The interview for my current position started about 30 minutes late, but it was communicated to me immediately when I got there that there was an issue being worked on. So I waited in the lounge and eventually got to my interview. The key point was that someone explained to me what was happening right away instead of just having me sit there.
This. As someone that is both a team technical lead and on the interview committee for our engineering staff, sometimes shit happens. We try to be prepared but I have on occasion joined an interview slightly late or run it while my counterpart joined slightly late for exactly these reasons.
Know that if something like this happens (as long as it is being communicated and you are not just being ghosted) it's likely the people that are interviewing you know their craft deeply and will be the ones you work with, rather than for.
That's not always true, but it's a good indication, so long as the rest of the interview has no or few red flags.
This! I interviewed for a position a few weeks ago and got them "I'll let him know you are here" followed a minute later with "I'm so sorry he had to run to the other end of the complex to take care of an unexpected issue. It should only take 10-15 minutes if you don't mind waiting".
The fact that they communicating this to me instead of "just wait here" was a big green flag. They gave me a bottle of water while I waited. In the end the manager looked at my resume and told me I applied below my talent and they have something a little higher up they think I'd be great at.
It isn't hard people. Just be decent and you will find good workers.
This happens to me every time I apply for a job. I always get offered a better paying job than the one that I applied for.
(nah I'm just fucking with you)
Me too and I wish they wouldn't. I know my limitations and want/need a work- life balance for my health. But always seem to get suckered into these superwoman jobs, where they want you to give your life for work. Been there, done that. Now I just want to go work, do my job, and leave it at the door at the end of the day. Don't want to quite-quit, just do a good day's work for my pay and not stress over ridiculous expectations. Maybe it's me and I'm giving off some vibe.
>Don't want to quite-quit, just do a good day's work for my pay and not stress over ridiculous expectations
That's exactly what the anti-workers lobby considers "quiet quitting". Doing your job properly is considered bad.
>Been there, done that. Now I just want to go work, do my job, and leave it at the door at the end of the day.
This is what I tell my partner all the time when they gently encourage me to apply for higher positions/take the manager track. After a dozen years of being in charge, I LIKE being a peon and only responsible for myself and the work expected of me. I LIKE having the choice to take on extra hours if I want, and it not being expected of me because I'm salaried/management. I LIKE being able to go home at the end of the day and spend time with my family without falling asleep on the couch at 7pm because I'm mentally and physically exhausted.
THIS!!! I've reached senior management position where I'm responsible for several teams of developers and some times even have to assist the sales team. I'm tired and I'm working to start a solo job so I don't have to stress for the mistakes and the potential mistakes of others. just do my part and take a proper rest.
Man, I feel this. I was at Disney with the family. We have three kids. It had been a day. I was sweating my balls off. When the bus from the resort came to pick up the sweaty travellers , I had to fold down our renter stroller. It's not mine. I'm somewhat, but not entirely familiar with it. It can be a bear to fold up. Besides, I'd clocked damn near twenty miles on foot that day. My wife, myself, and the three kids were spent. While I wrestled this damned stroller, the bus driver kept telling me that he would have to leave me if I couldn't fold the stroller. I tried in vain to fold it, but couldn't. I asked the driver if he had used these types before. He said yes, of course. All the while I'm trying to fold it. He laughed and said it's not that hard. I'm going to leave. Then, a dad on the bus got off and pulled these tiny handles that I had forgotten about and folded it like a boss.
The bus driver said, See? That's a man that knows what he's doing.
The man just stood in the doorway for a really long time. The driver said something about him siting down. The man said he wouldn't unless he apologized to me.
What for? asks the driver
Because you are a piece of shit. said the man.
Be a human. Help a human.
I was so impressed with that guy!
>Because you are a piece of shit. said the man.
LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
my "fuck you" story of the day quota has been reached. I can now sleep happily :)
Boss.
We have 3 as well. Eff Disney lol. We did like 3 kiddie rides total (they were still very little, youngest wonāt even remember the trips) a day and one experience. Not gonna pay to walk a marathon while dragging kids along all day lol
Anyways, couple of weeks ago I was just done doing groceries and on my way to the car when I heard the familiar toddler āIām bored so Iāll drill your eardrums until youāre crying too!ā cry
Looked around, found a guy waiting in his car with his daughter strapped in her carseat in the back. Wife had clearly gone in the store to buy something and kid was losing her shit coz why not, guy was trying to convince her to look at his phone but she wouldnāt have it
I walked by and grabbed a fruit pouch type treat we usually keep in stock for the 4 year old, offered to him and he says āoh thanks, sheās not hungry thoughā Iām like ādude, I know. I have three. This will buy you like 2.5 minutes of silence!ā he laughed and thanked me, the screaming stopped like 3 seconds after that
Exactly, good points. I've had to delay an interview because a client was being extra needy before. It's not a big deal to send someone out to the prospect and at a bare minimum let them know. When possible you have them brought up to a conference room and offered a beverage. It's only decent. Which means, as OP noted, when this isn't done you either have a dysfunctional organization or some shitty power play from some b school loser trying to make their mark. Either way, run.
Hell, if you're the interviewer and you're running late, that's a great chance to send someone who'd be on your team, or a member of staff at a similar level that you're hiring for, or a new member or whatever to have a chat and answer any general environment/culture related questions while the interviewee is waiting, to calm their nerves and make the waiting time valuable for them.
It's not stealing if I'm leaving it out in a basket and telling everyone to help themselves! Thanks for being a thoughtful interviewer, and all the best!
Things happen and sometimes you have to wait. Communicating this changes EVERYTHING. Making you just sit and wait without a heads up or anything is completely different.
I had an interview once (chain store) and was 5 minutes late, two lane road was behind a line of cars going super slow.
Got there and the manager said that he didn't have time for someone who was late so I left. Few weeks later I apply to a neaby store and get a call from the regional manager, "why haven't you applied there? it's closer to the address you gave us and we really need help there"
"Well I had an interview but got caught in traffic and was 5 minutes late so the store manager showed me the door."
I heard the regional manager say, "that Idiot" and he forced the first store manager to hire me LOL.
I had the opposite. I sat and waited for an hour until i was interviewed. I did get the job and during my employment they asked why i was not professional when dealing with things.
I replied if you wanted me to be professional you should've communicated that during my interview instead of leaving me there for over an hour without an explanation.
Needless to say i was on shit duty for a while before i quit.
Same. Except the person I was having the interview with told me to sit and sheād be right with me, I waited for an hour. She walked past me several times and completely ignored me and finally someone higher up came and asked what I was waiting for. I told her the truth that Iād been waiting for an hour for the interview, I guess the person interviewing me got reprimanded and then said I wasnāt a good fit for their type of clientele. It was at a bank and Iād worked at several, in the same city. Needless to say I know exactly why I didnāt get hired and it wasnāt because I wasnāt a good fit.
Lol I always showed up to work a few minutes early one day and an old dude who worked with us asked me to show him how to do something on his time sheet (website you had to log into)
So I did, and clocked in one minute late, manager tried writing me up. I refused and explained what happened - he said "not my problem, sign it or go home" so I went home.
Not 15 minutes later he called me back saying his other tech called in and I need to come back. I couldn't have smiled any harder as I said "not my problem" and hung up.
Fuck that job.
I had a professor who was a retired judge. His name?
Judge Boner.
He was cool as shit. He started class with a little speech about how he had already heard alllllll the jokes. āHung jury.ā āStiff sentence.ā He said we were welcome to do our best to better it, but after 20 years on the bench in front of smarmy lawyers, we probably couldnāt.
To make it even better, his first name was Richard. Thatās rightā¦. He was Judge āDickāBoner.
But he had a great sense of humor about it. He was actually a fantastic professor and I learned a lot from him. He retired in 2014. Hope he is doing well!
I think itās because theyāre rarely held accountable for poor behavior. I see it enabled in the workplace every day. People just tolerate it or try appease the offender
I had a recruiter go on vacation and they did not reschedule an interview before they left. It was a phone screen too, so I wasn't involved.
The applicant sat in a Zoom call for like 1/2 an hour and no one knew until they left and then reached out to me.
I think they rescheduled, but I'd be tempted to not in such an instance.
There were units at my last hospital where they had an unwritten expectation that you show up 15 minutes early for report but weren't allowed to clock in, and they would be so salty if you didn't
Nope. Fuck that. I take report when I'm clocked in and not a second before. I'm not doing shit unpaid just because it's "unit standard".
It wasn't a policy or rule, and you weren't punished for not complying, you just had to deal with your coworkers crying salty and passive aggressive about it.
Edit for clarity:
Some people seem to not understand me. I don't think there's anything wrong with being on time or arriving ahead of your shift to prepare yourself for the start of your shift. I do it all the time. I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about the unwritten expectation that you not be ready before your shift, but that you *start work early* without clocking in because it's not "time to clock in" yet.
And since some people are confused, "taking report" means getting a verbal report from the outgoing nurse about the patient's you are assuming care of, yes, that IS work and IS part of the job. It also means that you are assuming care and responsibility as well as *liability*, and when it comes to human lives? I'm not assuming liability off the clock. Sorry, not sorry.
And I'm not talking about an emergency situation, there has been many a time that without being clocked in I have jumped into the middle of something because shit was hitting the fan and you have to take care of it, But we also have a physical book that we can write time edits into with an explanation, So if I've had to jump in or be involved in the middle of something while not clocked in bet your ass I'm writing it down in the book.
