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Unfair Hiring Practices and Discrimination

MyFinalRest

MyFinalRest

Bluelighter
Joined
Aug 22, 2011
Messages
2,099
Location
Corporate Buttsecks
I'm interested in your thoughts, opinions, and stories about what's wrong with the hiring process.

Topics can include:

Nepotism
Unemployment Discrimination
Failure to follow policy
Racial/Gender Discrimination
Religious Discrimination
Disqualified for lack of experience when it's an entry level job?

and other instances of and thoughts on all manners of bullshit....
 
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MyFinalRest said:
A good article on unemployment discrimination:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/...641.html#s321678&title=Frankel_Staffing_Entry

Here's what NYC is doing about it:
http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/new-york-citys-new-far-reaching-unempl-67582/
They have a cool City Council that overrode Bloomberg's earlier veto of the bill. Suck on that, Bloomberg!
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i think that's horse shit. i won't even send a fucking consultant to one of my clients. top performers typically don't get laid off, unless they're given the option of staying or taking a massive severance. if someone has been out of work for a couple of months, that's one thing....but when you start talking about a year to two years, i see no reason why someone would want to hire them when there is better passive talent out there.

it's not discrimination, it's hiring the best person for the job that will more positively affect your organization. job hoppers and people that have been out of work get put to the back of the line.

age discrimination kind of bugs me, though. i see it every day. it's unfortunate, because a lot of those guys/gals are really fucking good.

i pretty much get paid to discriminate. i get my clients what they want. and that's just how it is. they pay my bills.
 
a lot of people who are unemployed are "really fucking good" too...

the two times in my life that i've been involuntarily unemployed it's because the company i was working for folded.

alasdair
 
ChickenScratch said:
i if someone has been out of work for a couple of months, that's one thing....but when you start talking about a year to two years, i see no reason why someone would want to hire them when there is better passive talent out there.

it's not discrimination, it's hiring the best person for the job that will more positively affect your organization. job hoppers and people that have been out of work get put to the back of the line.
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In this economy, you can't really say that somebody is a shitty "performer" due to length of unemployment. The jobs just aren't out there. Does taking up employment at McDonald's really help someone move back into the career game they left off at?

I also find that "job hoppers" are loved by employers these days. These people are staying at their current jobs until they find another one, but they are likely devoting a massive amount of time during their work day applying to different places and guess what? To employers they look like "hard-working," experienced folks who are so damn good they even currently employed!

Unemployment gives a false impression that the person is unwanted. Employers aren't putting any thought into the hiring process and just figuring, well if nobody else hired this person I'm not taking the risk. You know sometimes, these golden profiled people with the perfect work history are really pieces of shit too.

What if a woman got married and raised kids but got divorced and needs to return to her career? How do you know so much about a person by seeing a gap in their work history? You don't. That's the horseshit.

i pretty much get paid to discriminate. i get my clients what they want.
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Are you getting paid right now? Do your clients like it when you post on BL?
 
i work on commission, so i'm only hurting myself by playing on BL. i'm also streaming the masters.

this economy has given most companies an excuse to trim the fat, and get rid of average players. i've stayed busy through the entire downfall of this economy, mainly trying to convince A players, that are currently employed, to take a job i'm working on.

job hoppers are certainly not loved by employers. if you're a job hopper, you're absolutely not going to be able to work with a recruiter, because nobody is going to pay a fee for an unreliable employee. bottom line.

i agree that employers don't put enough thought into the hiring process. trust me, if i could get every candidate i talk to a job, i absolutely would, and i'd be filthy fucking rich, too. but i sell a fatally flawed product, a human being. sure, many of the A players are pieces of shit. they cheat, steal and lie their way to the top. that's life.

you seem pretty bitter and angry. are you currently looking for a job? it's frustrating as fuck, so i understand.
 
ChickenScratch said:
you seem pretty bitter and angry. are you currently looking for a job? it's frustrating as fuck, so i understand.
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Well, yes. But don't worry...I stay like this because my heart bleeds for the injustices and struggle that everyone is going through.

It does suck balls to spend lots of time for the past two months writing up cover letters and resumes and doing other job search activities to think that nobody even bothered to take a look at them.
It's human nature to get pissed when you are perfectly qualified and nobody even bothers to interview you or even ask you a few questions.
 
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i work in a field (math/finance) and region (american southeast) notorious for bias, and i think my department is as diverse as statistically possible. even split by gender and ethnicity (american, chinese, indian, middle-eastern, african), and the c-level executive we report to is female.
 
There are many systemic failures in the education/employment system.

The forecasting of required skills is terrible. People are expected to pick a specialty at a young age, spend years training for it, then get a job in it. However you can be told your specialty is in demand, spend 4 or more years studying and be stuck in an over-saturated industry where you can't get work. A general study system would be better then people get a job, and do continuous lifelong learning. Apprenticeships unfortunately have fallen out of favour for everyone but the trades in North America.

Corporate America has been racing for the bottom for some time now, so the best way to get a raise is to jump ship, which has killed long term carriers in favour of short term jobs and contracts which harms efficiency and overall productivity.
 
I work in a field that you would *expect* to be dominated by straight white males who are right-wing/conservative with minimal education or education in business or whatever. (Armed Forces.)

But there is good representation of all sorts of minorities. My current partner is a Bisexual male. I've worked with Bi and lesbian females, black girls, brown guys, people with science degrees, people with arts degrees, very left wing people, centerists, gay men, and more or less every sort of people except those with severe physical or mental disabilities (because they would legit be incapable of meeting the standards of the job.)
 
