AQA with 20 years of experience, Nataliya O., told how she refused the most expensive offer in her life because she did not want to betray her principles.
AQA with 20 years of experience, Nataliya O., told how she refused the most expensive offer in her life because she did not want to betray her principles.
«Today I was offered a job with the highest salary of my entire career. And the job itself is great (especially considering that the current company cannot continue working with me due to internal bureaucracy). And then the stars came together, and I was already rubbing my hands, when the recruiter writes, am I ready to speak Russian with the team? No, I say, I’m not ready. But, I say, this is an American company? Oh, but we have a team from Russian-speaking countries (yeah, in the plural, there are like a dozen of them), and they don’t speak English very well, they have to be managed in their native language, because they won’t understand!», — said Natalia.
According to her, the specialist with whom the tester communicated is from Tbilisi. And she wrote to the candidate in English. «That is, she understands this linguistic moment.
«I repeat that I am sorry, but I do not trade my principles. War. I understand, says the Georgian woman. She promises to write how another client will be without the requirement to speak Russian,» Natalia recounts.
She admits: it was hard to refuse — the money is great and the growth is possible great. «But when I think that I will have to speak Russian every day and, perhaps, the team is from the aggressor country… Well, I’ll stop. I will find an ideal new job for me, where I don’t have to step over myself. I just want to have the Ukrainian-speaking space to the maximum (even if several of my friends speak Russian, I don’t want to expand the Russian-speaking zone in my life even more),» Nataliya noted.
Almost a hundred comments were left by AIT members on her post. It turns out that such demands on candidates are not uncommon.
«I was in a similar situation — both as an external candidate and as an internal employee, from whom it was initially hidden. I left immediately, to nowhere. Because, although I am not a samurai, I have my own internal code of ethics,» said Head of Human Resources Natalia Gordubei .
Yevgeniya Pykhtar, Head of VIP Account Management, also shared a similar experience: «The company was founded by Ukrainians living in the States. The management position, the salary are really interesting, and the project is interesting. Everyone is conscientious, they help Ukraine, they don’t hire people from Russia and Belarus, but there are a few who have been working since 2015, they are against the war and they haven’t been fired. And, of course, they are not my subordinates, we won’t cross paths. I think, okay, something unpleasant, but okay. In the end, what if the Russians ruined my life here too? Why should I refuse such opportunities? And in the end: you just need to communicate in Russian. The founders are Ukrainians, but they left in the zero years, so they communicate in Russian. I say: it’s not a problem, let them communicate, I think they understand English and Ukrainian? I will be able to solve issues in these languages without any problems. «No, I’m the one who has to communicate in Russian. I refused. I don’t like this language, no matter how anyone communicates, but I decided that it’s not worth it if at the start I’m already being forced to do something against my will. And in general, this story is strange.»
And here’s another story about language and principles. «I had a situation too. The head of an American company wrote to me and offered me the position of a remote designer, but I had to go through an interview with a guy… a guy… a guy… The head of the IT department, Yevgeny, has a Russian surname. I googled him, found him on Facebook, and it turned out that he is Russian, who has lived in Germany since childhood. I really want to work as a designer, but I can’t step over my principles. But I think that’s how it should be. We should perceive them as an incurable disease that should not be spread,» wrote designer Natalia Didus.