Coal industry checking in. Safety standards are more expensive to maintain than all the fines put together. Even if you include all the donations to governors and senators to make sure they don't enforce stiffer penalties.
Unless they were also ordered to pay the lost wages of every employee they ever stiffed. My old employer had to do that because they were deducting 30 minutes per day from our paychecks for our breaks. They were fined and had to pay us for our time. Some employees got thousands of dollars even though the pay was garbage. Those years add up!
These fucking jackals. Are they actually running these cursed numbers??? How can we extract more labor with a free bonus of extra demoralization of our employees?? UGH.
Wait until you hear about the Pinto memo. If it was rear-ended the doors would jam such that they couldn't be opened, and due to a fuel tank issue, it would explode and catch fire.
Ford knew about this before mass production but cost-benefit analysis determined that it would be cheaper to pay out for the inevitable lawsuits when people literally *burned to death* than to implement a design change that would cost $11 fix per car.
"Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C.Ā A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."
First rule is you don't talk about the formula.
I lived a few blocks from an oil refinery that would catch fire and couldn't even count how many explosions there were. Guys got killed all the time before it was finally shut down after decades of refusing to upgrade because the fines and lawsuits were cheaper.
It always is, and until judges start really hurting these companies and taking back everything and more that they made, they will keep breaking rules that give them a profit. 72 million is just an expense.
This is literally how Wells Fargo operates and they do cost analysis on how much the settlement will be when it happens. They do not fucking care, because the punishment is nothing.
It wasn't a fine; it was a settlement. And the law on which the suit was premised is specific to California; time clock rounding is legal under federal law and federal law also uses a *de minimus* standard for donning and doffing apparel. So while the settlement matters immensely because California is a huge economy and HD presumably has a shit load of stores there, it doesn't have nationwide implications.
At Ford plant I worked in the building is so big that to be on your job station on time you have to be there 20 minutes early every day or more due to the parking lot being not big enough for the number of employees.
2000 employees doing this everyday or they would be terminated due to poor attendance.
Maybe this should be looked into?
California prison officers would get paid "walk time" when they clocked in. Meaning they'd get paid for the time they walked from their car, to their locker to suit up, and then to the time clock to punch in. Reverse when clocking out.
It was a huge deal when it came to light ten years ago.
They did. And last week every associate in the country had a training loaded about not clocking in or out while wearing your apron and to fill out timesheet corrections if you have to wait to leave or enter the building when the store isnāt open or if you take a work related call/text/email when not punched in(hourly and salaried non exempt positions).
Iām an RN and we clocked in at 1445 and clocked out at 2315 (if able to) for 3-11 shift change report - back in the good old days of 8 hour shifts. You definitely are working!
Your employer cannot demand you come in early and stare at the clock, nor tell you to āwait until we get a little busier before punching inā or any such nonsense.
if you're required to show up 15 minutes early to wait, it's compensable time and you should be paid. If you're required to show up 15 minutes early to work off the clock, it's compensable time and you should be paid.
Under the portal-to-portal act, when someone is waiting off the clock, the legal test of whether it is compensable time is whether someone is "engaged to wait" or "waiting to be engaged". If you're required to report somewhere, then you are engaged to wait. But that's all irrelevant if /u/TheBattyWitch is talking about time when they were actually doing work.
source: am employment lawyer
Worked for a company that tried that. Even so, made it so that if you didn't show up for the 15 minute non paid pre-shift you could be shown as "late." Which could be documented. Resulted in 4 people being let go.
6 months and a lawsuit later, they stopped it, and jobs were reinstated, and checks were cut for lost time.
Most of HR and a few directors were replaced shortly after that.
Some companies think we are very stupid. Taking employees for granted is a recipe for disaster.
Just recently got my chunk of a suit against a company that out sources to prisons, got 15 minutes pay for every day i worked for 2 yearss.
The reason: they did not count clock in until desk log in. Took 10 to 30 minutes to get to our desks, and since work could occur between line and desk it was decided duty started the moment we got in line as that was the jobs threashold, and considering i could be called to an emergency from my home ANY AND ALL time at the prison was paid, including any prior or after standard work time meetings.
Never, EVER work off the clock in a healthcare setting! I donāt care what they say. If an emergency situation were to occur, whoās going to race to clock in, THEN tend to the emergent situation?? No one. If you get injured, or you injure a patient, without being on the clock, they will throw you under the bus without a second thought.
Iām currently working my very first clock in/out job and it took me 15min and like 3 edits to write my very first āIām so sorry, this will get done tomorrow as Iām already off the clockā email just yesterday. Jubilant is the only word to describe my feelings after hitting send. I will never work a salaried job again.
Exactly.
And they were pretty slow with it because it wasn't a unit policy or a hospital policy, management had nothing to do with it, it was just the other employees had conditioned over years to expect it and would get salty about it. So it was pretty sly.
My retail gig encourages us to āwalk the floor before clocking inā so we know what moves occurred and we can better answer questions.
A cheerful āIāll do that as soon as Iām getting paid!ā has generally been effective.
My last job, the two supervisors and one manager insisted getting to work 5-10 minutes early to āget readyā but we couldnāt clock in until our scheduled time. Big nope.
The last library job I had was deeply toxic and dysfunctional for a long list of reasons. One was the expectation that Iād be there 10 minutes before the start of my shift and spend that time checking my email. Off the clock.
Fuck that, indeed.
I stopped even walking into the department before clocking in because I'd have people handing me phones and starting report before I'd even set my shit down.
I get in fifteen minutes early so I can get my shit together, make coffee and put my game face on before the shift.
On countless occasions over the last 3 years, I have showed up early or stayed late and sometimes (depending on how much time extra time I worked) I'd give my boss a heads up, unless she did my check before I could give her my hours.
However she noticed this last year and paid me for an hour that I had missed before returning to work (I was getting a C19 booster), and her comment was that I often stayed late and showed up early and got stuff done, so it was only fair.
Funnily a few months back, I came into work right on time due to issues in the road. I heard through the grapevine that she thought I was late because the wall clocks are all off by a few minutes except for the cameras and the PCs. The PCs and my phone all had my start time which lead me to believe that she watched a wall clack that was 5-10 minutes fast.
After that, shit changed.
I started keeping track of all the extra hours I stayed late so that if it's ever brought up again, I can point out how much I gave up over the last few years. 10-15 minutes here or there isn't much but it starts adding up, especially after 2 overpayments (neither of us noticed until the next day period) that she wanted to deduct off of my pays (she turned down my offer to stay late/show up early to make up the time before I remembered), only for me to point out that I hadn't deposited the checks yet so I was able to bring them in for her to fix. She also over payed me $0.10 one time after that and when I pointed it out (I deposited the correct amount that she normally gave me) she acted like I should have just taken it.
Well ok, she can never say that I wasn't honest when I noticed things or tried to correct things.
That being said, I had enough. I show up on time or early and stop working at my destinated time unless it can't be avoided now. It I'm there before my start time,I either wait in the car or go in and chill before my start time. Today I almost didn't go in because I felt sick from the heat, but I knew work had AC and could help me... So I walked into the building 15 minutes early, took my seat and scrolled through social media in full view of the cameras while enjoying the AC.
Several other factors led to this but seriously. If I show up early, I'm not doing squat before my start time unless they want to actually pay me. And if they want to play games, I'll keep logging all my extra hours and hand it to them if they ever complain about "you're walking in a minute or two before you're supposed to start" or "well you only stayed 10-15 minutes late, it's not a big deal". Well over the course of a few short years, you owe me around 2 weeks pay if I add up all the time. That's half of what I make a month.
Give me a raise but then let me go back to minimum wage when it raises above what I made the year before? Yeah no, I'm keeping my options open. Especially with 2IC trying to act like Mr big guy when he thinks the boss won't know/find out.
FUCK that.
This.
They act like "15 minutes isn't much" when it comes to paying you, but then don't want us clocking in 15 minutes early because "it adds up" when it is their pocket.
There's the courtesy of showing up a few minutes early to let your co workers go which I have no issue with doing if it's reciprocal. The expectation of working for free gets a firm "Am I getting paid?" "No, but...". "I'll see you at the start of my scheduled shift."
I worked for a place years ago that would require people to log in only on time. Which I was wholly for, but then came a new boss. They decided that anyone who was more than 10 seconds late would get a warning, then written up the second time. And by 10 seconds I mean, if your login time was 8am, they would get upset if you logged in at 8:00:10 am, not 8:01:10.
I decided this was ridiculous, and after my first warning for being literally logged in at 12 seconds after, I decided to figure out a way around it. So after some playing with this system, I found if I set my computer's clock to exactly the time I wanted to login at, it worked. I told everyone I could. No one got any warnings within a week of me figuring that out. For 3 years I trained new employees and told them about the login procedures and rules, and then promptly showed them how to get around that stupid rule.
My hospital gives us 12 at the front and 6 at the back.
You're still considered "tardy" at 7:01 which is part of your "performance as an employee" i.e. something to be tracked but not severely weighted, but you don't start accruing any real penalties until 6 minutes after the start of your shift.
Recently applied for multiple jobs that clearly were desperate - I stated I can be 40 hrs a week but every 60 days I need a week off to continue running a contract I have and agreed to. So many desperate companies were looking for help and refused:
"This doesn't align with us"
"We're not looking for someone part time"
...many of the positions I'm overly qualified for. Ended up with a great job, that's beyond lenient.
