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That’s it. Are you leaving now?

One of my common questions in every interview is:

“Why do you want to leave your current job?”

It is a very important question according to me. It tells you if the candidate is just job-hopping or there is a genuine reason behind the change.

I get different answers but one type of answer is very common.

Recently a candidate told me, when he leaves for the day at 8PM or 9PM after working for more than 10 hours, his boss would tell him:

“That’s it. Are you leaving now!!?”

And this is the company he has been working with for more than 2-3 years. No doubt people are leaving that company (supposedly a good one).

This kind of mentality is killing the morale of knowledge workers but it is good for companies like ours.

We expect our employees to give 40 hours average throughput per week. Anything more than that is not helping anybody. It is true that once in a while you have to slog but that shouldn’t become a habit.

Have you encountered a question like this before from your supervisor?

No? – Good for you and your company.

Yes? – Well, We are hiring! 🙂