, I would like to talk about roles for you applying for roles as a freelancer or a small business owner. I saw a post sometime this week in a group and this particular person was looking for a service provider that could provide graphics and social media support, and they had a Web page with all the information on it. And at the end it said, if you are interested in this role, carefully read through this overview and then email me at and gave the email address.

And then the first question was, tell me about yourself, family background, where you live and what you do. And this was for a. Social media manager, virtual for an organisation, and they're in the health and wellness space, so what I found interesting is the way I'm going to use about this was the tell me about yourself exclamation mark. OK, fine family. Why I should have to tell you anything about my family to be considered for a role in your organisation is beyond me.

You might not be an employer and have to deal with the rules and regulations that generally come with applying for jobs. But the questions that you ask should be will still be relevant to the role that you are hiring. For my family, I mean nothing to you and should mean nothing to you and definitely have nothing to do with my ability or the other person's ability to do the real background. Background can mean many things. Dmae, my ethnic background.

Do you mean my educational background? Do you mean something else? It's not specific. And it also makes me feel a little uncomfortable that you're asking these questions, bearing in mind on this particular website for this organisation, they were a, like I said, in health and wellness, but they didn't seem to be a lot of diversity in what they were doing. Where you live, where I live for virtual again, shouldn't matter if you need me to work in certain time zones.

That is different. But I need you to work from this time zone. Time to this time zone time. But where I live, not necessarily your concern and what you do, that's the important part, what I did. So when you are looking for someone to work with you and you want information about them to find out if they might be a good fit for your role, please do not ask them about their family and their background. Only ask informational questions that are relevant to what you are hiring for and what work you need them to do, because nothing will turn off somebody quicker but is being asked about family.

And I know there's the old saying that, you know, most small organisations make you feel like family. And I've said this before, the podcast episodes. The thing about family is they're overworked and underpaid and treated like trash. So don't treat me like family, treat me like an employee or like a freelancer or like the business owner that I am, whichever level it is there. But please don't treat me like family. And that is also going under the assumption that you have a functional family and not everyone has a functional family.

A lot of people have dysfunctional families or split families or just issues with family or have no family. There's nothing more triggering if you do not have a family than people asking about and assuming about family and being upset when you tell them about your friends, who to you are your family. So just a small net to those of you who are looking to hire people. And for those of you who are looking to be hired, if someone asks about your family, a red flag, if you as someone who is going to hire us about family red flag, don't do it.

I would love to know, dear listeners, are there any other questions or comments that you see from people who are hiring that make you second guess and then think, no, I don't want to work with that human? I would love to know. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired as an introvert. Thank you for listening and have a great rest of your week.