‘Arrogant’ Woman Slammed for Refusing to Give Recently Laid off Niece Job Referral

A woman on Reddit was roasted after sharing she refused to give her own niece a job referral at her place of employment.

"I am a senior software engineer and work at a local software shop. We aren't super big but we are profitable and make a [business to business] SaaS web app. It is a small company and everyone knows each other really well. I was recently having dinner with my sister whose daughter graduated in CS [computer science] two years ago and was a junior programmer. She worked for iRobot but got laid off recently," she began.

While discussing "tech-related topics," she thought her niece sounded "passionate about the industry," so she mentioned there were some openings at her place of employment.

"She then inquired about job referrals. Since we never really worked together, I told her I could do so but I'd like to ask her a question to gauge her knowledge and would only refer her if she passed," the woman recalled.

After asking her niece an overly complicated question about a complex topic, her niece "failed to produce an efficient answer within 45 minutes and only finally got it after an hour and a half after a hint, so I said I could not refer her but she was free to apply on her own."

Now, the woman's sister is furious and thinks she should "still try to help her and that it was unfair to test her on the spot."

"The thing is I don't want to take any risks as if I did refer her, she would probably get hired as our interviews are very easy and almost all referred candidates get hired. But then if she performed badly after being refereed it would reflect really badly on me. I know the question I asked is not related to the job but I still think it is a good way to test one's intelligence," the woman concluded.

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In the comments section, Reddit users blasted the woman for not wanting to help a family member.

"If you had given her a test question related to the job, that would be reasonable. But you didn't. You came up with a random question you decided was a test of intelligence, totally unrelated to the job. She failed to answer in the time frame you decided would show she was smart enough. Good grief! The arrogance is breathtaking," one person wrote.

"The recommendation is: This is my niece's resume. I haven't worked with her, but if she looks like a good fit, that would be great ... THEN LET THE HIRING MANAGER DO THEIR JOB. There was no need for any of this and if people are mad at you now, oh well," another chimed in.

"You could have referred her by saying, 'My niece has a CS degree and needs a job but I've never worked with her so I don't know her CS capabilities. However, some of her other fine qualities are XYZ.' In fact, you can still do this. If, ya know, you want a positive ongoing relationship with your sister and her family," someone else commented.