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I will be having an interview tomorrow.

It is scheduled during work hours.

I don't know if I should take the entire day of, or if I should leave work early. Part of what makes the whole thing complicated is I would like to keep the interview discreet. I don't want my current company to know about it.

I've considered the following scenarios so far:

  1. Leave early. Since I want to keep my interview discreet, it would involve lying to my colleagues. Additionally, to make things more complicated I have another engagement later during the day, with someone from the company. And I cannot miss that appointment.

This option is basically, at some point going "hey, I need to go, I have a friend I need to meet, but I'll be back for the evening meeting"

  1. Take the entire day off. While it avoids lying and the awkward situation of just disappearing for a few hours and then returning, I fear it would make me interviewing obvious since it's out of the blue and I will have to take others as well, for future interviews.

What is your advice? What would you do in this situation?

Thanks!

user227435
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    What is the policy on taking time off? Does your boss typically ask questions? I've had a boss that would cut you off if you started giving an explanation. He didn't want anyone to feel like it was his business. Others may try to pry into your personal business. Difficult to answer not knowing how things are done where you work. –  Dec 08 '16 at 23:40
  • Thanks for the answer! I am quite lucky to be in a very friendly and non intrusive environment. My manager is a very good guy. I decided on just taking a day off though. I have some to spear so it's alright. – user227435 Dec 08 '16 at 23:44

1 Answers1

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  1. If you lie, you suck. Say that you have to take care of personal business, and don't volunteer anything more to anyone at your workplace. For all they know, you could be meeting your doctor, your real estate agent, your banker, your accountant, your mistress if you have one, Madame Zelda and her crystal ball, your bookie, your probation officer, your FBI handler - even a prospective employer. Whatever. It's none of the business of anyone at your workplace including your management. Your personal business is your personal business, it stays private and you don't have to disclose it to anyone at work. This means that you have the right to keep your court dates to yourself. What I am saying is that there tons of reasons why people take personal time off and why they don't want to disclose their reasons for taking time off.

  2. You may end up taking full days off for interviewing anyway. so ration your personal days carefully.

You can mitigate the impact of your face-to-face interviews by occasionally leaving early or coming in late. Of course, if your workplace is on flex time, your coming in somewhat late and leaving somewhat early will be harder for your management and your co-workers to notice. Lunch time interviews are great - tell them that you have to stop at your bank and make sure that you stop at the bank either before or after you've had your interview.

Vietnhi Phuvan
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  • Thanks for the detailed answer! Indeed, lying is something I don't want to do, it's bad. I took a day off and will schedule future interviews early rather than evening. – user227435 Dec 08 '16 at 23:16
  • Absolutely. Don't juggle, burn a vacation day or ask for an unpaid day off if you're out of vacation. It's your job hunt; it's your responsibility to pay the costs involved. – keshlam Dec 09 '16 at 05:20