Part 1: Questions and Questionnaires

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Hi Theresa!

I am starting a new thread, and I know how this always seems to make you shudder, roll your eyes, exhale slowly, and furrow your brow. (Oh great! Brent just went where angels fear to tread.) So, here goes!

Delving into Questionnaires

I recently discovered a number of "Candidate Questionnaires" in my files (why yes, I discover things in my files or stacks all the time. My office motto is "A clean desk is the sign of a sick mind." My wife simply shakes her head and closes her eyes when she passes my office, but that is another story). I collect these things, and I thought it would be "fun" to review the questions and their categories, to get specific instead of our normal "sum and run" approach (as in summarize an issue rather broadly, and then get out of town before the shooting starts). In this thread, I would like to look at specific content areas and apply the legal issues to them, and hopefully look at how to address those issues differently (as in reducing any legal potential risk). Once again, I affirm that I am not offering legal advice, and you are offering only general legal observations.

General Types of Questions

I am pretty sure these Qs were part of a pre-screening process, and so it will illustrate the issues we talked about during that time. Looking at all the questions, I think they are broadly divided into categories like personal background and struggles (including sexual), specific health or mental health history, family history, and history of abuse or trauma. Sometimes these questions ask for a narrative response, and other times, they ask for a yes/no response. Sometimes they indicate the questionnaire is returned to the person, or else they don't say anything.

Looking at those categories, I wonder if you have anything to say? Which ones raise yellow flags, red flags, danger signs, etc. Don't go into great detail in your response, because in the following 276.5 posts on this topic (!), I want to talk about specific issues.

Ok, my work here is done. I will let you stew over that for a while. Have fun! Brent

Disclaimer: not official legal or psychological advice or opinion