"I smoked, the interviewer smoked, then HR smoked". HR raised the question of whether a candidate can smoke during interviews. Several answer options

Vera Romanova, R Executive

Two thoughts on this:

1. I have also seen similar discussions and condemnations. Unfortunately, I have not seen in any of them that the candidate was asked about the reasons for this necessity. We do not know exactly what circumstances occurred in a person that essentially led him to addiction. And all those «this is not respect for the recruiter» «outright disrespect for the norms and rules» are purely interpretations and fabrications, because the candidate did not speak about disrespect.
2. Now quite a lot of veterans (and sometimes even military personnel) are looking for work and they don’t always say this fact directly. It’s like they didn’t ask and that’s okay. In the army, smoking is part of the culture and a sign of their own.

Ago:

• First: if a recruiter interviews a military person or veteran, it’s simply a different language of communication and adequacy.
• Second: if the recruiter didn’t ask about the necessity and reasons for it, everything was interpreted. If there was no talk about military service or leaving the occupation, or even divorce, the recruiter was not doing enough. And in the comments they wrote about breathing and calming down.

Of course, people are nervous about interviews and they have a habit of going so far outside the norm and rules. But you can always say no. You can always ask why it’s necessary and whether it can wait until the end of the meeting or whether it would be helpful to just take a break and come back.

Anzhelika Aleksiychenko, Human Resources (Recruiter & onboarding specialist) at UGB

There are designated smoking areas. Why should the next candidate’s interview take place in a smoky room?

Alexey Sorokin, HR

That’s right. I would definitely refuse. There should be boundaries between personal and work. Because everyone has their own personal things, and work etiquette has certain standards. We don’t know the person, so why should we be in a personal format? But what you asked is great. At my interview there were «smokers» in T-shirts, I didn’t even start the interview.

Oleksandr Rybak, Senior IT Technical Recruiter

I’ve encountered this, and I don’t really understand how to deal with it. At first I thought it was not a common practice, but then my Led lit up during a technical interview. I think it’s wrong. I wouldn’t want to see candidates smoking during an interview, although I have a habit of smoking myself. Is it really that difficult to smoke after or before an interview?

Anastasia Kalinchuk, Recruiter at Top-Call

A colleague had a similar experience. She ignored a candidate’s request to smoke during an interview because he was strong in his skills. But he was later fired when they found out he was a drug addict. It really made me think. Maybe we should pay more attention to little things like asking to smoke during an interview.

Vlad Tetyorko, Java Developer

Actually, why not?

I worked on several projects with customers directly, and on one of ours it was acceptable to sit with cameras on during calls, and the more people who turned them on, the better. And during these calls someone smoked, someone had a dog run up to them, someone had a child. And it really brings you closer when you see that this is not just an «evil architect/PM/tester», but a person who has a lot of things outside of work that you didn’t even know about, plus — as another topic for small talk.

Vitaliy Salynskyi, Chief Executive Officer at SemperTeam

Once, a sobez was passing by from a hookah bar, he passed.

Pavlo Levko, Backend developer

I consider this disrespectful to the interlocutor. How long should an interview last that a person cannot do without a cigarette?

Igor Dmytriv, UI/UX Designer

But my subjective opinion: you are looking for a professional who will do the job, if his habit does not affect the quality of the work performed, then it does not matter. It is his life and his choice whether to smoke or not to smoke. I would not attach much importance to this. If the work is not directly related to direct contact with the client and he does not smoke during it.

Sasha, QA Automation Engineer

I lit a cigarette, the interviewer lit a cigarette, then HR lit a cigarette. Everyone was satisfied with the communication.

Andriy Bezuglov, Site Reliability Engineer

If it’s an online interview, it doesn’t matter whether the candidate smokes or not. If he came to the office for an interview, then you need to look at the office’s policy on smoking in the office premises.

Pavlo Vasylenko, Node.JS Developer at Incode group

If the interview were live, the question wouldn’t have arisen, so I wouldn’t want the candidate to smoke during those miserable 30-60 minutes of our conversation.