Major Red Flags You Should Look Out For In An Employer

"Job seeker" is a title that few relish in. The open-ended status makes for a world of future possibilities, sure, but it also comes with a muted desperation that tags along and only grows with time. The anxiety-inducing aspects of the job search are present for hopefuls whether they're still in a soon-to-be-former job or not, adding to the overwhelming doom and gloom that can easily be felt during this time of change.

Add in the fact that company loyalty and (in some cases) any shred of employee-first thinking is largely dead, and job seekers look to be staring down the barrel with few good options. Some people may be disenchanted with the idea of finding a new career and a company that truly values them. But the truth is that those companies do still exist. Unfortunately, it can be quite tricky to separate the good from the bad, and for some it's only after they've started working that the ugliness rears its head. But this process doesn't have to be that way. Searchers can actually hammer down on a few key points in order to make sense of a company's culture and the workplace environment with better consistency. With these red flags in mind, identifying an employer that might not be a great fit is actually not all that difficult.

One of the most visible red flags that will stand out immediately for a job hunter is the tone of questioning that comes their way during an interview. Inappropriate questions act as direct indicators of a workplace culture that crosses the line or may even fall into the territory of toxicity. When an interviewer feels comfortable asking questions that make you squirm or simply things that a company isn't allowed to ask it signals a general acceptance of this kind of behavior within the office more broadly. It's worth noting that individual behavior can play a primary role in this kind of question, and it isn't necessarily an indicator of how the rest of the company's staff carries themselves. But an interviewer is acting as a company representative and should be fully aware that their behavior is perhaps the only thing that a perspective hire will encounter before making their decision.

Misbehaving in the interview setting is therefore a direct indicator of how the company carries itself. If you find yourself being asked about your religious beliefs, relationship status, sexual orientation, or any other type of question that verges on topics of a personal nature your guard should go up. It might be worth mentioning your discomfort with the line of questioning, however. It's possible that this is just a lapse in judgment, and a professional will apologize for the overreach and get the interview back on track.

It's often a good idea to ask about employee turnover in an interview setting. Some companies may not be thrilled about disclosing this, but it's a critical detail that can help you make your decision with greater confidence. A company that experiences high turnover is one that often fails to meet the basic requirements of their employees in one way or another. Some might leave because they weren't being paid enough for their contribution, they may look elsewhere if their time off requests are routinely denied, or they may simply decide to quit as a result of consistent clashes with a bullheaded management team. When people quickly decide to leave their job it's because something hasn't gone according to expectation.

On the other hand, turnover can be attributed to overzealous firing practices. A company may decide to routinely shed employees as a result of minor offenses. Amazon is one workplace that is known to routinely let go of warehouse staff in large volumes (per SlashGear reporting). In 2022, the employee attrition rate was clocked as high as 150%, and firings were often done through an automated system. Rapid turnover as a result of unrealistic or perhaps even borderline abusive workplace standards is equally problematic to a workplace culture that leads to voluntary quitting. No matter the avenue that brings high turnover rates, the presence of this problem is a major red flag for those looking for a new job.

This red flag is kind of a two-for. There is a sort of Goldilocks mentality when it comes to interview processes, and running afoul of the sweet spot in either direction can act as a red flag for those on the hunt for a new job. In many instances, there is a sort of common sense about the interview process that should be observed. If you are applying for a highly technical position, the company may call you in for more than one interview with each successive meeting covering a different skill set or workplace responsibility. But if you're a college student interviewing for a part time position at McDonald's, there's really no need for a follow up conversation.

A company that works through their hiring process at an alarming pace (one brief interview for a demanding management role) may be dealing with issues of high turnover or might not be all that concerned with actually getting quality candidates into the company hierarchy. On the other hand, far too many interviews can signal an office culture that is indecisive or overly picky. Either way, an interview process that sets off alarm bells may signal that you're dealing with a company that isn't the right fit. As a reference point, Google has spent lots of time honing its hiring practice and utilizes three or four short interviews over the course of a single day to make its decisions.