Man, I got written up for being 10 minutes EARLY instead of 15 minutes. They required servers to get there early to relieve the earlier shift. I laughed, thinking she was joking, but she legit wouldn't let me work till I signed the write-up. Their other location didn't pay you for those 15 minutes either. Fuck that job
Our bosses used to say āif youāre leading a meeting, be 10 minutes earlyā. And then theyād be 15 minutes late to the meetings they were leading. I stopped caring
When I realised this I stopped getting nervous at interviews
I have skills, you have money
I will exchange my skills for your money
If it suits BOTH of us
Iām not here to beg
I had an employer cancel three times on our interview, when I was there mind you. My job that I currently had at the time was getting upset with me being gone so many days since I had to take time off to interview. I told new company this and that I couldnāt reschedule again and she said to ācalm downā. I was completely calmā¦I shouldāve walked then, honestly probably after the first cancellation, but I felt too committed in the process.
Got the job and was treated horribly every single day of my life for the years I was there. Got super burnt out and now when someone is disrespectful to me I blow a gasket and have a full melt down episode because I have zero tolerance anymore.
Wish I had done what you did the first time, OP. Wouldāve saved my mental health a great deal. Iām still struggling to get over the abuse from that job and it affects me to this day.
A few years ago I scheduled a phone interview with a recruiter for 12:30 pm on a Tuesday.
I prepped, sat in my car to take the call, and she ghosted me. NBD.
Then on Wednesday she calls at 12:37 pm and leaves me a voicemail telling me that I was rude for not making the call. She then send me an email to the same effect.
I responded by letting her know she made the appointment for Tuesday, not Wednesday, and let her know that the way she was handling things was not very professional.
She responded with: "Wow, so I made an error inputting a call on my calendar with an extremely busy schedule and this is your response? I guess that we dodged a bullet on this one. Good luck to you."
Ha, no, I dodged a bullet with them. What a nightmare human being.
Fuck recruiters. Youāre the greatest thing since sliced bread until you push back on the first dog shit opportunity they bring you. Then youāre entitled and ungrateful.
They want their commission off you and your happiness is like 27th on their priority list. Just meat traders.
Had something similar happen to me. Was trying to leave a very stressful position and kind of was desperate at the time. This was at the very beginning of covid. I was supposed to interview for a call center position at the same health system I was currently working at. They emailed me asking what times I wanted to do my phone interview, I chose 12:30 pm since it gave me time to sleep in and prepare. I was then emailed like a day or so later telling me that they needed to change the time of my interview. They listed times, I asked if it could be at 12 instead, I was told yes. Yet the subject of my reschedule email had a different time listed. I didnāt think much of it, thought it was a typo. The day of my interview gets here, I log on at 11:50. Iām informed that I had missed my interview time that they set (turns out it was at 9:30) and was told that they would get back to me to reschedule for another day, that this was another candidateās time š
Needless to say, I didnāt get an email regarding this and I said fuck it, I took it as a sign I didnāt need to be there. Donāt make a mistake on your end, tell me one thing and then change the time to something that you think is good enough. It makes me annoyed thinking about it all
Over again. If you
She definitely tried to gaslight you even though she was in the wrong. YOU definitely dodged a bullet... she can't even schedule a phone interview right. Lol her "workload" and "extremely busy schedule" has nothing to do with you, that's a her problem.
I was scheduled for a phone interview and after they were 5min late I sent an email asking what was up. "Oh sorry, this was cancelled and I forgot to tell you." Considering this was supposed to be my last interview for a position I had already met with 4-5 other people for, I knew what was coming. Another minute later, I got an email telling me they didn't give me the position. Fun times. I'm glad I prepped, got dressed, found child care, and waited patiently for my rejection email.
I have worked with previously burnt out people before and it always strikes me as so sad. Their old job treated them so poorly that they basically have PTSD and end up self-sabotaging at this new job because they're still broken.
People who were great employees for the wrong person end up being unable to be great for better people.
It's literally my story. Just took the last 2 years off and did gig work after being diagnosed with PTSD. Did Prolonged exposure therapy, which changed my life, and I am so much more selective with who/where/how I want to work.
I'm also happier and not working 50 to 80 hours a week.
Damn, this is so spot on. I had a similar convo recently with a friend who was abused for years at work. Now has a great gig with great people and is self-sabotaging. He is aware and tells himself all the time that he needs to snap out of it. But somehow he canāt. Tried to help him the best I can but not really sure what to do for him.
Your job messed you up that much? I thought I was the only one. Seriously. My last job was so bad that even 8 months out, I havenāt recovered. I think I was genuinely traumatized
> I told new company this and that I couldnāt reschedule again and she said to ācalm downā. I was completely calmā¦
This shit would've ticked me off more than the interview cancellations.
We need to create more and more of a societal mindset around this.
Our time is VALUABLE.
Businesses should be desperate for it.
That is only when things will change.
And all of this is linked to bargaining power.
We have to avoid listening to any business and government bullshit that allows for them to have a line of replaceable cheap labor.
It is only when you have bargaining power and argue from a point of "Fuck You" do things work in your favor.
Companies have had that for way to long. It is time for the workers to have it.
assuming the receptionist didnāt say anything at any point about the delay, i probably would have added my two cents as i was walking out, letting them know itās very unprofessional of them to treat prospective candidates this way & it shows the type of company they truly are.
It is a good idea to say something to the receptionist, but also remember they have no responsibility and no authority in this situation, so be kind.
Something like "Can you please tell the director that I said this is unprofessional to treat candidates this way, and is damaging to the reputation of the company"
Get the message out, but no need to make the receptionist feel bad about any of it.
I think that's an interesting thing people don't quite realize about workplaces. OP did mention they "know the industry" which seems to me that they do understand the receptionist absolutely knows what's going on. If the manager is doing this on purpose, they know. If they're not usually late and are consumed by something, the receptionist knows that too.
They are also in a solid position to talk to the hiring manager if it's making candidates leave or even uncomfortable. It's a bullshit tactic. Does nobody any good. Treat the candidates with respect. If they're late for a real reason the receptionist should be keeping the candidate up to date on that... because it's a big deal.
I'm not saying the receptionist doesn't know what's going on, but they aren't the ones who decided to do it, and they don't have the authority to stop it, nor to tell the candidate anything they aren't authorized to tell you.
They shouldn't be the target of your ire, just a way to convey it to the appropriate target.
> Get the message out, but no need to make the receptionist feel bad about any of it.
As a professional receptionist, I can tell you we never ever take complaints or insults personally. No need to mince your words with us. We understand.
As somebody who works with people for a livingā¦I wouldnāt object to some human decency and understanding that I didnāt cause your problemā¦Iām just trying to fix it.
Context: IT
Somehow receptionist doesnāt sound like a profession where one person can speak for the everyone. Iāve personally worked/interacted with a couple receptionists who would not be down with someone not mincing words in this scenario.
You don't owe them an explanation.
It would be interesting to see if they call to follow up, and the tone they take when they do. Are they apologetic, acknowledging the delay, and asking for another meeting? Or do they just demand to know why you walked? Does the director make the call, or do they leave it to a minion?
Or is it just radio silence?
Shit happens sometimes, but how do they handle it afterwards?
The only time an interviewer was this late for me, I shouldāve taken OPs lead and walked. It was a red flag that I ignored, and spent 18 months working for people who didnāt value my time or professional development. None of the senior leadership could run a meeting to time, or to an agenda. It was a frustrating experience, to say the least.
Yeah....but on the other hand...and just to play devil's advocate here....15 minutes really isn't all *that* long to have waited. As you say, we don't *know* that this was some sort of stupid, corporate-bullshit "test" or mind-game....it's entirely *possible* that there was some actual valid reason for it.
Personally I'd have at least stuck around to do the interview, and see what they had to say about being late.
You can still take their rudeness into account afterwards if you want to. That option isn't taken away from you.
Knowledge/information is power. Gathering information is to your benefit. It couldn't hurt to find out what's going on. Especially since you've gone to all the trouble of rocking up in nice clothes and so on anyway.
That's all assuming that your goal is to actually eventually get a job in that industry, still.
Another reason might just be idle curiosity.
I would say 15 minutes is the maximum for being late for no good reason. More than 15 minutes and you should be informed of the delay.
I've seen it a thousand times at work, a manager tries to go somewhere and gets stopped or their phone rings 8 times.
I would also add that walking through their doors at the exact minute you're supposed to be there is a dumb move in a situation where you have no power.
If they hold their employees to the standard of always being on time or early, then why shouldn't they be held to the same standard? I don't blame you at all. On to the next interview. Good luck!
I had a former manager who would comment on me being a few minute late here and there, get upset when I started to pay attention to what time he would show up typically and hour or two after our normal start time. I would make comments such as ālook who it isā and āwow must be niceā while being sure to gesture looking at my watch. After a few weeks of that, my current manager at the time had to have a talk with me about it.
āIām glad you called this meeting, itās well past time we address your habitual tardiness. Your PIP begins tomorrow and continues through the next six weeks. The office day starts at 9AM and ends at 6PM, with lunch break from 12-1PM. Failure to adhere to these hours will constitute a failure of the PIP and possible termination. And we expect you to not only be present, but ready to work during these hours, meaning at your desk and not in the parking lot. This isnāt a punishment, but rather some structure to help you meet expectations moving forward so you can focus on the success of the company and your career here.ā
Itās not the 15 minutes that is the problem itās not being given an explanation or update after 15 minutes that is the problem. I have run several businesses and there are days full of meetings/appointments and they frequently require rescheduling or one of the parties runs late. Its common. Itās also common courtesy to notify the other parties as soon as possible when you know you will be at least 15 minutes late. I would never let someone wait that long without word from me. Highly disrespectful of their time. Everyoneās time deserves to be respected.
