Asking tough questions to Hiring Managers

When the recruiter or HM opens up for questions, are you inclined towards asking them tough questions related to the organisation?

Lately I've started asking:

• How were people who were impacted in the latest lay-offs decided?

• Do you believe the team is at risk of lay-offs? In the overall org, where would you place this team in terms of business criticality.

• In case of downsizing how will you ensure that your team is going to be least impacted.

• Questions on talent being fungible, coding practices, knowledge organisation and sharing (hoarding/individual level, team level, org level)

• How does the manager ensure equity in workloads (especially useful for startups).

• Team agreements like stand-up timings, in-out timings, and most importantly, how often were these changed in the last 6m-1y.

Folks, feel free to add to the list! Would love to hear your thoughts.

Managers are supposed to manage teams and be technically competent. Everyone is a champ when times are easy. The true colors are shown only when the going gets tough.

Most of the answers are gonna be template/standardizations. The key is to read between the lines. If the manager is clueless or the body language doesn't inspire any confidence, then it's a red flag.