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Asked in 2 interviews if I have mental health issues from my job

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BeTheLight

Learning
Hello all.
I am writing from Canada.
Where we have a law that states that no employer is to ask about your mental health issues even prior to employment.
I have had 2 interviews in 2 weeks.
Both women asked my if i have or had mental health issues from working in a forensic psychiatric facility.
Never disclose to any employer that you have a disability!! I didnt but heres what they asked.

#1 so you work im a forensic facility. Why are you leaving.
My response. "I had an inappropriate i cident oneday and I am choosing to leave for that reason and a few others."
Oh so what happened.
(Like really?!?)
Asides from confidentiality from my previous employer i dont even want to talk about it first of all.
But i said. The door didnt open oneday as a patient was comming to assault me. I tried to open the door again and the FOB wouldnt grant me accesS."
Her response. "Oh that sounds horrible do you have ptsd from that?"
My response."no."

So you are working there ?
My response "no i am not."

Her response was ." oh well sometimes when we have these.issues and dont resolve them its like adding a piece of hay to the haystack and it all falls apart."

Wow! I recieved my letter today that says im not hired.
Big suprise.

Interview #2

So you.work at this place.
Why are you leaving.
Again i respond inappropriate incident.
She says OH IM JUST SOOO CURIOUS can you tell me what happened with a smile on her face.
f*ck eh!? I could have been f*cking raped, stabbed, head smashed in the f*cking wall, anything !!
These people are so oblivious.
I said i have a fob. It didnt grant me access. I ran. This combined with thw fact that I could be privitized etc i need to find other employment.
Her response.
Do YOU HAVE PTSD FROM THAT DAY!?.
(Im thinking Wow. im mind effing blown again.
Why ask that? If i said yes would you not hire me? Are you judging me? Do you even know what ptsd is? Does she realize this is so illegal to ask? How does she get away with asking this? Im pisesd off!! )
I looked her in the eye and said a firm NO.
I said many situations arise at work and in prison settings that is part.of the job like a first responder etc its not a big deal.

She wants to hire me.
Now shes going to do a reference check with my employer ( ive been off for 2 years on LTD. Will my employer disclose that?)
Oh god.
Any advice !?!
Tell me your story id love to hear.
Im just blown away by how insensitive and how uneducated people are about mental health and the legalities surrounding confidentiality.
 
I don't know if you will find this helpful or not, but I would never mention the "inappropriate incident." It opens the door for people to ask questions. As you've discovered. It's like if someone brought up their age in an interview. While an interviewer might never initiate a conversation about age, because of legalities. Once the person has brought it up, the interview might assume the person wants to discuss it. I would probably just mention the privatization and something bland like I am ready to seek new opportunities. That's generally a good strategy in interviews any. Focus on the positive reasons of leaving a job so it sounds like you are moving forward not away from things. I used to sit in on a lot of interview panels.

And yes, people are clueless about PTSD. And often, what they call PTSD really just means normal feelings following a traumatic/difficult event. It can be their way of acknowledging that an event was really bad and would leave emotional damage.
 
What Muttly said.

One of my prior jobs that was hugely unsatisfactory & abusive and ended up with legal action against them for all they regularly pulled with employees, I disclosed in interviews after as 'not comfortable with the shift schedule.' Huge understatement, the co. was breaking the law in a very obvious way. But it also wasn't a lie with the interviewer on my behalf. And led to a more productive discussion of how I am with which working hours.

(Contractor, so if you have to go by employer-fixed rules and don't have that flexibility, I suppose how you treat the time issues Qs would be different.)

Tldr you don't have to lie...
But don't owe the whole truth, aside of regulating it bodies & circumstances.
 
Experience of something similar

A young woman who lives locally, had gone for a job interview.

She'd been asked if she was planning to have children.
In Britain, that's an illegal question.

She was put in contact with a very heavyweight employment barister, who's female and who took the case for free.