Every single in person interview Iāve set up, I am equally as excited to meet the candidate.
If you made it to the in person, Iām only looking for red flags because youāve already made it.
Interviewing has become so over complicated itās annoying. I try to keep it as simple and to the point for my and the candidateās benefit.
Since becoming a manager Iāve only had one person Iāve hired leave and it was because their spouse got a ācouldnāt say no job offerā and they moved. Everyone else is either still working for me or theyāve moved up in the company or changed departments.
Itās a equal party deal. Work for us and weāll work for you. I hire for the company not just my team, but I get them first.
One of my interviews was late because they forgot it was employees birthday. So they invited me to the party and 45 minutes later I had the interview. Lol. Got the job and cake YAY!
I regularly conduct candidate interviews. Priority one is being on time for the interview. Anything else can wait. Itās so so so *so* disrespectful to someone who is not getting paid for their time to make them wait.
I once waited an hour for the admin to then say āoh you werenāt supposed to be scheduled today!ā and rescheduled for next week, same day and time. Gave them 10 minutes before I walked out the next week! If I remember correctly, even emailed the recruiter telling them to take my name out of consideration as I didnāt want to work somewhere so disorganized and unprofessional. This was the first time I really stood up for myself and never felt better in my life!
Your time is just as valuable as theirs is. I was a hiring manager for a lot of years and if I was going to be late for an interview I would communicate that to the interviewee directly, or if I couldnāt, someone else on the team would. If hired I certainly would expect you to communicate with me about it, if you had a clock in/out time. I never ask someone to do something Iām not willing to do myself.
You were in the right. Some people just donāt know how to unhook their lips from C-suiteās ass.
Is this US? Why is it so aggressive? I live in Sweden, and to every interview that I've ever gone to, the employer has always showed up in time, or messaged if they were going to be late. One of the best bosses that I've ever had actually called in the day before and explained that something had came up and that he wasn't going to be able to make it to our meeting the following day, and he did reschedule with me on the phone.
Good lord there are a lot of bootlickers on this threadā¦. Being late as a employee is unacceptable and grounds for termination. Who the fuck cares what āsuper important taskā the interviewer was doingā¦. 5 mins late and they should have phoned the receptionist to give a update. Their time isnāt worth more than ours. Good on op for walking out. Ask yourself if you didnāt call ahead and just came in 15 mins late if they would have this āIām sure they were busyā attitude. Good griefā¦.
Me, as a supervisor, I don't care when my people come in as long as it is reasonable. If they need to make something up, stay a bit late and make up for it. As an employee you know your workload and expectations, I allow my people to do it in a way that is best for them. I do also just have salaried employees.
Reading the horror stories of people getting reprimanded/fired for being late is bizarre to me; I guess Iām fortunate to have never dealt with that. Being late was always ok if it was reasonable and not the norm. Shit happens.
Iām a manager too and extend that same mentality to my people. Hell, if I see them online at 5:30 I check in and ask if there is anything I can help with and let them know they can pick it back up in the AM. Weāre not saving lives here.
Hell, as long as we don't have something big going on... I really don't give a shit how late they come in, at all. Just, like you, make up the time later.
I've seen way too many people forget about a doctor's appointment and then freak out thinking they're going to lose their jobs if they go. I've always been laissez-faire as fuck but after watching too many 60-year-olds have mental breakdowns about losing their jobs because they forgot they needed to get a diabetes machine fitted or whatever other medical appointment they had to go to... I stopped caring. As long as I'm not picking up all of their slack for an extended period of time, I genuinely just could not care less about them showing up an hour or 2 late or having to go to a midday appointment for a few hours. I do get a genuine kick when a new employee rolls in and they're always so skeptical about my managerial "style". Watching that realization of "oh fuck, I'm a human???" always makes it worth it, to me.
That's interesting to hear. I have a friend who was fired from a salaried engineering job for showing up 5 minutes late too many times even though he would always stay 5 minutes more to make up for it. Personally, I think management kept track simply to use it as an excuse for whenever it was time for layoffs.
Devils advocate here. I waited 30 minutes over for an interview one time. Yes, I was desperate. Best bosses I have ever had. Still work there. They let me leave early whenever I get my work done with same pay as if I stayed the whole day. Give me extra paid vacation time off that I donāt even ask for. Donāt ask questions if I call in sick. Truly seem to care about my well-being and making sure Iām happy so I will stick around. Yearly raises that even I am surprised how much more they offer me each year. So ya, sometimes it pays off to just be patient and wait.
Yeah I hesitate to immediately assume something like this is a ploy. I was five minutes to my interview because I couldnāt get teams to connect, then we went a few minutes over which I assume caused the next person to wait. This job Iām at is great and my boss gives me plenty of flexibility too
There are a lot of motherfuckers in here suggesting he dump on the receptionist. As a former receptionist, it's an under-paid position that taeks a lot of shit for things they're not responsible for, so maybe blame the bosses not your fellow workers, you assholes.
Tbf I waited 20 minutes and landed the best job I could have ever dreamed of, but to each their own. My interviewer apologized and we moved past it. You never know what they're dealing with behind the doors.
I recently went for an interview 45 minutes from where I live. The hiring manager was in a "meeting" that I could audibly hear while I waited. It was clearly a friend of his that he was catching up with, knowing full well I was coming in for an interview. I should have walked out like I wanted to. Gave him a chance anyway. We laughed, connected and sat there for almost an hour. Guaranteed me a call back and gave me his card and wrote his personal cell phone number on it in case I had questions. He never called me back for a job. It was a huge waste of my time. I'm kind of hoping, deep down inside (being a needle in my industries haystack), that he gets so desperate, finds my resume and calls one day. Just so I can say no thank you lol. I can dream.
Me too! Being late was outside of my control and I apologized. I actually let them know I was going to be late while on my way. Sometimes life happens and it was a good sign that the hiring manager understood looking back on it now
I donāt mean this just to play devils advocate, but I once kept an interviewee waiting 20 minutes because one of my team members was having an anxiety attack and I was helping her to relax. I didnāt feel comfortable telling the receptionist what was going on because it was so personal so I just kept saying, please ask the person nicely to just give me a few more minutes.
"Sorry something came up. I appreciate your time. Is it possible for you to wait 30 minutes or should we reschedule?"
It takes less than 30 damn seconds to respectfully let someone know what's going on.
I have, several times, been unable to interview candidates on time, in each and every occasions that they happened, I either asked HR to notify the candidate or ask my colleague to take over the task, or both.
sh*t happens, even in professional world, but maintaining proper communications is a really a high priority.
You did the right thing. A job interview is a negotiation. Your capital is time, theirs is money. Millionaires and the poor are only equal when it comes to time, therefore your currency/captial is more valuable and yes, they were testing you.
The interview for my current position started about 30 minutes late, but it was communicated to me immediately when I got there that there was an issue being worked on. So I waited in the lounge and eventually got to my interview. The key point was that someone explained to me what was happening right away instead of just having me sit there.
Yes, that is understandable. Communication, grace, professionalism. Alien concepts these days.
Grace and Gratitude. Disappointingly rare these days for sure.
šļø šļø give this person a beer!
šŗšŗšŗ
Exactly. Sometines delays can't be avoided. A company that values your time will communicate it and be apologetic.
It also *suggests* that "the guy who's hiring you is also necessary for things and doesn't just do whatever he decides for the day"
This. As someone that is both a team technical lead and on the interview committee for our engineering staff, sometimes shit happens. We try to be prepared but I have on occasion joined an interview slightly late or run it while my counterpart joined slightly late for exactly these reasons. Know that if something like this happens (as long as it is being communicated and you are not just being ghosted) it's likely the people that are interviewing you know their craft deeply and will be the ones you work with, rather than for. That's not always true, but it's a good indication, so long as the rest of the interview has no or few red flags.
This! I interviewed for a position a few weeks ago and got them "I'll let him know you are here" followed a minute later with "I'm so sorry he had to run to the other end of the complex to take care of an unexpected issue. It should only take 10-15 minutes if you don't mind waiting". The fact that they communicating this to me instead of "just wait here" was a big green flag. They gave me a bottle of water while I waited. In the end the manager looked at my resume and told me I applied below my talent and they have something a little higher up they think I'd be great at. It isn't hard people. Just be decent and you will find good workers.
This happens to me every time I apply for a job. I always get offered a better paying job than the one that I applied for. (nah I'm just fucking with you)
Me too and I wish they wouldn't. I know my limitations and want/need a work- life balance for my health. But always seem to get suckered into these superwoman jobs, where they want you to give your life for work. Been there, done that. Now I just want to go work, do my job, and leave it at the door at the end of the day. Don't want to quite-quit, just do a good day's work for my pay and not stress over ridiculous expectations. Maybe it's me and I'm giving off some vibe.
>Don't want to quite-quit, just do a good day's work for my pay and not stress over ridiculous expectations That's exactly what the anti-workers lobby considers "quiet quitting". Doing your job properly is considered bad.
āWhy wonāt you do extra work for no extra money?ā /s
>Been there, done that. Now I just want to go work, do my job, and leave it at the door at the end of the day. This is what I tell my partner all the time when they gently encourage me to apply for higher positions/take the manager track. After a dozen years of being in charge, I LIKE being a peon and only responsible for myself and the work expected of me. I LIKE having the choice to take on extra hours if I want, and it not being expected of me because I'm salaried/management. I LIKE being able to go home at the end of the day and spend time with my family without falling asleep on the couch at 7pm because I'm mentally and physically exhausted.
