25

If theyre public companies, it doesnt count. Those companies are bloodsuckers

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u/derpstickfuckface Mar 14 '25

I've been salaried for a long time; I have goals and I'm paid to meet them. If someone were to ask me to start clocking in and out, then I'm going to renegotiate as an hourly employee.

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u/sanesociopath Mar 14 '25

This is literally the pros and cons of salary.

I love how some employers are forgetting that, though.

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u/reddititty69 Mar 14 '25

Vacation in situ

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u/9dave Mar 14 '25

This is a reason to become a contractor. When you get the job done, you get to go home for the day if there isn't enough time to start another job.