Mark Stone

I hired a young lady the last week of October. When we do interviews at my company, HR will not allow us to ask "Do you have a car?" - we have to ask "Do you have reliable transportation". She said Yes, and after a lot more questions and the background check and the drug screen, I hired her. She has shown up early for every shift, is always full of energy, does a great job, and is a real joy to work with. Now, over a month later, I found out that she commutes by bicycle! I saw her coming to work today. I said "You ride your bike to work?" She answered "I haven't owned a car in years." A cool discovery to say the least.

bhchdh 

ThermionicScott 

Very cool!

Seems like "Is there any reason you wouldn't be able to come to work regularly, and on time?" is the more pertinent question anyway.

PaulRivers

Ha, that is the first time I've heard of HR implementing useful and awesome policies for interviewing.

mcours2006

Very cool.

No one at my work place rides regularly, let alone to work. They all think I'm nuts anyway.

Matariki

Neat story.

Judging by the proportion of bike commuters to cars near where I work, I would say that it's more likely that cyclists will be more reliable in arriving on time.

joeyduck

That is awesome agree. It shouldn't matter how one gets to work and I think the HR question is spot on.

I got one guy to bike to work but he did so intermittently and has since left. Over the years I have been there there have been five bike commuters not counting myself, two whom I converted. Now there is only me and one other fellow. The other fellow has rode in everyday since he started I figure, I was not there his first few months. But his commute is about 3 km flat roads which is pretty awesome.

I can say I take almost the same amount of time every morning to get there. No traffic jams, construction delays. Just flats (knock on wood) and accidents (knock harder on wood). Any long time commuter knows what to do to prevent issues I think.

Six jours

I had a friend once who tried to hire a woman but when she found out he planned on riding her home on his bicycle, she turned him down.

hueyhoolihan

hey! i was going to say that.

hueyhoolihan

i admit it... i had to read it twice.

Artkansas 

At one place I worked there were 4 of us with the same job title. We worked in two rooms. Two were bicycle commuters who lived over 9 miles away, two were motorists who lived less than a mile from work.

One morning our boss came by asking if my roommate (a motorist) had made it in. I replied that he had not. My boss went to the other office. A few moments later he returned and noted that the other cyclist was there but the motorist had not arrived either. I quipped that perhaps he should hire bicycle commuters who live far away rather than motorists who live close by.

Astrozombie

They should do away with that question entirely, methinks public transportation is more "reliable" than your average car.

Lug

Lucky you to live someplace with reliable public transportation.

Jim from Boston

My job requires that I reliably show up for work, sometimes quickly under urgent circumstances, 24/7 when on call, and I live 14 miles away. I don't punch a clock, but 8:30 AM is a reasonable start time, and I can start working earlier as soon as I arrive. When I was hired, 32 years ago I offered the information that I would commute via bike and train (Commuter Rail station about 0.2 miles away from work, and about 2 miles from home). My employer looked dubious, but might have been desperate.

In my mind, I firmly resolved not to mess up. Besides the train, we do have a car and it’s a reverse commute from downtown to the suburbs. There is also (slow, but regular) bus service; cruising taxis are readily available round the clock in my neighborhood ($70 fare to work), plenty of convenient car rental agencies near home and work, Zipcar service in the neighborhood, and I have a place to stay at work comfortably overnight.

For the first few years, I occasionally had a dream about riding my bike and being far away, or lost, and trying to get there for a crucial task. One other promise I made to myself was never to borrow a car from a co-worker (vs friend or family), but I do bum rides if I the driver is going my way.

I'm well known to be always in early, even in the worst weather, and when I'm in at, or past the usual start time, people worry about me.

Booger1

Good for you.....Where I work,the owner commutes to work...ME!

jrickards

The only time, perhaps, that the mode of transportation to/from work might come up as important is, after hiring, the employer or employee had to make arrangements for a parking spot.

mgw4jc

Be sure to invite said new-hire to drop in on these here forums.

hueyhoolihan

what's the point of asking about the reliability of transportation. is anybody really going to answer, "no, i have no reliable transportation."? ridiculous. just the fact that they answered in the affirmative to such a biased question, is reason enough to eliminate them.

my policy has always been to give the answer that i think will give me the best chance of landing a job. honesty, has no place in an interview. the entire process is a waste of time for everybody concerned. all employment should be on a contingency basis. it doesn't take long to separate the wheat from the chaff.

rumrunn6

nice! on all my interviews I bring it up voluntarily and ask of they have a shower. FYI REI does

Mark Stone

It covers a legal loophole. If I ask "Do you have reliable transportation?" and they answer "yes", then when they start being late or not coming to work because of transportation issues, it allows the employer to terminate for cause and they have no recourse. If the question is not asked, and they have difficulty with attendance because of transportation, they cannot be terminated without progressive discipline (verbal warning, write-up, suspension, etc.)

PatrickGSR94

Nice, I will probably do that also in the future, if I ever change jobs. I love my current position and have been here since graduating college just over 10 years ago. Luckily when my office moved farther from home in 2008, the building we renovated included a shower and a bike rack outside, which got us a LEED point towards our LEED Gold certification. But I became the first person to regularly use the shower (do not use the bike rack, keep bike near desk) just last year in May 2013.

bigbenaugust 

When I hired on here, there was the "will you need to pay for parking?" question (it would then come out of my paycheck)... but they already knew I'd ride to work (something about my interview on bikecommuters.com coming up in google) and so were not shocked when I said no.

jaxgtr

+1, I get the same looks

Dahon.Steve

+1

A bike commuter has to factor extra 15 minutes fix a flat tire in the morning. As a result, you're in early almost every day except when you have a flat tire.

SalsaShark

Worst case scenario for a bicycle commuter is to be "just on time"