by Maria C Collins

Created on: April 08, 2010   Last Updated: April 24, 2010

Ever wondered why employers ask questions at interviews that are nothing to do with work? They want to know what you do in your leisure time and ask all kinds of questions. M was once asked, at an interview, what her favourite period in history was. It is because they want to find out what kind of person you are and gauge your attitudes because some things you do in your free time can affect your employment. Some of these can also lead to you losing your job once you have got one.

Addiction, to alcohol or drugs, is one habit that easily comes to mind. It is easy to see how addiction to either, even if a person only takes these substances outside working hours, could impinge on work. Someone who comes to work suffering from the effects of drink or drugs, cannot work well, and could be a health and safety liability to the company. A worker addicted to drink or drugs is also likely to be an unreliable worker who is often late for work or takes a lot of sick time.

A worker, who is convicted for violence or theft committed outside working hours, could lose their job because those two offences say much about a person’s character. A person who is prone to violence would be a danger to other workers. A person who steals is untrustworthy.

There are some jobs where a conviction for other offences makes a worker unemployable. A worker whose job is driving a vehicle, a lorry driver, sales representative or other occupation, who is convicted for drunken driving, during off duty hours, and loses his or her driving licence, cannot do the job for which they were employed.

Some occupations require employees to be very discreet about their work and to keep information confidential. An unguarded and loose tongue in off duty hours could lose them their job. For example a doctor or nurse who gossiped about patients or a social worker who talked about clients in a bar, would be in breach of their professional standards. Other workers may have a confidentiality clause in their employment contracts.

People in some other jobs may not talk publicly about their work at all. These would include those who work for the Secret Services, civil servants and others. Those who breach this stricture lose their jobs and may end up in prison.

An employee engaging in very radical politics, even if s/he only did so during off-duty hours, especially where these politics included publicly stating racist, homophobic, terrorist views, especially, but not only, where these advocate violence, will probably lose his job. A company would not want to be associated with someone with these views.

What you do in your leisure hours affects your employment. You can lose your job for doing some things even though you did them outside working hours. You should always consider the consequences of your actions in both your working life and your private life.

Learn more about this author, Maria C Collins.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.