Job descriptions have become increasingly lengthy in recent years. There's all manner of information about the company and role that businesses are willing to share, often because jobs now feature a variety of different responsibilities. One piece of information that can almost always be found in a job description is the salary range being offered. Salary is the most direct benefit from taking on a job, but it's not the only one. A good start is a job description that shows how much the company is willing to pay someone to accept the position (rather than some murky term like "negotiable" or "competitive"), but there's far more that should be included in the post.

A job description that doesn't include information on additional benefits might be an advertisement for a job that simply doesn't offer any. On the surface, this might not seem like big deal. Benefits aren't often thought of as a first port of call when deciding between two similar jobs, coming down to salary instead. But the additional benefits you receive from your workplace can really make or break a job's value to you as an employee. These are things like 401(k) match programs, expense opportunities when traveling, work from home flexibility that helps you spend more time with your family, and much more. Losing these kinds of benefits can have social and financial ramifications that really hit you where it hurts the most.

On the flip side, some job descriptions will talk ad nauseam about benefits — but focus specifically on things that foster a sense of community at the workplace or talk about fun things that employees are able to enjoy. These kinds of workplace inclusions are definitely worthwhile and can foster a quality sense of workplace cohesion. But calling them "benefits" is disingenuous at best. Having pizza with your colleagues on a Friday afternoon isn't a benefit, but rather a workplace team building activity. Matching funds deposited into your 401(k) or offering health insurance coverage is a benefit that directly adds value to your life.

When a company focuses wholeheartedly on the things that aren't actually salary package benefits they are trying to pull the wool over their employees eyes and sell nonsense as a reason to work with them. True workplace benefits cost money, and many companies therefore try to sell prospective employees on alternatives that don't add much expense. It's worth noting, however, that a higher salary can act as a direct replacement for other benefit package options. If a company is willing to give you $10,000 more per year in lieu of health insurance, travel expense reimbursement, or other financial incentives then you're looking at a benefits package that has simply been rearranged. Unfortunately, this isn't often the case when dealing with job postings that don't talk about impactful benefit inclusions.

One feature that is unavoidable in job postings is the list of requirements and responsibilities that will be involved in the position on a daily basis. In order to understand if you are a good fit for the job, you'll need to know what will be required of you. But there's another layer to this list of requirements that job seekers can't overlook.

Baked into the list of skills and experience that a company posts when seeking a new hire is an intrinsic signal of company culture. In the context of how much the business is willing to pay their new perspective employee and perhaps even the job title attached to the role, what a company is looking for can signal how much they value this hypothetical individual as a part of the team and as a professional person. Every job seeker has likely come across that cliche advertisement in which a company is looking for what amounts to an unpaid intern that has the experience of a seasoned professional in the industry. While not as egregious as that discrepancy, low or middling pay paired up with a long list of job responsibilities signals that a company might be looking to hire one person to perform two jobs that have been folded in together. Similarly, solid education and plenty of experience for a low-paying job means that a company is likely looking to throw them right into the deep end.

The business world involves a widely diverse range of individuals every day. No matter what industry you call home or the physical location of your workplace, your company almost certainly works with a diverse set of vendors and serves an equally multicultural list of clients. In today's interconnected world, it's simply unavoidable and businesses across markets and industries work with a kaleidoscope of unique people on everything that they do. Functionally, this means that businesses must embrace diversity and work to build it into their corporate product as a means of better serving its customers and employees. A company that isn't coherent in its diversity training or inclusivity practices is one that simply isn't suited to the modern commercial world.

If your company doesn't embrace diversity, it likely isn't prepared to handle the unique perspectives and needs that customers and partners bring to the table and require from the brand. When interviewing for a job or seeking a new company to call home, looking into the diversity of a brands leadership team and investigating its track record with people of all backgrounds can help you to understand how the company performs in this regard. Even if diversity issues don't seemingly impact you directly, they do translate into a weaker position for the business in its commercial environment and can signal a larger issue at play.

