This article was first published in March 2023.
A man has divided social media by revealing he walked out of a job interview after waiting at reception for 35 minutes.
The man himself appeared unsure about his decision, sharing his story to Reddit to seek opinions on whether or not he made the right choice.
He said he felt "conflicted" over his choice to ditch the possible truck driving gig at a local bakery, but explained that in the moment, he was very disappointed with the long wait.
"The way I'm seeing this is that if I was 35 minutes late for the interview with no explanation as to why I'm late, I'd have no chance of getting the job," the anonymous user explained.
The man said his interview was supposed to be at 10am but he arrived 10 minutes early to be safe. The receptionist told him he would be seen in five minutes but 35 minutes later, he was still waiting.
He continued that no one acknowledged him or let him know there might be a delay despite staff walking past constantly.
While waiting he saw a poster of first aid information on the wall and noticed the name of the man interviewing him, as well as his photo.
"[It was] the same guy who walked by at least three times. At this point, I say enough is enough and sign myself out. It's 10:35."
He also confirmed he inquired about whether there was a delay but was told by the receptionist to "sit tight".
While the driver said he initially felt he had "dodged a bullet", he still took to social media to ask if he should have been more patient, fearing that walking out was unprofessional.
Some users were quick to praise the man for valuing his own time and indicating to the workplace that the wait-time was unacceptable.
"Job interviews work two ways, you need to be sure you'd be happy spending 35+ hours a week working for them. If they can't even give you the common courtesy of an update then that isn't a working culture I'd wish to be a part of," one replied.
Another weighed in: "More of us should walk out of interviews. If they refuse to tell you the baseline rate of pay etc… they're not worth your time".
Another user shared a similar experience, saying he left after 40 minutes of waiting for an interview and received a call on the way home asking him to come back.
"I told them to stuff it. I'd hired a car, driven 90 minutes to site, waited 40 minutes and their hiring manager 'forgets what day it is'. Their loss frankly."
However, others felt it was a missed opportunity.
"Right or wrong you lost the opportunity for a job you wanted," one said, with a second noting: "The interview may not have been the most vital thing happening that day within the company, or it might have been any one of a thousand entirely innocent explanations."