The intention was to embarrass the company that had interviewed her, sufficiently that procedures are put in place to stop that sort of shite from happening.

She's had a written apology and an offer of £200 compensation for her ordeal, which she has accepted.

I realise that the area where this happened is very unusual - where us ordinary people are one or two degrees of separation from some of the top lawyers etc in the country...

but, you may well be able to a campaign group or a no win no fee lawyer to make the employers who interviewed you, very uncomfortable

Sufficiently uncomfortable that they put procedures in place to keep their interviewers legal.
 
I don't know if you will find this helpful or not, but I would never mention the "inappropriate incident." It opens the door for people to ask questions. As you've discovered. It's like if someone brought up their age in an interview. While an interviewer might never initiate a conversation about age, because of legalities. Once the person has brought it up, the interview might assume the person wants to discuss it. I would probably just mention the privatization and something bland like I am ready to seek new opportunities. That's generally a good strategy in interviews any. Focus on the positive reasons of leaving a job so it sounds like you are moving forward not away from things. I used to sit in on a lot of interview panels.

And yes, people are clueless about PTSD. And often, what they call PTSD really just means normal feelings following a traumatic/difficult event. It can be their way of acknowledging that an event was really bad and would leave emotional damage.
Thanks. I mentioned it because i disnt disclose that ive been off for 2 years.following the incident because i dont want them to rhink i have issues. Good point. I wont mention it again. But when they do a reference check im sure my employer will let them know that ive been off for 2 years. Lets.hope not.
Experience of something similar

A young woman who lives locally, had gone for a job interview.

She'd been asked if she was planning to have children.
In Britain, that's an illegal question.

She was put in contact with a very heavyweight employment barister, who's female and who took the case for free.

The intention was to embarrass the company that had interviewed her, sufficiently that procedures are put in place to stop that sort of shite from happening.

She's had a written apology and an offer of £200 compensation for her ordeal, which she has accepted.

I realise that the area where this happened is very unusual - where us ordinary people are one or two degrees of separation from some of the top lawyers etc in the country...

but, you may well be able to a campaign group or a no win no fee lawyer to make the employers who interviewed you, very uncomfortable

Sufficiently uncomfortable that they put procedures in place to keep their interviewers legal.

Yes i have a worksafe officer friend and she told me to report it. Its illegal. Call human rights an go from there. I will bevause.if not me who else will they discriminate
 
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With the 2 years off...

Entirely off or have you done anything else, even if part time or unpaid, that you might use? Eventually in all you've been doing, that could be evidenceable as jobs?

<< Is where I usually go with too long gaps in files. I usually do crapton pro bono things just because the activities / people interest me, questioned about cite client confidentiality & other polite variants of Back Off, and that's it.

Or if they press? Give them the details. Turns out people don't *really* want to know about morgue internships all that much.

Even less because their 'do you have issues' box to that doesn't apply. Boring, calm, needing right sanitation, dead, what else did ya ask interviewer, normal day issues to me.
 
I haven't had these issues, but I am enormously careful when interviewing for jobs.

That said, I was let go from the last two jobs I had (well, I was on leave and all-of-a-sudden they no longer needed my position). With the latter, I told a half-truth, that the company was restructuring and my position was obsolete (and that I decided to move on). I was off for a year and a half from my first job (mental health issues) and I told them it was for medical reasons that had cleared up. They didn't push.
 
I haven't had these issues, but I am enormously careful when interviewing for jobs.

That said, I was let go from the last two jobs I had (well, I was on leave and all-of-a-sudden they no longer needed my position). With the latter, I told a half-truth, that the company was restructuring and my position was obsolete (and that I decided to move on). I was off for a year and a half from my first job (mental health issues) and I told them it was for medical reasons that had cleared up. They didn't push.
Good to know.
Thank you.
I was.off for 2 years with ltd. I didnt mention it at all.

