A Mumbai-based CEO of a healthy noodle brand revealed that a woman hired for a senior role asked him to meet her husband before accepting the job. Vinod Chendhil said that this request on the woman’s part led to her “instant” rejection.
“Spoke to a candidate today, who wanted us to meet her husband after we had selected her. Instant reject,” Chendhil, the founder and CEO of Naturally Yours, revealed on X. He clarified that this woman had been selected as a “senior level hire”.
“Totally dependent”
The Mumbai-based CEO expressed disappointment at the candidate’s request, seeing it as a sign of excessive dependence on her husband. In a follow-up tweet, he said that the woman wanted her husband to “interview” the CEO to determine whether the company would be a good fit for her.
{{/usCountry}}The Mumbai-based CEO expressed disappointment at the candidate’s request, seeing it as a sign of excessive dependence on her husband. In a follow-up tweet, he said that the woman wanted her husband to “interview” the CEO to determine whether the company would be a good fit for her.
{{/usCountry}}To Chendhil, this suggested that the woman could not take decisions herself, making her unfit for a senior position. He called it a “huge red flag.”
Asked why the woman was rejected, he replied: “Because she wants her husband to say yes for her to join us. Why would an independent woman want that. Basically she wants her husband to interview us to see if it's ok for her to join. Shows she is totally dependent on him. How will she ever take any decisions, if she cannot take a basic one. And she is not an intern to be asking us to speak to someone elder right. Huge red flag.”
“No logic, why would someone want husband approval before joining,” Chendhil wondered in response to another X user’s query.
Good call?
The post drew mixed reactions on X, with many expressing surprise at the woman’s request.
“I have had conversations with female candidate’s parents BUT at intern levels. Mostly to allay any anxiety around their kid being safe & taken care of (it’s their first job, so understood),” wrote an X user named Jaipal, expressing support for the CEO’s decision. “At senior levels, it’s a crazy thing. There’s no way it would have worked. Good call,” he added.
Another entrepreneur revealed they once rejected a candidate who expressed hesitation about moving from Delhi to Bengaluru.
“True. We interviewed a person from Delhi who agreed to join in Bangalore but then said my family may not allow it and we said an immediate no,” recalled DK Agarwal.
Some, however, disagreed with Chendhil. Sakshi Shukla, founder of Saturn Studios, pointed out that women often have a lesser degree of freedom compared to men.
“I hear you. But this isn’t a red flag on her part. (And I’m very aware that yours isn’t a business of empowering women.) But its not a sign that she cannot take decisions — it’s a sign that her family wants to control where she works. You might as well have rejected a really solid candidate just because society is structured in a way that functions against women,” she wrote.
Chendhil replied saying the decision to not hire the woman was based on “other red flags” that cropped up during her three-hour interview.