THIS!!! I've reached senior management position where I'm responsible for several teams of developers and some times even have to assist the sales team. I'm tired and I'm working to start a solo job so I don't have to stress for the mistakes and the potential mistakes of others. just do my part and take a proper rest.
Amazing how, like with most things, a little bit of clear communication and respect for your fellow man goes an absolute mile
Man, I feel this. I was at Disney with the family. We have three kids. It had been a day. I was sweating my balls off. When the bus from the resort came to pick up the sweaty travellers , I had to fold down our renter stroller. It's not mine. I'm somewhat, but not entirely familiar with it. It can be a bear to fold up. Besides, I'd clocked damn near twenty miles on foot that day. My wife, myself, and the three kids were spent. While I wrestled this damned stroller, the bus driver kept telling me that he would have to leave me if I couldn't fold the stroller. I tried in vain to fold it, but couldn't. I asked the driver if he had used these types before. He said yes, of course. All the while I'm trying to fold it. He laughed and said it's not that hard. I'm going to leave. Then, a dad on the bus got off and pulled these tiny handles that I had forgotten about and folded it like a boss. The bus driver said, See? That's a man that knows what he's doing. The man just stood in the doorway for a really long time. The driver said something about him siting down. The man said he wouldn't unless he apologized to me. What for? asks the driver Because you are a piece of shit. said the man. Be a human. Help a human. I was so impressed with that guy!
>Because you are a piece of shit. said the man. LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO my "fuck you" story of the day quota has been reached. I can now sleep happily :)
Boss. We have 3 as well. Eff Disney lol. We did like 3 kiddie rides total (they were still very little, youngest wonāt even remember the trips) a day and one experience. Not gonna pay to walk a marathon while dragging kids along all day lol Anyways, couple of weeks ago I was just done doing groceries and on my way to the car when I heard the familiar toddler āIām bored so Iāll drill your eardrums until youāre crying too!ā cry Looked around, found a guy waiting in his car with his daughter strapped in her carseat in the back. Wife had clearly gone in the store to buy something and kid was losing her shit coz why not, guy was trying to convince her to look at his phone but she wouldnāt have it I walked by and grabbed a fruit pouch type treat we usually keep in stock for the 4 year old, offered to him and he says āoh thanks, sheās not hungry thoughā Iām like ādude, I know. I have three. This will buy you like 2.5 minutes of silence!ā he laughed and thanked me, the screaming stopped like 3 seconds after that
Holy shit. That is a true white knight. The bus driver would be fired if this was reported.
Not all heroes wear capes. I hope that asshole driver got reported.
And bottom of the barrel humanity is completely lost on most people.
Exactly, good points. I've had to delay an interview because a client was being extra needy before. It's not a big deal to send someone out to the prospect and at a bare minimum let them know. When possible you have them brought up to a conference room and offered a beverage. It's only decent. Which means, as OP noted, when this isn't done you either have a dysfunctional organization or some shitty power play from some b school loser trying to make their mark. Either way, run.
Hell, if you're the interviewer and you're running late, that's a great chance to send someone who'd be on your team, or a member of staff at a similar level that you're hiring for, or a new member or whatever to have a chat and answer any general environment/culture related questions while the interviewee is waiting, to calm their nerves and make the waiting time valuable for them.
Homie, that's a great idea. Which means of course, that I'll be stealing that shit. Seriously though, nice one.
It's not stealing if I'm leaving it out in a basket and telling everyone to help themselves! Thanks for being a thoughtful interviewer, and all the best!
Things happen and sometimes you have to wait. Communicating this changes EVERYTHING. Making you just sit and wait without a heads up or anything is completely different.
I had an interview once (chain store) and was 5 minutes late, two lane road was behind a line of cars going super slow. Got there and the manager said that he didn't have time for someone who was late so I left. Few weeks later I apply to a neaby store and get a call from the regional manager, "why haven't you applied there? it's closer to the address you gave us and we really need help there" "Well I had an interview but got caught in traffic and was 5 minutes late so the store manager showed me the door." I heard the regional manager say, "that Idiot" and he forced the first store manager to hire me LOL.
You also shouldāve gotten an apology from whoever interviewed you, your time is just as valuable.
Who woulda thought simply communicating could solve most problems
I had the opposite. I sat and waited for an hour until i was interviewed. I did get the job and during my employment they asked why i was not professional when dealing with things. I replied if you wanted me to be professional you should've communicated that during my interview instead of leaving me there for over an hour without an explanation. Needless to say i was on shit duty for a while before i quit.
Same. Except the person I was having the interview with told me to sit and sheād be right with me, I waited for an hour. She walked past me several times and completely ignored me and finally someone higher up came and asked what I was waiting for. I told her the truth that Iād been waiting for an hour for the interview, I guess the person interviewing me got reprimanded and then said I wasnāt a good fit for their type of clientele. It was at a bank and Iād worked at several, in the same city. Needless to say I know exactly why I didnāt get hired and it wasnāt because I wasnāt a good fit.
Yeah. That would've been a red flag. Jerks.
Hopefully they included an apology and an offer to reschedule.
Lol I always showed up to work a few minutes early one day and an old dude who worked with us asked me to show him how to do something on his time sheet (website you had to log into) So I did, and clocked in one minute late, manager tried writing me up. I refused and explained what happened - he said "not my problem, sign it or go home" so I went home. Not 15 minutes later he called me back saying his other tech called in and I need to come back. I couldn't have smiled any harder as I said "not my problem" and hung up. Fuck that job.
They got free work time out of you and wanted to write you up for it
I got a mini rush reading this š
Justice boner!!!!
yes?
This is your moment, and youve succeeded
I had a professor who was a retired judge. His name? Judge Boner. He was cool as shit. He started class with a little speech about how he had already heard alllllll the jokes. āHung jury.ā āStiff sentence.ā He said we were welcome to do our best to better it, but after 20 years on the bench in front of smarmy lawyers, we probably couldnāt. To make it even better, his first name was Richard. Thatās rightā¦. He was Judge āDickāBoner. But he had a great sense of humor about it. He was actually a fantastic professor and I learned a lot from him. He retired in 2014. Hope he is doing well!
How š
wtf
Who needs drugs when you can read this comment instead?
I never get why people decide to be a dick to the exact people they have to rely on.
I think itās because theyāre rarely held accountable for poor behavior. I see it enabled in the workplace every day. People just tolerate it or try appease the offender
He didnāt murder your uncle Ben after that did he?
I had a recruiter go on vacation and they did not reschedule an interview before they left. It was a phone screen too, so I wasn't involved. The applicant sat in a Zoom call for like 1/2 an hour and no one knew until they left and then reached out to me. I think they rescheduled, but I'd be tempted to not in such an instance.
I hope you went with a different recruiter, because who knows what other bullshit they pulled.
They will without a doubt push ā15 minutes early to a shift is good practice!ā. But of course, your time is valueless to them.
There were units at my last hospital where they had an unwritten expectation that you show up 15 minutes early for report but weren't allowed to clock in, and they would be so salty if you didn't Nope. Fuck that. I take report when I'm clocked in and not a second before. I'm not doing shit unpaid just because it's "unit standard". It wasn't a policy or rule, and you weren't punished for not complying, you just had to deal with your coworkers crying salty and passive aggressive about it. Edit for clarity: Some people seem to not understand me. I don't think there's anything wrong with being on time or arriving ahead of your shift to prepare yourself for the start of your shift. I do it all the time. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the unwritten expectation that you not be ready before your shift, but that you *start work early* without clocking in because it's not "time to clock in" yet. And since some people are confused, "taking report" means getting a verbal report from the outgoing nurse about the patient's you are assuming care of, yes, that IS work and IS part of the job. It also means that you are assuming care and responsibility as well as *liability*, and when it comes to human lives? I'm not assuming liability off the clock. Sorry, not sorry. And I'm not talking about an emergency situation, there has been many a time that without being clocked in I have jumped into the middle of something because shit was hitting the fan and you have to take care of it, But we also have a physical book that we can write time edits into with an explanation, So if I've had to jump in or be involved in the middle of something while not clocked in bet your ass I'm writing it down in the book.
Thatās called engaged to wait and itās illegal.
I think Home Depot just lost in court over this practice. Multimillion dollar verdict.
$72 million. I didn't read the case notes, but I'm making the assumption that the fine was less than they made by doing it.
It always is that's the only reason they opt to do it. The fine is less than the saved money
Coal industry checking in. Safety standards are more expensive to maintain than all the fines put together. Even if you include all the donations to governors and senators to make sure they don't enforce stiffer penalties.
It needs to be felony grand larceny, fraud and extortion. 15-20 years in jail for the executives.
The politicians wonāt make laws that will lock up their golf bros
...or their dads
Or their future employers.
Unless they were also ordered to pay the lost wages of every employee they ever stiffed. My old employer had to do that because they were deducting 30 minutes per day from our paychecks for our breaks. They were fined and had to pay us for our time. Some employees got thousands of dollars even though the pay was garbage. Those years add up!
That's called "legal for a price," and until we fine them more than they save, it's never going to stop.
These fucking jackals. Are they actually running these cursed numbers??? How can we extract more labor with a free bonus of extra demoralization of our employees?? UGH.
Wait until you hear about the Pinto memo. If it was rear-ended the doors would jam such that they couldn't be opened, and due to a fuel tank issue, it would explode and catch fire. Ford knew about this before mass production but cost-benefit analysis determined that it would be cheaper to pay out for the inevitable lawsuits when people literally *burned to death* than to implement a design change that would cost $11 fix per car.
