RIGHT OR WRONG

[Duchess]

Is it okay for a prospective employer to ask these questions -

Do you have a girlfriend? Are you married? Do you like girls?

The prospective employer is the NFL.

[ramseycat]

No. It's not ok.

[Duchess]

We have another thread regarding this same thing but I couldn't recall what it was called...not that I looked too hard. I'm lazy.

[ramseycat]

We need new threads anyway. Lol

[HairOfTheDog]

I wouldn't want anyone to ask me about my private life, but I wouldn't be applying for a job where I'd be in the public eye.

How would Manti Te'o answer the question? Wonder if his little drama prompted these questions or if the NFL has always had such a policy. Will they ask for the name and then check out the candidates' lovers? I don't like it, but doesn't affect me and if the salary is high enough, there's probably not a lot of push back.

[username]

Is it okay for a prospective employer to ask these questions -

Do you have a girlfriend? Are you married? Do you like girls?

The prospective employer is the NFL.

You could ask the questions but generally you shouldn't because the applicant might say you used that information to discriminate against them in not giving them the job etc.

Marital status is a protected class; you can't not hire someone because of their marital status.

Any smart HR department will give you better ways to phrase your questions. Instead of "are you married", you can ask questions like "are you available to travel" or "is there anything to prevent you from working evenings, weekends etc."?

There's no legitimate reason to ask if someone likes girls. None.

Still, even if you ask a dumb question like "how old are you" and someone answers 60 and you don't give them the job (because they're "too old"), that person has to prove that that was the reason you didn't give them the job. If you can show in any way that the person you hired was just better qualified for the position, you're pretty much off the hook unless you made notes on the resume like "too old" or something.

[Duchess]

I made a misstatement - it wasn't the NFL that posed the questions, it was a team. I beg your pardon.

The NFL on Wednesday said it would investigate a report that at least one team at the scouting combine asked a draft prospect about his sexual orientation.

Three draft prospects have said they were asked a series of questions that touched on sexual orientation at the just-completed combine in Indianapolis.

Colorado tight end Nick Kasa was the first to make the claim, revealing the line of questioning in an interview with ESPN Radio Denver on Tuesday.

Michigan quarterback/receiver Denard Robinson, in an interview with the "The Dan Patrick Show" on Wednesday, and Michigan State running back Le'veon Bell, speaking with WDFN-Radio in Detroit on Thursday, also made similar claims.

"[Teams] ask you like, 'Do you have a girlfriend?' 'Are you married?' 'Do you like girls?' " Kasa said in his radio interview Tuesday. "Those kinds of things, and you know it was just kind of weird. But they would ask you with a straight face, and it's a pretty weird experience altogether."

In the statement announcing it would check into Kasa's claim, the NFL said "teams are expected to follow applicable federal, state and local employment laws."

[Maggot]

Jeremy thinks of rock and stick. Hit stick with rock. Make stick sharp.

[Ilyanna]

I'm pretty certain there's a law over here that prohibits prospective employers from asking those kinds of questions, they could get into real trouble if they did and then not hire the person. And the burden of proof would lie with the company, not the applicant (of course, in most cases it's not that difficult to find another reason, as user said).

Aside from that - my personal life is none of their fucking business, and being asked questions like that would probably convince me that I don't want to work for them anyway.