'I walked out and three people followed me': Guy rage quits during the interview process after being asked to work night shifts for free

Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor

Oct 9, 2023 8:00 AM EDT

Some employers try to hide the red flags that come with a certain job; others basically wave those flags for every prospective candidate to see. Before you give those employers any credit, this is usually not coming from a place of honesty or transparency. It's usually coming from a place of sloppiness and ignorance. Many employers are still completely tone-deaf to the fact that some of the demands put upon employees back in the day are backward, outdated, and a serious overstepping of boundaries. Unsurprisingly, this phenomenon exists across all industries these days.

This thread was posted to Reddit by a job candidate who had just moved to a new state but who already specialized in working at group homes for at-risk youth. To his surprise, the interviewer mentioned that after a full Friday shift, employees were expected to clock out, stay overnight at the home and be on-call, then clock back in for another shift first thing Saturday morning. Apparently, this was expected to be the norm despite the fact that these employers were essentially demanding that their employees work a night shift for free.

The candidate had enough sense to storm out right then and there, inspiring other candidates in the group interview to leave as well. For more stories like this, here is one about an employee who refused to work overtime unpaid.