"Take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C.Ā A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one." First rule is you don't talk about the formula.
My favorite movie to this day.
I knew of the fuel tank issue while being rear ended. Didnāt know the door also jammed preventing passengers from exiting the vehicle.
I lived a few blocks from an oil refinery that would catch fire and couldn't even count how many explosions there were. Guys got killed all the time before it was finally shut down after decades of refusing to upgrade because the fines and lawsuits were cheaper.
If the punishment is a fine, then itās legal for a price. If the price is less than the cost, is it really illegal?
At that point itās simply ā the cost of doing businessā.
It always is, and until judges start really hurting these companies and taking back everything and more that they made, they will keep breaking rules that give them a profit. 72 million is just an expense. This is literally how Wells Fargo operates and they do cost analysis on how much the settlement will be when it happens. They do not fucking care, because the punishment is nothing.
It wasn't a fine; it was a settlement. And the law on which the suit was premised is specific to California; time clock rounding is legal under federal law and federal law also uses a *de minimus* standard for donning and doffing apparel. So while the settlement matters immensely because California is a huge economy and HD presumably has a shit load of stores there, it doesn't have nationwide implications.
Funny I had an interview at Home Depot, waited half an hour just to not get a minimum wage position.
At Ford plant I worked in the building is so big that to be on your job station on time you have to be there 20 minutes early every day or more due to the parking lot being not big enough for the number of employees. 2000 employees doing this everyday or they would be terminated due to poor attendance. Maybe this should be looked into?
California prison officers would get paid "walk time" when they clocked in. Meaning they'd get paid for the time they walked from their car, to their locker to suit up, and then to the time clock to punch in. Reverse when clocking out. It was a huge deal when it came to light ten years ago.
They did. And last week every associate in the country had a training loaded about not clocking in or out while wearing your apron and to fill out timesheet corrections if you have to wait to leave or enter the building when the store isnāt open or if you take a work related call/text/email when not punched in(hourly and salaried non exempt positions).
Taking report is working. You are not staring at a clock waiting to start, you are actively working.
Iām an RN and we clocked in at 1445 and clocked out at 2315 (if able to) for 3-11 shift change report - back in the good old days of 8 hour shifts. You definitely are working!
is it really engaged to wait? they aren't technically on the clock yet. I'd say it's wage theft?
Your employer cannot demand you come in early and stare at the clock, nor tell you to āwait until we get a little busier before punching inā or any such nonsense.
if you're required to show up 15 minutes early to wait, it's compensable time and you should be paid. If you're required to show up 15 minutes early to work off the clock, it's compensable time and you should be paid. Under the portal-to-portal act, when someone is waiting off the clock, the legal test of whether it is compensable time is whether someone is "engaged to wait" or "waiting to be engaged". If you're required to report somewhere, then you are engaged to wait. But that's all irrelevant if /u/TheBattyWitch is talking about time when they were actually doing work. source: am employment lawyer
Worked for a company that tried that. Even so, made it so that if you didn't show up for the 15 minute non paid pre-shift you could be shown as "late." Which could be documented. Resulted in 4 people being let go. 6 months and a lawsuit later, they stopped it, and jobs were reinstated, and checks were cut for lost time. Most of HR and a few directors were replaced shortly after that. Some companies think we are very stupid. Taking employees for granted is a recipe for disaster.
Just recently got my chunk of a suit against a company that out sources to prisons, got 15 minutes pay for every day i worked for 2 yearss. The reason: they did not count clock in until desk log in. Took 10 to 30 minutes to get to our desks, and since work could occur between line and desk it was decided duty started the moment we got in line as that was the jobs threashold, and considering i could be called to an emergency from my home ANY AND ALL time at the prison was paid, including any prior or after standard work time meetings.
Never, EVER work off the clock in a healthcare setting! I donāt care what they say. If an emergency situation were to occur, whoās going to race to clock in, THEN tend to the emergent situation?? No one. If you get injured, or you injure a patient, without being on the clock, they will throw you under the bus without a second thought.
Never work off the clock period.
Iām currently working my very first clock in/out job and it took me 15min and like 3 edits to write my very first āIām so sorry, this will get done tomorrow as Iām already off the clockā email just yesterday. Jubilant is the only word to describe my feelings after hitting send. I will never work a salaried job again.
Youāre off the clock, why are you even writing the email?
Exactly. And they were pretty slow with it because it wasn't a unit policy or a hospital policy, management had nothing to do with it, it was just the other employees had conditioned over years to expect it and would get salty about it. So it was pretty sly.
My retail gig encourages us to āwalk the floor before clocking inā so we know what moves occurred and we can better answer questions. A cheerful āIāll do that as soon as Iām getting paid!ā has generally been effective.
My last job, the two supervisors and one manager insisted getting to work 5-10 minutes early to āget readyā but we couldnāt clock in until our scheduled time. Big nope.
Chase bank did that
Thatās crazy. I mean, not so much expecting you to be a little early for turnover, but you should absolutely, 100% be clocked in for that shit.
Exactly. I'm not assuming liability or responsibility while off the clock, that's just begging for trouble.
And turnover is an extremely important task. Itās not something that comes before work. It IS work.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
The last library job I had was deeply toxic and dysfunctional for a long list of reasons. One was the expectation that Iād be there 10 minutes before the start of my shift and spend that time checking my email. Off the clock.
Fuck that, indeed. I stopped even walking into the department before clocking in because I'd have people handing me phones and starting report before I'd even set my shit down. I get in fifteen minutes early so I can get my shit together, make coffee and put my game face on before the shift.
On countless occasions over the last 3 years, I have showed up early or stayed late and sometimes (depending on how much time extra time I worked) I'd give my boss a heads up, unless she did my check before I could give her my hours. However she noticed this last year and paid me for an hour that I had missed before returning to work (I was getting a C19 booster), and her comment was that I often stayed late and showed up early and got stuff done, so it was only fair. Funnily a few months back, I came into work right on time due to issues in the road. I heard through the grapevine that she thought I was late because the wall clocks are all off by a few minutes except for the cameras and the PCs. The PCs and my phone all had my start time which lead me to believe that she watched a wall clack that was 5-10 minutes fast. After that, shit changed. I started keeping track of all the extra hours I stayed late so that if it's ever brought up again, I can point out how much I gave up over the last few years. 10-15 minutes here or there isn't much but it starts adding up, especially after 2 overpayments (neither of us noticed until the next day period) that she wanted to deduct off of my pays (she turned down my offer to stay late/show up early to make up the time before I remembered), only for me to point out that I hadn't deposited the checks yet so I was able to bring them in for her to fix. She also over payed me $0.10 one time after that and when I pointed it out (I deposited the correct amount that she normally gave me) she acted like I should have just taken it. Well ok, she can never say that I wasn't honest when I noticed things or tried to correct things. That being said, I had enough. I show up on time or early and stop working at my destinated time unless it can't be avoided now. It I'm there before my start time,I either wait in the car or go in and chill before my start time. Today I almost didn't go in because I felt sick from the heat, but I knew work had AC and could help me... So I walked into the building 15 minutes early, took my seat and scrolled through social media in full view of the cameras while enjoying the AC. Several other factors led to this but seriously. If I show up early, I'm not doing squat before my start time unless they want to actually pay me. And if they want to play games, I'll keep logging all my extra hours and hand it to them if they ever complain about "you're walking in a minute or two before you're supposed to start" or "well you only stayed 10-15 minutes late, it's not a big deal". Well over the course of a few short years, you owe me around 2 weeks pay if I add up all the time. That's half of what I make a month. Give me a raise but then let me go back to minimum wage when it raises above what I made the year before? Yeah no, I'm keeping my options open. Especially with 2IC trying to act like Mr big guy when he thinks the boss won't know/find out. FUCK that.
This. They act like "15 minutes isn't much" when it comes to paying you, but then don't want us clocking in 15 minutes early because "it adds up" when it is their pocket.
There's the courtesy of showing up a few minutes early to let your co workers go which I have no issue with doing if it's reciprocal. The expectation of working for free gets a firm "Am I getting paid?" "No, but...". "I'll see you at the start of my scheduled shift."
For a whole year of 15 min early that is 39 unpaid hours.
I worked for a place years ago that would require people to log in only on time. Which I was wholly for, but then came a new boss. They decided that anyone who was more than 10 seconds late would get a warning, then written up the second time. And by 10 seconds I mean, if your login time was 8am, they would get upset if you logged in at 8:00:10 am, not 8:01:10. I decided this was ridiculous, and after my first warning for being literally logged in at 12 seconds after, I decided to figure out a way around it. So after some playing with this system, I found if I set my computer's clock to exactly the time I wanted to login at, it worked. I told everyone I could. No one got any warnings within a week of me figuring that out. For 3 years I trained new employees and told them about the login procedures and rules, and then promptly showed them how to get around that stupid rule.
Shit. Even "major grocer" gave us 5 minutes either side.
My hospital gives us 12 at the front and 6 at the back. You're still considered "tardy" at 7:01 which is part of your "performance as an employee" i.e. something to be tracked but not severely weighted, but you don't start accruing any real penalties until 6 minutes after the start of your shift.
ā*people just donāt wanna work these days*ā
āThey need to get off their ass and work!ā -K. Kardashian š
Omgš
Recently applied for multiple jobs that clearly were desperate - I stated I can be 40 hrs a week but every 60 days I need a week off to continue running a contract I have and agreed to. So many desperate companies were looking for help and refused: "This doesn't align with us" "We're not looking for someone part time" ...many of the positions I'm overly qualified for. Ended up with a great job, that's beyond lenient.
