Should I worry about a company if hiring manager acts unprofessionally?

Question

I applied to a company and on the onsite interview, my Future Manager and the team showed how they are impressed with my CV and test assignment I made, which felt intense. After that Hiring Manager started the process with me. I had HR interview and then reference call.

Although I’m happy with the team, position, and salary, I have a strong concern about Hiring Manager. For example, she could call me at 9pm to assign interview call (instead of emailing). Promises to make a reference call on Monday and do that on Tuesday. They stretched the process into two weeks instead of one (as was arranged). She was 1.5 hours late on offer call. She texts to me calling me «my dear». And in the end, she sent job contract, where she made significant mistakes: apparently copy pasted someone's contract and didn’t replace all dates and names. She specified the wrong position (Junior instead of Senior) and when I asked her, is that position correct, she confirmed without any concern.

My Future Manager is aware of all these things and apologized a few times. But he seems passive and does nothing.

Does the behavior of Hiring Manager reflect the culture in the company? Is it ok, that my Future Manager doesn’t have any leverages on the process?

Update: I asked my Future Manager to make corrections in the contract. He promised that will be done in 2 days. Instead (without any notification of being late), he connected me to Hiring Manager 1.5 week later, who concerns about my cultural fit because of my complaints regarding mistakes in the contract(lol?). I dropped the contract.

Answer 1

This would be a red flag for me. Nobody's perfect, but the behavior of the hiring manager shows a severe lack of healthy professional boundaries. A 9 PM phone call? Addressing you as "my dear"? Mistakes in your formal offer? Nooo!

What's worse is that your manager is unfazed by the behavior, which would tell me that such behavior at that business is considered acceptable by the people that are already there. Kristina, since you seem to have that nagging little voice inside your head that's telling you something's wrong, listen to it!!!

Or you might learn the hard way - like discovering that not getting you a paycheck on time is also something considered to be acceptable.

Maya Angelou : "When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time."

Answer 2

Does the behavior of Hiring Manager reflect the culture in the company?

Not necessarily.

Managers over time do tend to reflect the culture of the company. In part, that is their job. Additionally, the culture of the company by definition changes them.

But if the HR person ("Hiring Manager") is new, or trying to change the culture, they initially may not reflect the culture at all. Eventually they must either change the culture, fit in or look elsewhere.

Is it ok, that my Future Manager doesn’t have any leverages on the process?

Not all managers have a lot of influence within a company and fewer have influence over HR practices.

And while it might be nice to hook your wagon to someone with major influence over HR practices, it's not essential to a good job.

Should I worry about a company if hiring manager acts unprofessionally?

In general, if you are getting a bad feeling about your potential future manager (or any aspect of the company culture) and that feeling is strong enough, you should consider if you really want to work for this company or not.

You may have a lot of interactions with your manager, and in many ways your manager controls your career within the company.

It's very common for people who choose to leave to cite their relationship with their boss as the top reason. You can search for "top reasons people quit", for example: https://www.thebalance.com/top-reasons-why-employees-quit-their-job-1918985

On the other hand, you may have very little interaction with the HR rep after you are hired. Their behavior probably shouldn't concern you much, but you should always listen to your own feelings.

Answer 3

Is the hiring manager someone you'd have any dealings with if you were to start working there?

If not and everyone else you've dealt with has been ok (which it seems like they have) then I wouldn't overly worry about it. Every organisation has individuals who are a bit of PITA to deal with and it doesn't necessarily imply that the whole company or culture is like that. The fact that your potential future manager has a apologized is something I would take as a good sign - and I wouldn't be worrying about their apparent passivity over the issue. It's unlikely they have direct authority over the Hiring Manager to make them change and this may well not be the first time they have had to run the gauntlet, if they have voiced concerns about it before and not got anywhere then I can appreciate that they might just have to grit their teeth and get through it.

Answer 4

To be honest, I think this is a matter of your personal preference. Calling at 9:00 PM and calling you "my dear", might seem very unprofessional, but it isn't necessarily so, it is just very informal (she might argue friendly).

So you may not like this level of informality (or especially being called "my dear") - a lot of people don't and that's fine, but if you don't mind that then I wouldn't be worried by it. I think it's simply the personality of the hiring manager.

It's conceivable that the same could apply to the lateness of the other stuff.

What you could do is find out how long the company have been in business - if it's a long time then it's a good sign they don't let it interfere with their actual work.