A recent report suggests that female job candidates for Bill Gate’s private office were subjected to sexually explicit questioning regarding their personal lives.
According to the Wall Street Journal, some female candidates for Bill Gate’s private office, Gates Ventures, were asked questions during the screening process such as whether the candidates had ever engaged in an extramarital affair, if they kept nude photos on their cell phones and what their preference was regarding pornography.
Some female candidates also indicated that they were asked if they had previously “danced for dollars,” while at least one candidate said she was asked if she had ever contracted a sexually transmitted disease.
Other candidates were questioned about prior drug usage and additional details concerning their private lives. The Wall Street Journal noted that the sexually explicit questioning was meant to indicate whether a candidate could be “vulnerable to blackmail.”
“This line of questioning would be unacceptable and a violation of Gates Ventures’ agreement with the contractor,” a spokesperson for Gates Ventures said in response to the report. “We have never received information from any vendor or interviewee in our 15+ year history that inappropriate questions were asked during the screening process. We can confirm, that after a comprehensive review of our records, no employment offer has ever been rescinded based on information of this nature.”
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Gates Ventures reportedly has used Concentric Advisors, a private security consulting firm, over the past several years to conduct screenings of potential candidates to ensure that candidates are not susceptible to blackmail.
Despite the allegations, Concentric Advisors maintains that the company’s screening process follows any applicable employment laws.
Gates Ventures has also pushed back against the allegations, which experts have indicated could be in violation of state and federal employment discrimination laws, according to the Wall Street Journal.
“Our hiring process is conducted with the utmost respect for every candidate, with a zero-tolerance policy for all participants, including service providers, who break this principle. Further, any implication of a connection between Bill Gates’ personal history and an independent background check process, identical for men and women, is outrageous,” a Bill Gates spokesperson told Fox News.
Reports of the alleged criteria used to screen candidates for Gates Ventures has led experts in the field to question the Bill Gates’s pre-employment methods.
“I have never encountered that kind of questioning in a pre-employment background investigation in the private sector,” Daniel Karson, former business investigations executive at Kroll Associates, said.