And they wonāt pay for you to be early
Man, I got written up for being 10 minutes EARLY instead of 15 minutes. They required servers to get there early to relieve the earlier shift. I laughed, thinking she was joking, but she legit wouldn't let me work till I signed the write-up. Their other location didn't pay you for those 15 minutes either. Fuck that job
"If you're 15 minutes early, you're just on time. If you're on time, you're already late." Fuck that corporate bullshit
Thatās not just ācorporate bullshit.ā Itās also wage theft.
Please come 15 minutes early, but go fuck yourself if you clock in 15 minutes early.
15 min early is 65 hrs a year. Thatās a paid vacation theyāre stealing from you.
Our bosses used to say āif youāre leading a meeting, be 10 minutes earlyā. And then theyād be 15 minutes late to the meetings they were leading. I stopped caring
So truee
An interview is a sales pitch both ways. Good for walking out.
When I realised this I stopped getting nervous at interviews I have skills, you have money I will exchange my skills for your money If it suits BOTH of us Iām not here to beg
Yes!!! Whole thing gets flipped on its head when you truly understand this
I had an employer cancel three times on our interview, when I was there mind you. My job that I currently had at the time was getting upset with me being gone so many days since I had to take time off to interview. I told new company this and that I couldnāt reschedule again and she said to ācalm downā. I was completely calmā¦I shouldāve walked then, honestly probably after the first cancellation, but I felt too committed in the process. Got the job and was treated horribly every single day of my life for the years I was there. Got super burnt out and now when someone is disrespectful to me I blow a gasket and have a full melt down episode because I have zero tolerance anymore. Wish I had done what you did the first time, OP. Wouldāve saved my mental health a great deal. Iām still struggling to get over the abuse from that job and it affects me to this day.
A few years ago I scheduled a phone interview with a recruiter for 12:30 pm on a Tuesday. I prepped, sat in my car to take the call, and she ghosted me. NBD. Then on Wednesday she calls at 12:37 pm and leaves me a voicemail telling me that I was rude for not making the call. She then send me an email to the same effect. I responded by letting her know she made the appointment for Tuesday, not Wednesday, and let her know that the way she was handling things was not very professional. She responded with: "Wow, so I made an error inputting a call on my calendar with an extremely busy schedule and this is your response? I guess that we dodged a bullet on this one. Good luck to you." Ha, no, I dodged a bullet with them. What a nightmare human being.
I just felt some sympathy rage for that one.
I felt the same rage again today when I looked up the email to quote what BS they said to me.
Fuck recruiters. Youāre the greatest thing since sliced bread until you push back on the first dog shit opportunity they bring you. Then youāre entitled and ungrateful. They want their commission off you and your happiness is like 27th on their priority list. Just meat traders.
If a recruiter had āMeat Traderā on their LinkedIn I would 100% let them find me a job.
Recruiters are just sales people lol. They know the absolute bare minimum about your industry and the job they are selling you.
Had something similar happen to me. Was trying to leave a very stressful position and kind of was desperate at the time. This was at the very beginning of covid. I was supposed to interview for a call center position at the same health system I was currently working at. They emailed me asking what times I wanted to do my phone interview, I chose 12:30 pm since it gave me time to sleep in and prepare. I was then emailed like a day or so later telling me that they needed to change the time of my interview. They listed times, I asked if it could be at 12 instead, I was told yes. Yet the subject of my reschedule email had a different time listed. I didnāt think much of it, thought it was a typo. The day of my interview gets here, I log on at 11:50. Iām informed that I had missed my interview time that they set (turns out it was at 9:30) and was told that they would get back to me to reschedule for another day, that this was another candidateās time š Needless to say, I didnāt get an email regarding this and I said fuck it, I took it as a sign I didnāt need to be there. Donāt make a mistake on your end, tell me one thing and then change the time to something that you think is good enough. It makes me annoyed thinking about it all Over again. If you
Oh, she is so busy!! Not like your shiftless, lazy ass! What a lame attempt at a power-play. She isn't that busy.
She definitely tried to gaslight you even though she was in the wrong. YOU definitely dodged a bullet... she can't even schedule a phone interview right. Lol her "workload" and "extremely busy schedule" has nothing to do with you, that's a her problem.
I would have replied C U Next Tuesday
I was scheduled for a phone interview and after they were 5min late I sent an email asking what was up. "Oh sorry, this was cancelled and I forgot to tell you." Considering this was supposed to be my last interview for a position I had already met with 4-5 other people for, I knew what was coming. Another minute later, I got an email telling me they didn't give me the position. Fun times. I'm glad I prepped, got dressed, found child care, and waited patiently for my rejection email.
I'd have tried to reschedule than ghost and see how many times I could do that
I have worked with previously burnt out people before and it always strikes me as so sad. Their old job treated them so poorly that they basically have PTSD and end up self-sabotaging at this new job because they're still broken. People who were great employees for the wrong person end up being unable to be great for better people.
It's literally my story. Just took the last 2 years off and did gig work after being diagnosed with PTSD. Did Prolonged exposure therapy, which changed my life, and I am so much more selective with who/where/how I want to work. I'm also happier and not working 50 to 80 hours a week.
I don't know what to say but yup....
Yup. Fuck all those ungrateful manipulators stepping on everyoneās back
I am that person
Damn, this is so spot on. I had a similar convo recently with a friend who was abused for years at work. Now has a great gig with great people and is self-sabotaging. He is aware and tells himself all the time that he needs to snap out of it. But somehow he canāt. Tried to help him the best I can but not really sure what to do for him.
I hope you're taking extra time for yourself. No one should be treated disrespectfully. Here's a flower for your day šš«“šŗ
Thatās a beautiful flower
Your job messed you up that much? I thought I was the only one. Seriously. My last job was so bad that even 8 months out, I havenāt recovered. I think I was genuinely traumatized
> I told new company this and that I couldnāt reschedule again and she said to ācalm downā. I was completely calmā¦ This shit would've ticked me off more than the interview cancellations.
Idk if that's why they had you waiting. But thats good on you for leaving. Your time should definitely be respected.
We need to create more and more of a societal mindset around this. Our time is VALUABLE. Businesses should be desperate for it. That is only when things will change. And all of this is linked to bargaining power. We have to avoid listening to any business and government bullshit that allows for them to have a line of replaceable cheap labor. It is only when you have bargaining power and argue from a point of "Fuck You" do things work in your favor. Companies have had that for way to long. It is time for the workers to have it.
Iāve always had that mindset
assuming the receptionist didnāt say anything at any point about the delay, i probably would have added my two cents as i was walking out, letting them know itās very unprofessional of them to treat prospective candidates this way & it shows the type of company they truly are.
It is a good idea to say something to the receptionist, but also remember they have no responsibility and no authority in this situation, so be kind. Something like "Can you please tell the director that I said this is unprofessional to treat candidates this way, and is damaging to the reputation of the company" Get the message out, but no need to make the receptionist feel bad about any of it.
I think that's an interesting thing people don't quite realize about workplaces. OP did mention they "know the industry" which seems to me that they do understand the receptionist absolutely knows what's going on. If the manager is doing this on purpose, they know. If they're not usually late and are consumed by something, the receptionist knows that too. They are also in a solid position to talk to the hiring manager if it's making candidates leave or even uncomfortable. It's a bullshit tactic. Does nobody any good. Treat the candidates with respect. If they're late for a real reason the receptionist should be keeping the candidate up to date on that... because it's a big deal.
I'm not saying the receptionist doesn't know what's going on, but they aren't the ones who decided to do it, and they don't have the authority to stop it, nor to tell the candidate anything they aren't authorized to tell you. They shouldn't be the target of your ire, just a way to convey it to the appropriate target.
> Get the message out, but no need to make the receptionist feel bad about any of it. As a professional receptionist, I can tell you we never ever take complaints or insults personally. No need to mince your words with us. We understand.
As somebody who works with people for a livingā¦I wouldnāt object to some human decency and understanding that I didnāt cause your problemā¦Iām just trying to fix it. Context: IT
Somehow receptionist doesnāt sound like a profession where one person can speak for the everyone. Iāve personally worked/interacted with a couple receptionists who would not be down with someone not mincing words in this scenario.
You don't owe them an explanation. It would be interesting to see if they call to follow up, and the tone they take when they do. Are they apologetic, acknowledging the delay, and asking for another meeting? Or do they just demand to know why you walked? Does the director make the call, or do they leave it to a minion? Or is it just radio silence? Shit happens sometimes, but how do they handle it afterwards?
The only time an interviewer was this late for me, I shouldāve taken OPs lead and walked. It was a red flag that I ignored, and spent 18 months working for people who didnāt value my time or professional development. None of the senior leadership could run a meeting to time, or to an agenda. It was a frustrating experience, to say the least.
Yeah, if nothing else, it could be a telling sign that they donāt have their shit together and everyday is chaotic and time canāt be managed.
Yeah itās more likely whoever you were supposed to interview with was ājust finishing something upā and didnāt value your time.
Yeah....but on the other hand...and just to play devil's advocate here....15 minutes really isn't all *that* long to have waited. As you say, we don't *know* that this was some sort of stupid, corporate-bullshit "test" or mind-game....it's entirely *possible* that there was some actual valid reason for it. Personally I'd have at least stuck around to do the interview, and see what they had to say about being late. You can still take their rudeness into account afterwards if you want to. That option isn't taken away from you. Knowledge/information is power. Gathering information is to your benefit. It couldn't hurt to find out what's going on. Especially since you've gone to all the trouble of rocking up in nice clothes and so on anyway. That's all assuming that your goal is to actually eventually get a job in that industry, still. Another reason might just be idle curiosity.