A huge contributor to unemployment right now is people unwilling to work their way up. Some people have a sense of entitlement, I.e. "I deserve $60K/year, no less!" or they only want a specific job. They turn down jobs that aren't exactly what they want title-wise or salary-wise. Thing is, beggars can't be choosers. It's better to take a job while you continue searching for a better one, than to have an "all or nothing" mentality.
 
too generic a topic to really speak about. see your local antidiscrimination laws and agencies who enforce those laws for more information. i commonly refer to the information in the human rights commission, but that info may not apply where you are.
 
Tude said:
A huge contributor to unemployment right now is people unwilling to work their way up. Some people have a sense of entitlement, I.e. "I deserve $60K/year, no less!" or they only want a specific job. They turn down jobs that aren't exactly what they want title-wise or salary-wise. Thing is, beggars can't be choosers. It's better to take a job while you continue searching for a better one, than to have an "all or nothing" mentality.
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I don't think people are being this picky at all in this economy. It's more like people with Master's degrees are refusing to take jobs at McDonald's - and I can't blame them!

People are having to settle for one or more part-time jobs and that shit is hardly worth the effort if you are out of high school and trying to make it on your own.
 
rangrz said:
I work in a field that you would *expect* to be dominated by straight white males who are right-wing/conservative with minimal education or education in business or whatever. (Armed Forces.)

But there is good representation of all sorts of minorities. My current partner is a Bisexual male. I've worked with Bi and lesbian females, black girls, brown guys, people with science degrees, people with arts degrees, very left wing people, centerists, gay men, and more or less every sort of people except those with severe physical or mental disabilities (because they would legit be incapable of meeting the standards of the job.)
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This doesn't surprise me at all. In terms of race, the military is very welcoming to people of every type. There is very little bullshit involved and there are almost no personal favors given. The process is clear cut and fair....nothing at all like the corporate sleaze culture of the merchant classes. Thus, I am not surprised that private corporate administration is dominated by white men.

As for homo and bisexuality...well, you get to be shacked up with a bunch of hard-bodied young studs on many a night!
 
Tude said:
A huge contributor to unemployment right now is people unwilling to work their way up. Some people have a sense of entitlement, I.e. "I deserve $60K/year, no less!" or they only want a specific job. They turn down jobs that aren't exactly what they want title-wise or salary-wise. Thing is, beggars can't be choosers. It's better to take a job while you continue searching for a better one, than to have an "all or nothing" mentality.
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source?

also, employers don't want to hire people who are over-qualified because they assume they're going to leave as soon as they get a better offer.
 
Tude said:
A huge contributor to unemployment right now is people unwilling to work their way up. Some people have a sense of entitlement, I.e. "I deserve $60K/year, no less!" or they only want a specific job. They turn down jobs that aren't exactly what they want title-wise or salary-wise. Thing is, beggars can't be choosers. It's better to take a job while you continue searching for a better one, than to have an "all or nothing" mentality.
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Good post, although I'm not sure exactly how much this contributes to actual unemployment statistics. Beggars can't be choosers in this economy. I'm a firm believer in the take what you can get policy. Sometimes you have to suck hind tit...this is the world we live in.

double ewe said:
source?

also, employers don't want to hire people who are over-qualified because they assume they're going to leave as soon as they get a better offer.
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This is also true. At one time in my life I needed a job more than I needed my pride and I was hired because I left my college education off my resume and application.
 
MyFinalRest said:
As for homo and bisexuality...well, you get to be shacked up with a bunch of hard-bodied young studs on many a night!
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Well, we've accepted openly gay members since the 80's up here. (I think 1982 when The Charter came into force. But I might be wrong and it may have been a few years after due to delayed entering into force clause or something.)
 
In retail, you get asked if you smoke. If you do, they probably won't hire you because that means you're going to take each of your 10 min breaks. :P
 
I think it's up to that company to hire whoever they see fit for whatever reason.

All youre asking them to do is to just lie and say they didnt hire you because of a fake reason.
 
Things like nepotism are not common in the sense people think of it. It is very common for jobs to be filled through references from employees, to family members, friends etc. But this is more because an employer likely trusts and respects the judgement of a person that they chose to hire, and a person is not goign to reccomend someone they aren't confident in for a job at the company they work for. So it provides a pretty safe bet for the employer, safer than picking someone after interviewing them for half an hour. The kind of nepotism we stereotypically think about, where someone totally unqualified and inept get's a job due to some connection, I think is very uncommon, at least in Western democratic countries.

A business is out to make money and hiring practices will follow from that. And the whole legal aspect of trying to enforce job discrimination is just impossible. It's a legal mess and HR departments are designed around getting the best employee and steering around all the pitfalls - not adopting the government style of hiring where you actually choose your hires based on factors other than their suitability for the job. I mean some girl walks into the interview and is obviously pregnant, no employer wants someone to come in for a couple months then be gone a year on maternity leave. So of course HR departments are very careful about the questions they ask and steer far clear of anything that could be considered discrimination. But she doesn't get the job, how on earth can you prove the employers reason? Maybe it was because she's pregnant, maybe she was less qualified. But maybe she was more qualified and the other guy impressed them in the interview more. There's no law saying an employer has to hire the person with the best qualifications on their resume.

So really, employers discriminate based on characteristics which determine a person's suitability for the job.
 
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