Woman Says Employers Demanding In-Person Interviews Is "Disrespectful" in Age of Zoom, Sparks Debate

TikToker Natalya Haddix went viral on the popular social media platform after delineating a "nightmare" job application experience that involved her having to go in-person for an initial interview where she could visibly see other folks vying for presumably the same job, along with the fact that she was asked to fill out a paper application, and that it offered a base salary she argued was way too low.

It's a sad fact of life, but salaries often do not keep up with the rate of inflation in the United States, and Americans may be feeling the effects of that now more than ever because America has hit its worst recession of the last 40 years. Couple that with the increased cost of products across the board due to global supply chain issues, a sharp increase in gas prices that are gradually going down, and the fact that buying a house was easier to accomplish during the Great Depression than it is now, leaving many folks really feeling that fiscal burn.

Natalya, who posts under the handle @natalyahaddix on TikTok, says in her viral clip, "I have never been so disrespected in my life. What I just experienced in this job interview like what I just went through...there's not a clearer way to tell people that you are interviewing that we don't give a s--- about our employees. We don't care about them."

Natalya then delineates her experience at the interview that she says demonstrates how the employer she applied to doesn't care about their workers: "I get a response from one company, Brand IQ in Miami Florida and they're like oh we liked your application we'd like to interview you can you come in for this interview?"

"I'm like, OK that's a little inconvenient for a first interview, maybe like a phone call a zoom call, you want me to drive 45 minutes all the way for a first interview. But, it's OK I'm gonna go. As I'm doing some more research I'm starting to see some red flags. First of all not the type of company I thought they were."

"Second of all, their mission, vision, brand, voice, values all of those, they're not there. Lastly, I see that the position is for marketing coordinator which is not an entry-level position, OK, this is a position that requires experience and they want to pay $36,00-$38,000 in Miami, Florida."

Youmoveme.com states that for an individual to live "comfortably" in Miami they would have to earn around $3,500 a month after taxes. Natalya continued, "I'm like shocked at this but I think like OK maybe something's wrong here, I'm just gonna go anyway and just find out what they're about. I walk up to their office, which isn't even an office, it's a little room with these two glass fishbowls like side by side."

"And there's like ten people sitting in this first like, little fishbowl and I'm like walking in, hi, I'm Natalya, I'm here for an interview. And this receptionist she like stands up and she's like oh hey I need you to fill this out. I'm like fill what out? Like you have my application and you have my resume I even brought a resume with me. Literally a paper application as if I were applying for I don't know a summer job or something."

"At this point I'm like yo I have not slaved away in my professional career to be applying for a job like this. Like what is going on? Then in the fishbowl right next to us there's this man like interviewing these people. Right in front of us. I can hear everything they're saying. I suddenly know things about these that I don't need to be knowing."

It was at this point that Natalya decided that she had seen and heard enough and decided to ask what was going on, "After my interview time slot has gone and passed and I'm still sitting there this guy comes in and he asks two other people to go with him. I'm still sitting and I'm like what am I doing here? Like so I ask the girl, what is this process? What is going on?"

"She literally looks at me and goes, 'This is an interview.' I said baby girl I know it's an interview and I am not here for it. I literally said thank you so much but I'm actually good and I got up and I walked out. Like if you wanna show people that you do not care about your employees that they are dispensable to you, literally just have an interview process like that.

TikTokers who say Natalya's were divided over her post. Some said that the interview process didn't seem that out of line with other hiring practices that they've been through, while others thought it was entitled of her to take issue with the fact that she was expected to show up in person to her first interview and fill out a paper application.

However, there were other TikTokers who echoed Natalya's sentiments and applauded her for walking out of it and that it sounded like a strange process indeed.

What do you think?