Alabama's Morning News with JT
Maya Ratcliff read a survey about some Gen Z people are bringing parents to interviews
(upbeat music) (speaking in foreign language) (laughing) - This is just a layer, I don't know whether to laugh, cry or you're gonna be kidding me here. But apparently a new survey now asking Gen Zers, yes young people, do you ever take your mom or dad to the job interview with you and apparently now? Yes, over 25% have done this. Joining us now a workplace expert, Maya Radcliffe is here. Maya, welcome in, thank you for being here. - Absolutely, thank you for having me. - So seriously, I mean, I was just talking to my boss here a minute ago. Could you imagine somebody coming in here and going, hi, my name's Mary Beth, a pleasure to meet you. I'm looking forward to interviewing you for the job. This is my mom, her name is Betty. She'll be with us in the interview. I gotta tell you, I'm going through with the interview just for the sake of you gotta be kidding me. I can't wait to see where this goes 'cause I'll have a nice story to tell later. But immediately upon that, I'm tearing up the resume. Or maybe I'm hiring mom instead. I mean, what's going on here? - Well, it's natural for us to want to support and nurture our children. But certain lines should not be crossed. And what we're seeing is parents writing the resumes, applying for the jobs, doing the cover letters. And oftentimes, showing up for the interview. - Look, okay, I get mom, dad, can I get some advice before I go into this thing? You guys have been through this process. What are your tips, do's and don't any suggestions for us? Or maybe after the interview, well, here's how it went, and here's what happened. You know, some advice maybe on the next interview if you don't think you did well. But what should be the reaction from the interviewer, the bosses that are bringing this person in for the job if they bring a parent? - Well, I think the natural reaction is shock. But of course, in the workplace, we have to be diplomatic. So give you an example, one of the things that happened to me is I had an interviewee and mother come in, I invited the interviewee into my office, mother sat in the other room, mother continued to text message, the interviewee being tire time, giving them points to say, nope, not kidding. Needless to say, we did not move forward with that hire. And really, who are we hiring, the child or the parent? - I would be like, hey, nice, thanks for stopping by, young lady. We appreciate you. But can you excuse us now and send your mom in? 'Cause she's got some pretty good responses on your phone there. And I'd like to talk to her about coming to work for us here. I don't, do you say anything to the employee, you know, the potential employee, the interviewee? Hey, look, listen, let's stop the interview for the job here because clearly it's not gonna happen with you. But let me give you some advice, okay? Do you take him to school on it? I think friendly advice is warranted in this situation. You know, just explaining to them that when a parent interferes in their professional life, it doesn't bode well. Not only in the interview process, but further on. You know, somebody that's hired that needs extra attention, that's this squeaky wheel, that doesn't take any accountability, it's just not gonna be a good fit for any team. - You know, a lot of times people do, you mentioned team. A lot of teams or, you know, video conferencing is done for job interviews because a lot of people are hiring people to work remotely, maybe in a different city or a different state and they do the interview process, you know, via a Zoom. And then mom or dad might not be on camera, but clearly somebody's in the room advising this, you know, person throughout the entire interview. How distracting, first of all, but is there any benefit for the employer or the employee to have somebody come in and say, well, listen, you know, they are gonna be involved, they're kind of my agent, if you will, to go through this process with me to, you know, make sure I'm thinking of everything and salaries are right and, you know, vacations and discussion points are made. Is that more acceptable than I'm actually sitting there going through the process with them? - You know, if you want to consult with your parent after the fact, that's fine, but showing a lack of independence in an interview, whether it be on screen or in person, doesn't bode well for your future as an employee. - Yeah, amen. I think that's the bottom line. You got to be able to stand on your own two feet and if you have an agent that wants to discuss things, you know, unless you're a professional baseball player and NFL, sorry, we're not dealing with an agent. You know, unless you're to that level, I'm sure Ryan Seacrest has, you know, attorneys and agents when they're negotiating contracts with him. But, you know, if somebody's coming in in on an entry level position of Gen Z or and bringing somebody like that, yeah, you know, get your stats in order before, you know, salary, benefits, vacations, what I need to go through here and then do it. I'm with you on that one. My Radcliffe, thank you so much. I appreciate your insight on this one.