Most red flags involving businesses and their hiring practices center on a company that may not be all that great to work for. Toxic workplace environments exist across the country, and employees will often be looking to avoid this kind of daily community interaction like the plague. But this isn't the only kind of red flag that you need to be worried about when seeking a new job. Ghost jobs also exist in the marketplace, raising the hopes of a job seeker only to never offer up a response. The opposite is also true, however. There are scam job postings out there that will respond to absolutely every applicant in an effort to steal information or siphon money out of unsuspecting victims' bank accounts.

Forbes reports that roughly 14 million people were exposed to job-related scams in just the first quarter of 2022, with an estimated $2 billion in direct losses each year coming from these kinds of frauds. In many instances, fraudulent job postings will be thinly veiled attempts to collect personal information like Social Security Numbers or bank account details that can be used later for identity theft practices. Other scams involved offering a job on the condition that an applicant completes some sort of paid training course — and then acting either explicitly or secretively as the trainer to be paid.

Asking directly about advancement opportunities for current employees and for yourself in the interview room can be a good way to gauge one important aspect of a company's office culture. There will almost always be the need to promote or hire people to take on larger roles, increased responsibilities, and new management opportunities. Businesses often grow over time, and so new roles are constantly being created to support developing segments, teams, or product rollouts. Alternatively, people in positions of management already might seek to leverage their current responsibilities into new opportunities elsewhere. As is the case with all job types, there's routinely the need for companies to hire workers for managerial and other senior roles.

But if a company is typically unwilling to promote from within, then it may not be a great fit long-term for your needs and aspirations. A company that doesn't promote from within may be an office that doesn't have much faith in its reservoir of talent. This can happen for a variety of reasons, but one explanation is that the company simply doesn't utilize the resources required to fully understand the strengths and value of people when it hires them in the first place. This may not be a red flag that sinks your interest in a business, but one it's certainly one that should help inform your future.

In many sales roles that utilize a commission-driven payout structure, there might be an emphasis on earning potential rather than salary figures. This may not be much of a problem in certain circumstances. With a fully fleshed out explanation of how payments are made and salary is earned, this offers a transparent and responsible approach to describing the financial benefits of some jobs. But sales roles aren't the only space in which the concept of "earning potential" may be paraded out. If you're applying for a job that should feature a definitive salary but instead talks in vague language of earning potential, you may be speaking to a company about a job that isn't worth your time.

This kind of strategy can be used to gloss over a subpar salary value with the promise of great bonus payouts and other opportunities. The problem is that these added incentives may not be guaranteed, and when it comes time to benefit it can be substantially less than what was seemingly promised at the interview stage. It's always a good idea to be wary of job offers that aren't completely transparent about how much you'll be earning, no matter how that payment is structured.

In creative fields, prospective employees are sometimes asked to deliver a piece of work as an example of their ability to do the job. Artists, writers, and others might complete a short test piece in order to showcase their skillset. On occasion, these tasks can be augmented by tight turnaround times or a checklist of desired inclusions in order to gauge speed or precision. But if the task requires hours of effort or represents something that might be used without compensation later on (for instance, a journalist may be asked to write a full article rather than a snippet) then this could be an example of exploitation rather than a true interview task.

In the same way that some scam job postings are designed to part a prospective employee with their money or sensitive information, other nefarious actors might seek to gain free work that they can use later on to enrich themselves. However, even if this isn't the situation, a lengthy test task is something that undervalues your time and skill. By asking you to engage in something like this, an employer is signaling that they don't value your personal time and think they have a claim to some just because they are a company you've expressed interest in.

Finally, companies are often quick to show off flashy values like "respect for everyone" or "welcoming of questions and criticism." These can typically be found in forward-facing company website materials and may be touted as important values during the interview process. However, the actions of the interviewers themselves or those of your boss after you accept the role can be immensely telling when it comes to putting those values to use. Every business out there wants to show a positive face, but not every group of employees is ready and willing to enact those policies.

If you leave an interview feeling that you've been disrespected or that the expressed values of the company don't exactly line up with those showcased by the person you spoke with then it might be worth your while to keep looking. Tension between these two can be a sign of larger problems within the workplace that can materialize in a variety of different ways. Avoiding these kinds of conflicts when you can is always advised.