I have a hard time answering why I’m looking to leave my current employer. The truth is they don’t treat their people well and I want to be respected. How do I answer this question without making it seem like I’m bad mouthing my employer?

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Honestly, I would be direct, and most importantly concise.

The risk in 'badmouthing' previous employers is that, if done poorly, you could be perceived as petty, resentful, unprofessional, and hard to get along with. The risk of whitewashing the experience is the interviewer may pick up that you're concealing something and wrongly assume it's because you're the guilty party.

You can negate those risks if you can relate the story in a way that paints you as a mature, professional, positive person who got tangled up with an employer who is not those things.

Some tactics to support that strategy.

- paint your experience with this one employer as a singular blip in a career that's been otherwise characterized by collegial relationships of mutual respect between yourself and your employers.

- if there's a short anecdote that illustrates the toxic culture, that can seem more objective than just sharing your judgement of the employer as 'not treating people well.' Maybe don't offer this off the bat, but serve it up if they dig more.

- keep the explanation concise and pay attention to your tone. Over-explaining will cause the incident to dominate the memory of your interviewer. Overly bitter or overly jovial tone will also make this a more memorable part of your interview, which you don't want.

- avoid character attacks on your coworkers - e.g. calling them idiots. Stick to a 'just the facts' account of their behavior. Your listener will come to the 'idiot' or 'abusive' judgement on their own.

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Wow! Thank you so much for this! I used the upfront approach today and it felt much better and they were totally understanding of the situation!

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I am wondering this myself, I have a couple of interviews coming up and am expecting this question. Some options I've considered...

- Looking for a new challenge. If I am going to continue to grow I need to keep learning. I feel I can do that better at [your company].

- I want to move into more of a leadership role. My current position doesn't really offer me that opportunity.

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