A job candidate arrived at an interview last week expecting the usual opener: tell me about yourself, walk me through your resume, why do you want to work here. What they got instead was a question they initially assumed was a joke.
"How do you handle working unpaid overtime?"
The candidate laughed, thinking the hiring manager was testing their sense of humour. They were not. The manager repeated the question, explaining that employees at the company were expected to work "as long as necessary" and that the firm "did not keep track of additional hours worked."
The candidate, now fully aware this was not a comedy bit, asked two clarifying questions: was overtime mandatory, and was it compensated? The answer to both was effectively no — employees simply worked until the work was done, with no additional pay and no record kept.
At that point, the candidate stood up, thanked the interviewer for their time, and walked out. The entire interaction had lasted minutes.
The story, posted to Reddit and amplified on X, drew swift and overwhelming support. Commenters pointed out that unpaid overtime for hourly workers is a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. "They told on themselves in the first minute," one user wrote. "Imagine what they do not tell you until month three."