My friend tried applying to a warehouse/retail job (name redacted for the sake of avoiding a lawsuit) and they told me that they were really nervous about applying because they've been rejected by this same company multiple times before and that they felt they had something going for themselves finally. They went through their 1st interview with flying colors, despite being nervous.
They get to their 2nd interview, their anxiety got worse that day. So much so that they had a panic attack post interview in their car. They were told by another worker who recommended the job that the DM was a very intimidating woman with elevated standards of how potential employees are supposed to present themselves during an interview (i.e. constantly displaying a positive attitude for everything, not being anxious, staying in a job for more than a year). They looked down on my friend for having anxiety and even went about commenting it to the store manager and it went down the grapevine to the worker that recommended the job to them.
This same DM tried sprinkling in other bullshit excuses for not hiring my friend, claiming that they were “dodging/avoiding” certain answers to questions (they're neurodivergent and they answer statements in a very blunt manner, I know how they talk and it is very much an issue for them to simply “dodge a question”) and that they were upset they didn't hold a job for longer than a year despite the fact that they moved out of their home and have only been loving in that new state for only a year and a week. They keep their personal life very private and they felt no need in sharing why it is that there we some jobs that they didn't stay longer than a set amount of time in.
They even went through the trouble of truthfully admitting that they worked as a seasonal for Costco and was not chosen because their hiring rate is so insanely low while keeping to themselves that they were abused by a manager in that location practically every day that they worked there. They informed the DM why the more recent job before leaving their home state has such a short duration was because they moved last year to live where they are now, it was something that was beyond their control. They were threatened by their own father to leave the home they were staying at because he was and still is an abusive piece of shit.
What I want to know, so that this may be passed down to my friend, is this on the grounds of contacting the Department of Labor to report this incident or could this be mere coincidence? This frankly feels unfair given how many jobs they apply to only to have rejections in their emails or never hearing from these work places.
Be honest and open on what you think. My friend's current job sucks ass and is struggling to make ends meet financially while they keep trying their hand at a new job. They ate severely in debt from medical bills and other past financial incidents that occurred due to moving out. I just am trying to look out for them and part of me feels like they were wholly discriminated against for having mental issues that have not been kept in check because they cannot afford the medical attention to remedy their issues.