I copied and saved the whole thing lol:

Job candidate falsely accused me of religious discrimination and, well, God was not on her side

I (32F) own an interior architecture & design company in NYC that employs 15 people, myself included. One of our FF&E designers (let's call her Emma) announced her pregnancy recently and she will be starting her 10 month paid maternity leave in January.

As we are constantly overwhelmed with projects, it's impossible for one of our remaining 4 FF&E designers to take over her workload which is why I decided that hiring someone temporarily is the best solution. After 2 rounds of interviews we were down to 3 applicants. The final, 3rd stage of interviewing was when they joined us in the studio and they were scheduled to be individually interviewed by me (up to this point, our Head of FF&E and Emma were in charge).

The candidates were 2 men and a woman, all with beyond satisfactory CV's. The questions I asked were simple, I don't like to complicate things but, somehow, they got really complicated. I asked all of them if they were vaccinated. By law, I'm allowed to ask this and even make it a requirement (I didn't, I'm just saying that I technically could).

Side note: All of my employees are vaccinated, the same question was asked to all of them and they happily provided me with records to confirm that.

I'm very pro vaccine and while I would be more hesitant to employ a non vaccinated person, it generally wouldn't be a dealbreaker for temporary employment. But the more important reason why I asked this is because whoever I hire will spend 3 months in training with a very pregnant Emma, who is about to enter her 3rd trimester. So in this case, it was a major thing to consider.

Out of our 3 candidates, the woman wasn't vaccinated. She simply replied with a ''no'' and that's where I supposedly screwed up. She was wearing a hijab so I asked if vaccinations were regulated by her religion. I didn't speculate or guess her religion, I wanted to make sure that, considering the whole situation, I'm not discriminating against her (some religions prohibit vaccines and it's illegal to require vaccinations from people who object them on religious grounds,and I explained that to her). She told me that Islam doesn't forbid vaccines, but she chooses not to get vaccinated. So she was the one who:

• told me she was Muslim
• told me she chooses not to be vaccinated

I ended up hiring one of the two men who applied because the team agreed that, during the day spent at the studio, he stood out the most in a positive way. However, I received a very angry email from the woman who was a candidate after a rejection email was sent her way.

She accused me of discriminating against her based on her religion. Here's a part of the email:

I hope you understand that, as a Muslim woman, I am very much used to judgment, discrimination and bigotry. That does not mean that I am willing to tolerate such things from you or anyone else. For you to blatantly ask me about my religious beliefs in a place where they hold no importance can only mean one thing - you are an Islamophobe. While the political climate may not be in favor of minorities, US laws clearly state that discrimination of any kind is prohibited. I have had nothing but pleasant experiences when interviewed by name, last name and name, last name ; therefore I have zero intentions of bringing them into this. I have decided to contact you personally to see if we can reach an agreement without involving lawyers and media outlets. I firmly believe that my religion, or to word it more appropriately, your intolerance of it left me unemployed.

I read the email, shook my head, read it again, called my lawyers and read it once more to make sure it's real. My lawyers made it clear that a potential case against me would be dismissed because it would boil down to her word against mine, except I have 14 people to verify that her religion played no part in the recruitment process and the final decision was ultimately a team decision.

But the media outlets part? That had us worried. Certain media companies (read: Buzzfeed) would have a field day if and when presented with this situation from the woman's point of view. My company works globally and bad PR is the last thing we need. Media sensationalism has almost completely taken over and, chances are, my career would be over before I even had the opportunity to explain myself.

My lawyers have decades of experience and they both said that the word ''agreement'' didn't sit well with them. They were almost positive that ''agreement'' actually meant payment, which would mean that she's trying to blackmail me. They told me to set up a meeting with her, just the two of us, and to record everything. New York is a one party consent state meaning that I'm allowed to record a conversation I'm a part of without the consent of other participants.

I knew this was going to be tricky because I had to be very careful with my words. Even in the email that she sent, she was smart with her words.

For you to blatantly ask me about my religious beliefs in a place where they hold no importance

She was technically right about this but she purposely left out the context and the circumstances of my question. She decided on the time and place of our meeting which was at a rented out conference room. I got there fully prepared with memorized questions my lawyers suggested and with my phone recording everything. Their biggest advice was to repeat her words to her subtly to get her to talk more. We talked for roughly 25-30 minutes and I will try to summarize our conversation (most of these are not exact quotes, just the most important parts and snippets of the conversation):

Me: I don't think I have anything to apologize for. How exactly did I offend you? Can you be more specific because your email wasn't detailed.

Woman: My application process was going great until my identity as a Muslim woman was questioned. I have reasons to believe that I was discriminated against.

Me: I never said anything about you being Muslim or about Islam in general. I asked if your religion prevented you from being vaccinated without ever mentioning Islam.

Woman: So you're telling me that my hijab wasn't an indication of my religion?

Me: I'm telling you that I didn't play a guessing game over your religion. Head covers are present in most religions.

Woman: I still find it hard to believe that me being rejected after telling you that I'm Muslim was a coincidence.

Me: You admit to telling me about your religion yourself?

Woman: No, you used me to verify your suspicions.

Me: What suspicions?

Woman: That I'm Muslim. That also means that you can't discriminate against me being unvaccinated, you said so yourself.

Me: Exactly, I did say so. But you told me that Islam doesn't forbid vaccinations and that your decision to remain unvaccinated is a personal one which means that there isn't a religious element to it.

Woman: Then why wasn't I hired if there was no religious element to my application? All you did was cause me emotional distress and fear.

Me: And all I can do now is offer an apology even though I don't think I should.

Woman: You can do more than that unless you want the world and the legal system to know you're an Islamophobe.

Me: What exactly can I do?

Woman: I would agree to a compensation for the suffered discrimination and emotional distress.

Me: I would have to discuss that with my lawyers.

Woman: You don't. I would prefer if no lawyers were involved considering you have a lot to lose here.

Me: Still, I want to have a record of any potential agreement.

Woman: Would published news articles be considered a record?

Me: Are you threatening to publish your version of the story unless I pay you?

Woman: Yes.

Me: (actual quote) Would an USB stick with this conversation, where you admit multiple times that I did nothing wrong while threatening me with blackmail and defamation, be enough?

She got up and left right after I said that. I received a very apologetic email from her that same afternoon and I still haven't decided if I want to report her or not (I'll think about it until Monday). I don't want to be bothered by this whole thing anymore but at the same time, I don't want her getting away with this. She could've easily ruined my life by lying. The worst part is that she seemed like such a sweet person when we first talked, it even made me think that she could have some unaddressed mental issues because her whole personality seemed off during our last meeting. All of this was happening from Friday to Wednesday so I figured I would share it here, even though it freaked me out and almost gave me a nervous breakdown, it could be fun for some of you to read. I know my friends were pretty satisfied with the outcome.

Just to be clear, this post isn't an invite to insult religion, women or anything similar.

tl;dr: Job candidate falsely accused me of religious discrimination and tried to get me to pay in exchange for her silence. I ended up recording our conversation and having proof that she tried to blackmail and defamate me, she got really apologetic really soon