The interviewer might be a lot dumber than you. My sister had a job interview for a Christian nursing home yesterday. One thing was her references. They don't want former employers/coworkers who know how you'll do the job, the want your current pastor and a teacher from when you were a kid/teen in school.
There's a resident's Bill of Rights (government standard, the same everywhere) so that was one of the interview questions:
Interviewer: "How many rights are there?"
Tammy (my sister): "19."
I: "No, there's 23."
T: "No, there's 19."
I: "No, there's 23." (They looked it up and it turned out Tammy was right, and the interviewer is the person who's running this nursing home.) "Well we have more here."
Then Tammy asked what the caregiver ratio is (number of residents that one caregiver is responsible for - usually somewhere between 1:10 and 1:20.) The interviewer said "1.25". Huh?? She admitted that she doesn't even know what the number means, but she knows it's good. "It's better than the government standard." There were other questions too that proved Tammy knew more than the interviewer.
Being a Christian facility, the lady was concerned about Tammy's nose piercing. Trying to be optimistic she wondered if it was for religious reasons.
I: "Are you The Buddhist?" (That's how she worded it. Lol, were they expecting one?)
T: "No, I'm The Baptist."
Then the conversation turned to smoking. (You have to understand that Tammy's living with a friend right now who smokes a LOT inside the house, but Tammy does NOT smoke herself.)
Interviewer: Do you think you can go for 8 hours without a smoke?
Tammy: That shouldn't be a problem.
I: Because this is a completely smoke-free facility - you can't even smoke outside anywhere on the property. So do you think you'll be able to go 8 hours without a smoke?
T: It shouldn't be a problem - I think I can handle that.
I: Do you want me to tell you how I know that you're a smoker?
T: Please do, I'd love to hear it.
I: I can smell it on you a mile away. I've got "a nose like a hawk".
(Tammy explained that she doesn't smoke, she just lives with someone who does.)
I: So will you be able to go for 8 hours without a smoke?
T: Shouldn't be a problem.
This interviewer also showed Tammy an actual schedule, complete with the names and personal phone numbers of all the employees and even told Tammy the life stories of a couple of them!
12 Jan 2006, 11:53 am
My husband said, "That lady can't *really* be running the show - it's gotta be a puppet regime!" I'm sure the residents are well taken care of by the other employees (frontline staff), it's just the administrative people who don't have a clue what's going on. A lot of agencies are like that.