I don't know if you will find this helpful or not, but I would never mention the "inappropriate incident." It opens the door for people to ask questions. As you've discovered. It's like if someone brought up their age in an interview. While an interviewer might never initiate a conversation about age, because of legalities. Once the person has brought it up, the interview might assume the person wants to discuss it. I would probably just mention the privatization and something bland like I am ready to seek new opportunities. That's generally a good strategy in interviews any. Focus on the positive reasons of leaving a job so it sounds like you are moving forward not away from things. I used to sit in on a lot of interview panels.

And yes, people are clueless about PTSD. And often, what they call PTSD really just means normal feelings following a traumatic/difficult event. It can be their way of acknowledging that an event was really bad and would leave emotional damage.
So even if i didnt mention the inappropriate incident.
Lets say they do a reference check with my boss.
He will say shes been off for 2 years maybe right ? On ltd. Maybe some other supervisor slips and says it by accident. Thats the concern but im over it. Im tired im spent.
 
What kind of job are you applying for?

I ask cos I'm in the UK and my career is exempt from those laws and have every right to ask about disability (legally). If you're applying to some health or social care jobs, whether you are medically fit for the job is very relevant. And it's fair for them to ask.
 
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What kind of job are you applying for?

I ask cos I'm in the UK and my career is exempt from those laws and have every right to ask about disability (legally). If you're applying to some health or social care jobs, whether you are medically fit for the job is very relevant. And it's fair for them to ask.
I am from canada.
And it is illegal here to ask about mental health.
If you have questions please feel free to contact Human Rights.org and ask yourself.
We can ALSO file a discrimination report.

If in an application i was asked do i have any physical or mental disabilities that prevent me from doing the job ?
That is legal.
Its a yes or no.
Thats because an employer has a "duty to accomodate."
I.e hiring ex amout of women, people who have different sexual orientation, aboriginal peoples and people with disability.
However. It isnt appropriate to ask during an interview.
Lets be honest. Everyone has issues.
What if i was raped working in a jail type facility, stabbed, held hostage, beaten. Do you really want to know anyways. And say i said yes i have ptsd from x,y,z.
#1 What is your intention for asking that question
#2 What will you do with the information i have provided you?
#3 what does this have to do with applying for a job. In my situation a bloody JANITOR not a manager ok!!
#4 Someone you know love etc has a mental health issue .. Does it prevent them from doing the job? If not. You dont have to mention it.

We are a judgemental society lets be honest and with that we have predjudices and discriminate.
That is why you have no right to ask.
 
It's hard to tell, from your last reply, how much you are directing your response to @Chris-duck and how much is a general rant. It's totally understandable you are upset that both interviewers asked you that. I would be too. @Chris-duck's question wasn't meant to be judgmental of your situation. Asking questions is how we better understand your situation. For example, knowing that you are a janitor does make their question more ridiculous than if you were, for example, a psych nurse.

It's good to remember that people on this group are from all over the world and have different life experiences, knowledge base, etc. So a response that might seem judgmental, confusing, uncaring or something like that may not seem that because of those differences. We all share the experiences with PTSD here. It also means that things that are obvious to you may not be obvious to us.

For example, what is ltd? Does that mean disability?

Your employer really has no reason to mention you've been off for two years. And even if the employer knows that, they have no idea how you've filled your time. When I, as an employer, got called about a past employee I provided basic information like yes they worked at the company. But if does become clear you have a two-year gap there's lots of ways to respond. If you google there's lots of good examples of how to explain. Again, the key thing is to spin it positive and why it makes you a better employee. "Well, I had some health issues and I took some time to renergize so I could be a better employee". When I was doing hiring I noticed gaps, I won't lie. But I was more concerned with what the employee was presenting as far as their work ethic, ability to do the job, etc. An, answer like I just gave would have worked for me. A health issue could be anything. It could have been cancer or mental health a serious vehicle accident, etc.
 
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