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Comment by codezero | Hacker News Reader

It strikes me that asking "Who was the last person to quit, and why?" is a big faux pas in this area. Am I wrong, or is it common/OK to ask this kind of question?

It's been my experience that very few people "quit." Separations from startups tend to be very neutral, leaving it ambiguous whether someone quit or was let go. It's not hard to read between the lines, but discussions about this are not very up-front.

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That does strike me as kind of rude, plus companies tend to not want to discus HR issues pertaining to other people since it's a potential legal problem.

Asking about previous employees is no more rude than asking an employee for references. If a company has a history of lots of employee churn that's a big warning sign.

When you ask for a reference it's usually because the potential employee has said it is ok to do so.

You'll never get a straight answer on that. If a company told you the truth, I imagine they're opening a door for a lawsuit. You'll get the standard "left to pursue other opportunities / spend time with family / personal reasons" bullshit. Same reason that references are a waste of time: unless a reference really loved you, they'll forward you to HR to verify dates of employment. In my opinion, a reference is never going to give you even a tiny bit of negativity, and will only serve to reinforce a positive impression.

I generally ask any company about their "churn" rate. I think it would be pretty silly not to. You are interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you, why just ask easy questions that let them hide the actual situation?

Yeah, this is much less personal. An "average" over all people seems more appropriate (though still risks making some people feel a bit awkward, I think).

One reason to avoid these kinds of questions is because they can appear aggressive and people may not want to work with someone who is so up front on something that may or may not actually determine how well they can do their job, though obviously, churn can affect the over all work environment so it's good to know, but I think for most startups with <100 people you can easily figure this out on your own.

I've asked folks in interviews "have you ever had to fire anyone". It's an interesting question.

It's only a faux pas if the company you're talking to sucks. Great companies love hard questions.

I'd love to hear anecdotes from people who've actually asked this question and whether or not they got good answers and they ended up working/not working there because of it.

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