People are sharing red flags to look out for at job interviews – 21 employers to run a mile from

‘We are a family!! Excellent… so I can expect toxic dynamic guilt trips when I try to leave and somebody stealing my lunch from the fridge… sign me up.’
–freya_pinnacle

‘”The job description isn’t fully complete yet”

“We need someone who is really flexible in this role”

“We offer great benefits that basically pay for the difference in hourly rate” (They do this to convince you paying you less is fine because your benefits are dollars in your pocket, which it is not).’
–HokayeZeZ

‘AI interviewer. Probably a ghost job.’
–Lopsided-Anteater129

‘Trust your gut. If you’ve got an unshakeable screaming feeling in your chest that something is off, it’s not your anxiety. You’re not self-sabotaging. Don’t question it, it’s off. Don’t take the job if you are offered.’
–k8nd_4

‘“We like to move fast” turned out to be a red flag in my last job. I thought it would be a good thing. In reality, it means doing a lot of work with too little people, cutting corners while everything is on fire. But yeah, we’re going fast.’
–Decent_Taro_2358

‘The interviewer being late to the interview.’
–ayohesaidit

‘”We always help each other out” = we’re severely understaffed and your workload is going to double.’
–glasstube-snowman6

‘
“We’re looking for a self starter.”

What it really means is that they don’t have any documentation or resources to help train you to be effective at the role that they’re offering you. Then when you don’t perform, they can lowball you on raises or not give you one entirely.

How do I know this? I work for a tech company and manage software engineers. I’m constantly being hounded by my superiors at our parent company to either push for AI automation, increase responsibilities, or “rework” our existing product documentation (make it more difficult to access) so that they can justify not giving my engineers raises. I’m told not to train new hires because it isn’t “cost effective”. My job as a leader/manager is to make my direct reports lives and jobs easier. Not the opposite.

There’s a lot of things I don’t understand about Gen Z, but I genuinely respect how they’re calling corporations out, holding employers accountable, and putting themselves first.’
–VikingRodeo9

‘Group interviews. I’ve hired plenty of people and I promise I’d never want to seriously evaluate a bunch of people at the same time.’
–Imnotyoursupervisor

‘”We work hard, we play hard.”

Translation: you work hard, we have the occasional pizza on Fridays.’
–MeltingDog

‘I ask every employee I encounter how long they have been with the company. Everyone less than a year… red flag. Everyone over 20 years… red flag. I also ask my potential manager what is the one thing that you wish your team would do differently to reach the department goals. Everyone loves to bitch about work. Gives you insight.’
–mrythern68

‘Don’t discuss your pay with anyone else.

We did at my last job, found out a girl was being paid 12 dollars less than another girl who was hired at the same time with the exact same responsibilities. Always discuss it, they’ll try to secretly short you.’
–Cat_DownTheStreet69