Initial phone call was to schedule in-person interview, asked to have the first interview on phone or virtually due to COVID. Interviewer (HR person) asked me basic interview questions, liked my answers, asked me to come in for an in-person interview.
I double-checked the job duties for the position I applied for, and I noticed that while none of the job duties necessitated being done on-site/in the office, there was a note of "(must be in person)" on the application. When I went to the office, the receptionist pulled me into a closet near the entrance to have my temperature scanned, then left me in the closet with a math/logic questionnaire. After I finished the questionnaire and returned it, I stood in the lobby. The receptionist offered for me to sit in one of the seats, but as the fabric did not appear easy to sanitize, I chose not to sit down. While I was in the lobby, I noticed the lobby was poorly-ventilated (a single window was open halfway), there were magazines published during the pandemic left out to collect COVID, the employees that popped through the lobby did not socially distance themselves from the receptionist or her desk, and the receptionist actually took her mask off and coughed. When the HR woman arrived and noticed I was masked and gloved, she asked if I would be comfortable meeting with her inside the closet I took the test in, and I said I wouldn't be because there was no way to stay six feet apart. She took me to an unused conference room with stacked chairs lining the walls, then took two chairs down to sit in.
When I asked why this position necessitated being on-site when the job duties could be done remotely, the HR woman replied, "the owner wants it that way." When I pressed further, she admitted that the company did the remote work for the first two months of COVID, then did an in-house study that determined the people they already employed were incapable of doing basic work without being watched and micro-managed, so the owner made everyone return to the office. When I replied that I had mastered working from home and noted that I had "fewer distractions" than I would at the office, the HR woman said that I was an anomaly and that the position was to be 100% in person, with no room for working remotely whatsoever. In fact, as I continued to press the lackluster COVID precautions, the unnecessary exposure and commute, the HR woman became noticeably upset with me for requesting reasonable accommodations and "hazard pay" for having to travel to a germy office for no reason past "the owner wants your butt in a seat."
Given the blatant disregard to the pandemic, and the owner's disgusting idea that productivity is more important than health and well-being, this wasn't going to be a culture match for me.
Feel free to work for this place if you are a baby boomer, because the only people I saw at the office were of this age, and that's the only age group still working I can think of that would cling to in-office work until they croak.
