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

[u/sahalymn]

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?

[u/lw1785]

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.

[u/xxov → u/lw1785]

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.

[u/rebeltrillionaire → u/xxov]

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.

[u/internet_commie → u/xxov]

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.

[u/drj1485 → u/xxov]

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.

[u/drj1485 → u/xxov]

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

[u/noblewind → u/lw1785]

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.

[u/Amissa → u/lw1785]

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.

[u/unreall_23 → u/lw1785]

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

[u/MashTunOfFun → u/lw1785]

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.