I did this at the interview for the power plant I’ve been working at for the past 2.5 years. There was a 3 person panel interviewing me and I think they were impressed that I not only asked this but kept asking it through vague bullshit answers. They initially just said “the previous guy left.” And I just sat there for about 10 seconds, waiting for more info than that. Then I said “okay, did he quit, get fired, put in his notice, retire, get demoted, get promoted, become disabled, die off site, die while here…?” He had gone to a different company, but I was uneasy from their hesitance to be forthcoming, so I dug into questions about the culture there, work/life balance, advancement opportunities, safety record, management style, and (maybe my favorite) “what does success in this role look like and how are your feedback and expectations of that communicated to employees?”

They seemed uncomfortable and impatient, but because I already had a decent job at the time I had nothing to lose by swinging my dick around and cutting the bullshit. I highly recommend applying and interviewing for jobs while you’re already reasonably well-employed. It’s great practice, it keeps your resume up to date, you learn real negotiation tactics, and you get to decline offers that aren’t a substantial step up. About a year and a half ago, I did a video interview in my underwear where the manager and supervisor running the interview couldn’t hear me so I was live troubleshooting and resolved their issue. I got an offer, rejected it by telling HR to come back with a higher offer, got the same offer a week later, asked the HR lady why she wasn’t capable of listening to my instructions and was wasting my time with greedy negotiation tactics (which really annoyed her), asked for her name and the name of her supervisor while wholeheartedly rejecting any offer that would come from her, reported the experience to her supervisor, got a call back from the HR lady full of apologies (which I didn’t forgive but thanked her for), and emailed the supervisor I had interviewed with to thank him and let him know that everything sounded great but I couldn’t work for a company whose HR department was that shitty to me before I even verbally accepted an offer. Because of the nature of my industry and our relatively young ages, I told him I wouldn’t be surprised if I wound up working with him somewhere within the next ten years anyway, and I looked forward to that within a company that respects its employees as much as he seems to.

For those who don’t already know, HR exists to fuck the workers in order to benefit the company. Do not trust a goddamn thing HR says. Get everything documented. Record everything they say if it’s legal to do so in your state. If not, draft immediate, timestamped memos (like an email to yourself) of everything that just happened and was said, and be objective with your phrasing.