Propriety of a video interview for another office in my current office?
July 22, 2022 2:33 PM   Subscribe

I've been doing video interviews for jobs from my studio apartment. The lighting isn't great, but I can do a blank wall for a background so it's serviceable. I know someone who did a remote interview (different office/line of work) in their office at work and so I'm wondering if I want to do this too. What are your thoughts as an employee or hiring employer? I feel like subconsciously it would help if the interviewers saw me in an office and not just at home. But I didn't know if the interviewers might think it an inappropriate use of the office. For context, I'll be interviewing for a government law position from another government law position. My current office knows I've been job searching and absolutely wouldn't care if I took the interview in my office. The only real downside on my part is that while I don't think people outside my office can hear me, I would definitely be worrying about that.
posted by TheLinenLenin to Work & Money (11 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
As an employer, I'm not sure I would notice. Others may more observant than I am. As an employee, I would be terrified that someone at work would be able to hear. I also would worry about people at the door (my current manager loves to pop in). I would definitely do it from home.
posted by redyaky at 2:47 PM on July 22, 2022 [3 favorites]


Can you not make your blank wall more office-y? Bookcase, green plant, abstract painting, nice lamp, framed degree?
posted by TWinbrook8 at 2:54 PM on July 22, 2022 [4 favorites]


I've been on video call interviews as the interviewer & I would find it very odd if the person wasn't at home. Do you usually do job interviews on the clock? On your work computer?
posted by bleep at 3:07 PM on July 22, 2022 [5 favorites]


Does the software not support virtual backgrounds?
posted by dum spiro spero at 3:34 PM on July 22, 2022 [2 favorites]


I would notice and not care, but some people would so I’d just go ahead and spruce up the blank wall to make it more home office-y.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 3:36 PM on July 22, 2022


As a potential employer not privy to your relationship with your current employer, yes, it would raise concerns with me about your use of work space for personal purposes. It’s specifically part of my job to worry about that, though, so I may be the exact wrong person to answer that part of this.

You could alleviate that concern by making a specific point of making sure I know that your current job approves this and that you’re on your lunch break, but at that point you’ve already gotten me worried and distracted about something and not thinking about what you bring to the job.

I suggest interviewing at home with an unobtrusive virtual background,
posted by Stacey at 3:39 PM on July 22, 2022 [10 favorites]


So, I don't know how your government employer treats things, but my government employer is totally fine with people taking part in internal job competitions during working hours. There is even a code for that in our time reporting system.

A lot of competitions have written tests and, pre-covid, it was very common at my government office to see people book a conference room, tape a DnD sign to the door, and write a four hour exam in the office they already worked in. So, it may be different in government if you are applying for internal postings than it would be in the private sector, where what you are suggesting would be breaking a fairly big taboo.
posted by jacquilynne at 4:54 PM on July 22, 2022 [3 favorites]


I worked with a consultant who did consulting sessions for my workplace during business hours from a conference room at his day job and I found it wildly unprofessional. Made it seem like we were his sneaky side hustle. I would definitely notice this and count is as bad. If it’s the same org that’s ok but if it’s a different org I would strongly say no.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 5:20 PM on July 22, 2022 [4 favorites]


Response by poster: Good to hear that it seems mostly like a bad idea, I'll keep doing what I was doing then!
posted by TheLinenLenin at 5:35 PM on July 22, 2022 [1 favorite]


I agree that doing an interview from your current place of employment is distasteful.

Now regarding your home office. How about a professional looking virtual background?

I use a (company-mandated) virtual background on all my internal and customer-facing calls. This provides 100% consistency whether I'm working from the office or from home. I've only ever had positive comments about the background, nobody has ever been upset or disappointed that they can't see the table behind me.
posted by McNulty at 12:27 AM on July 23, 2022


I've had people do interviews from their cars in the office parking lot -- that seems way more "normal" (in terms of what I am used to) than doing the interview from their work office itself. I would find someone calling in from their work office, on the clock, weird in most situations.

As mentioned above, the rules can be quite different if this is for a position within the same organization. If I was applying for a position in another section of my company, I would expect to do that interview on the clock and from my office.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:49 AM on July 23, 2022


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