-by Kirstin Ferguson

I complained about my job in an interview, and it got back to my boss. Help?

I went for a job interview at a company in the same industry, and during the interview, I explained, professionally, issues at my current workplace, and why I wanted to leave. Someone who had sat in on the interview called someone they knew at my current job and told them of everything I said. Now, my boss is ignoring me, excluding me from team emails and barely gives me the time of day. It has caused a lot of damage between my boss and me, and I didn’t get the other role. Surely, what you say in a job interview is supposed to be confidential?

You have been dealt with extremely poorly and unprofessionally – it is completely unacceptable that anything you say in an interview for a new job would be shared with anyone, let alone your current employer. This is a tricky situation for you to navigate, as you have discovered, and it is hard to know how you can best work through this, other than look to move on as soon as you can. The behaviour of your boss now, though, is also unacceptable and unprofessional. If it continues, and you feel forced to resign, you may have a claim for bullying, and you can seek advice from the Fair Work Commission about that.

One thing I would advise for your next interview is to try to speak to generalities of issues that are happening at your current workplace. This is not in case someone was to breach confidentiality again (although it will help), but because it never looks good in an interview to speak badly of your current workplace, regardless of how much they may deserve it and no matter how professionally you do so. Try to speak to generalities of why you might want to leave and then pivot the conversation focus back to what you hope to gain from your new employer – not what you hope to get away from with your old one.

Nevertheless, this should never have happened, and I really hope you can find a fresh start soon.