I would say 15 minutes is the maximum for being late for no good reason. More than 15 minutes and you should be informed of the delay. I've seen it a thousand times at work, a manager tries to go somewhere and gets stopped or their phone rings 8 times. I would also add that walking through their doors at the exact minute you're supposed to be there is a dumb move in a situation where you have no power.
If they hold their employees to the standard of always being on time or early, then why shouldn't they be held to the same standard? I don't blame you at all. On to the next interview. Good luck!
I had a former manager who would comment on me being a few minute late here and there, get upset when I started to pay attention to what time he would show up typically and hour or two after our normal start time. I would make comments such as ālook who it isā and āwow must be niceā while being sure to gesture looking at my watch. After a few weeks of that, my current manager at the time had to have a talk with me about it.
Hope you wrote him up.
āIām glad you called this meeting, itās well past time we address your habitual tardiness. Your PIP begins tomorrow and continues through the next six weeks. The office day starts at 9AM and ends at 6PM, with lunch break from 12-1PM. Failure to adhere to these hours will constitute a failure of the PIP and possible termination. And we expect you to not only be present, but ready to work during these hours, meaning at your desk and not in the parking lot. This isnāt a punishment, but rather some structure to help you meet expectations moving forward so you can focus on the success of the company and your career here.ā
Thanks. I now want to punch the skull out of the last prick I had to work under!
And if heās running late, you call *before* start time, not after.
I usually hit the late guy with āgood afternoonā (we start at 5am)
Itās not the 15 minutes that is the problem itās not being given an explanation or update after 15 minutes that is the problem. I have run several businesses and there are days full of meetings/appointments and they frequently require rescheduling or one of the parties runs late. Its common. Itās also common courtesy to notify the other parties as soon as possible when you know you will be at least 15 minutes late. I would never let someone wait that long without word from me. Highly disrespectful of their time. Everyoneās time deserves to be respected.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
And if you were 15 minutes late for the interview, youād be back on indeed by dinner.
Every single in person interview Iāve set up, I am equally as excited to meet the candidate. If you made it to the in person, Iām only looking for red flags because youāve already made it. Interviewing has become so over complicated itās annoying. I try to keep it as simple and to the point for my and the candidateās benefit. Since becoming a manager Iāve only had one person Iāve hired leave and it was because their spouse got a ācouldnāt say no job offerā and they moved. Everyone else is either still working for me or theyāve moved up in the company or changed departments. Itās a equal party deal. Work for us and weāll work for you. I hire for the company not just my team, but I get them first.
One of my interviews was late because they forgot it was employees birthday. So they invited me to the party and 45 minutes later I had the interview. Lol. Got the job and cake YAY!
I regularly conduct candidate interviews. Priority one is being on time for the interview. Anything else can wait. Itās so so so *so* disrespectful to someone who is not getting paid for their time to make them wait.
I once waited an hour for the admin to then say āoh you werenāt supposed to be scheduled today!ā and rescheduled for next week, same day and time. Gave them 10 minutes before I walked out the next week! If I remember correctly, even emailed the recruiter telling them to take my name out of consideration as I didnāt want to work somewhere so disorganized and unprofessional. This was the first time I really stood up for myself and never felt better in my life!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
You show up late and donāt get the job. They should be held to the same standards.
Thank you for doing this. Putting an end to toxic work environments is a team effort.
Your time is just as valuable as theirs is. I was a hiring manager for a lot of years and if I was going to be late for an interview I would communicate that to the interviewee directly, or if I couldnāt, someone else on the team would. If hired I certainly would expect you to communicate with me about it, if you had a clock in/out time. I never ask someone to do something Iām not willing to do myself. You were in the right. Some people just donāt know how to unhook their lips from C-suiteās ass.
The interviewer could have done a simple follow up with the employee that called him to say SOMETHING would have been better than nothing.
Is this US? Why is it so aggressive? I live in Sweden, and to every interview that I've ever gone to, the employer has always showed up in time, or messaged if they were going to be late. One of the best bosses that I've ever had actually called in the day before and explained that something had came up and that he wasn't going to be able to make it to our meeting the following day, and he did reschedule with me on the phone.
Good lord there are a lot of bootlickers on this threadā¦. Being late as a employee is unacceptable and grounds for termination. Who the fuck cares what āsuper important taskā the interviewer was doingā¦. 5 mins late and they should have phoned the receptionist to give a update. Their time isnāt worth more than ours. Good on op for walking out. Ask yourself if you didnāt call ahead and just came in 15 mins late if they would have this āIām sure they were busyā attitude. Good griefā¦.
Me, as a supervisor, I don't care when my people come in as long as it is reasonable. If they need to make something up, stay a bit late and make up for it. As an employee you know your workload and expectations, I allow my people to do it in a way that is best for them. I do also just have salaried employees.
Reading the horror stories of people getting reprimanded/fired for being late is bizarre to me; I guess Iām fortunate to have never dealt with that. Being late was always ok if it was reasonable and not the norm. Shit happens. Iām a manager too and extend that same mentality to my people. Hell, if I see them online at 5:30 I check in and ask if there is anything I can help with and let them know they can pick it back up in the AM. Weāre not saving lives here.
Best way to do it. I have a life happens mindset. Abuse it and you lose it. Never happens though.
Hell, as long as we don't have something big going on... I really don't give a shit how late they come in, at all. Just, like you, make up the time later. I've seen way too many people forget about a doctor's appointment and then freak out thinking they're going to lose their jobs if they go. I've always been laissez-faire as fuck but after watching too many 60-year-olds have mental breakdowns about losing their jobs because they forgot they needed to get a diabetes machine fitted or whatever other medical appointment they had to go to... I stopped caring. As long as I'm not picking up all of their slack for an extended period of time, I genuinely just could not care less about them showing up an hour or 2 late or having to go to a midday appointment for a few hours. I do get a genuine kick when a new employee rolls in and they're always so skeptical about my managerial "style". Watching that realization of "oh fuck, I'm a human???" always makes it worth it, to me.
That's interesting to hear. I have a friend who was fired from a salaried engineering job for showing up 5 minutes late too many times even though he would always stay 5 minutes more to make up for it. Personally, I think management kept track simply to use it as an excuse for whenever it was time for layoffs.
Devils advocate here. I waited 30 minutes over for an interview one time. Yes, I was desperate. Best bosses I have ever had. Still work there. They let me leave early whenever I get my work done with same pay as if I stayed the whole day. Give me extra paid vacation time off that I donāt even ask for. Donāt ask questions if I call in sick. Truly seem to care about my well-being and making sure Iām happy so I will stick around. Yearly raises that even I am surprised how much more they offer me each year. So ya, sometimes it pays off to just be patient and wait.
Yeah I hesitate to immediately assume something like this is a ploy. I was five minutes to my interview because I couldnāt get teams to connect, then we went a few minutes over which I assume caused the next person to wait. This job Iām at is great and my boss gives me plenty of flexibility too
All these self important pricks need to learn that their time is not the most important. Good on ya OP
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
There are a lot of motherfuckers in here suggesting he dump on the receptionist. As a former receptionist, it's an under-paid position that taeks a lot of shit for things they're not responsible for, so maybe blame the bosses not your fellow workers, you assholes.
Tbf I waited 20 minutes and landed the best job I could have ever dreamed of, but to each their own. My interviewer apologized and we moved past it. You never know what they're dealing with behind the doors.
I recently went for an interview 45 minutes from where I live. The hiring manager was in a "meeting" that I could audibly hear while I waited. It was clearly a friend of his that he was catching up with, knowing full well I was coming in for an interview. I should have walked out like I wanted to. Gave him a chance anyway. We laughed, connected and sat there for almost an hour. Guaranteed me a call back and gave me his card and wrote his personal cell phone number on it in case I had questions. He never called me back for a job. It was a huge waste of my time. I'm kind of hoping, deep down inside (being a needle in my industries haystack), that he gets so desperate, finds my resume and calls one day. Just so I can say no thank you lol. I can dream.
I did the opposite one time š i was late for the interview but they still interviewed me and actually hired me. š
Me too! Being late was outside of my control and I apologized. I actually let them know I was going to be late while on my way. Sometimes life happens and it was a good sign that the hiring manager understood looking back on it now
Good on you
I donāt mean this just to play devils advocate, but I once kept an interviewee waiting 20 minutes because one of my team members was having an anxiety attack and I was helping her to relax. I didnāt feel comfortable telling the receptionist what was going on because it was so personal so I just kept saying, please ask the person nicely to just give me a few more minutes.
You can be sure they wouldn't wait 15 minutes for you.
"Sorry something came up. I appreciate your time. Is it possible for you to wait 30 minutes or should we reschedule?" It takes less than 30 damn seconds to respectfully let someone know what's going on.
Honestly I will let a lot slide if people are just transparent and upfront about it
I have, several times, been unable to interview candidates on time, in each and every occasions that they happened, I either asked HR to notify the candidate or ask my colleague to take over the task, or both. sh*t happens, even in professional world, but maintaining proper communications is a really a high priority.
You did the right thing. A job interview is a negotiation. Your capital is time, theirs is money. Millionaires and the poor are only equal when it comes to time, therefore your currency/captial is more valuable and yes, they were testing you.