Hiring follies

[resonant]

One day a week, I work for a nutty and irascible family-owned a floor-refinishing business. This week they're trying to hire a couple of people for the sand-and-finish crews, and man, this is a tragedy -- or at least a lawsuit -- waiting to happen. (Any of y'all want to run a sander? I think it would be cool to be able to do it, but when I use the weight machines at the gym, I'm going, "Isn't there anything lighter than 12.5 pounds?" so probably not.)



I've never told y'all about this place, have I? The business is run out of a garage -- half for the office, half for storing wood and sanders and suchlike -- and they're not allowed to have a sign because they're technically in violation of the zoning ordinance, so they have a big red trailer parked in their lawn with the name of their business on it. Also, a very bored chocolate labrador is usually sprawled out over the entire floorspace, so that you can't put anything in a file without making him shift positions and move his tail to the other side.

Linda, the office manager -- the owner's wife -- is a nice person, but she's also a writhing mass of unacknowledged prejudice. I'm betting she would be genuinely friendly to any individual person she met, but she has a lot of very firm misconceptions about the groups these people may belong to. I'm sure she'd be shocked to hear that this makes her a bigot, but it does.

For instance, one of the guys who came in to fill out an application had a Spanish surname. When he left, she said to me and the bookkeeper, "He'd be good. Those people are always very hard-working."

Then she went on: "The one just before you arrived might be good, too. Black guy -- but he sounded like he had a good work ethic."

Then there's the gender problem. Now, operating a 200-pound belt sander eight hours a day (plus lifting it in and out of a truck) is obviously a job that requires a great deal of physical strength, and evidently it's easier if you weigh more than the sander. Relatively few women are going to meet both those conditions, and it seems to me that it would be perfectly reasonable to say to female applicants, "This job requires you to be very strong, and it helps if you're also very big."

But this isn't what Linda says. What Linda says is, "Well, it's a pretty intense job, and not a lot of girls want to work that hard." She doesn't understand why this caused one female caller to hang up on her. "I didn't mean anything bad by it! I don't want to work that hard, either!"

When the Department of Employement Security called, checking out the job for a female client who's an ex-marine and doesn't want a desk job, the bookkeeper all but grabbed the phone out of Linda's hand. She may save the business yet.

As long as nobody gay applies.

Comments

[celandineb.livejournal.com]

*heaves sigh*

What fools these mortals be...

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

[nods sadly]

[amalthia]

omg, the last one almost killed me. I hope the ex-marine gets it. :)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Me, too, but that's partly because in my head she looks like Cadman.

[fullygoldy.livejournal.com]

oh geez, that reminds me of the time I applied for a construction manager position in Toccoa, GA. They advertised for someone with a CM degree and 1-2 yrs experience. I called.

The crusty good 'ol boy said, "Well honey, what makes you think you can do the job?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's my CM degree and my FIVE years of experience." Then I hung up. I didn't need that shit.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Lord. See, who knows how many good people get weeded out at phone stage like that?

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

the bookkeeper all but grabbed the phone out of Linda's hand. She may save the business yet.
I just had to laugh and laugh at that line.
y'all, it sounds like a 70s tv sitcom around there....

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, one day I'll tell you about the bookkeeper, who's a very nice person with the most Jerry Springer life I've ever heard of. I mean, her husband left her for his cousin.

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Why do people not HEAR themselves? I had a big online argument with a person who couldn't understand that saying "I'm sorry to be such a ghetto mod, but I hate working hard" was offensive. When I responded that she was stigmatizing people by using "ghetto" to mean "lazy, not hard working, always late," she told me rather snippily that I was the one making racial assumptions, and how could anyone think "ghetto" was linked to a racial group?

[kelliem.livejournal.com]

Sounds to me like she could hear herself just fine. She's just completely ignorant.

[shayheyred.livejournal.com]

Good point.

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

You know, I can sort of see her point, because so many ethnic/racial groups have been put in ghettoes over the years, and this is a good thing, because we don't want to appear prejudiced! Hm, how about a WASP ghetto next? Let everyone have a turn to make it fair!

*headdesks* Some people...

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Eep. I understand having some unrecognized bigotry in you -- I've probably got some in me -- but I don't understand this impulse to defend yourself.

I remember in college reading an essay about a group of women who wrote to the authors of major books pointing out that the language in them was sexist. They wrote to Strunk & White about The Elements of Style, and the answer they got was: "I wasn't aware. I'll change it." That's how to respond.

on Elements of Style from Skinner Box

[(Anonymous)]

And they DID change it. I have editions from before and after. (Though only the recent one close to hand, so no illustrative examples, I'm afraid.)

I used to refinish floors (and have the carpal tunnel syndrome to prove it). I wonder if the Hispanic surname would cancel out the gay?

-SB

Re: on Elements of Style from Skinner Box

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh, I imagine as far as Linda is concerned the gay would be an advantage. Those people always have very good taste, y'know.

It's the rest of the guys on the crew I'd worry about. You might have to menace them with an edger a time or two to make them show some respect.

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

When the Department of Employement Security called, checking out the job for a female client who's an ex-marine and doesn't want a desk job, the bookkeeper all but grabbed the phone out of Linda's hand. She may save the business yet.

As long as nobody gay applies.


Um... I hate to suggest it, and I'm sure there are lots of het gals who are ex-marines, but I'll give you odds that most of 'em aren't applying to wrassle floor sanders in and out of vans. You might hint to your manager that if she don't ask, most applicants won't tell.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I actually think a lesbian would do better among these people than a gay man, as long as she was the sort who could give as good as she got. A woman, the guys would test, and if she could behave like one of the guys, then she would be one of the guys. A gay man would be a constant threat, I'm afraid.

[akite.livejournal.com]

Well, at least your boss interviews people. Mine spends $500+ for a newspaper ad and never takes time to even call potenial applicants back, much less interview anyone. Or he'll hire the first loser through the door, and they last two weeks if we're lucky.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Oh dear.

[raveninthewind.livejournal.com]

o.O


*is speechless*

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

That was pretty much me.

[lamardeuse.livejournal.com]

Yikes. Just yikes.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

[nods sadly]

"those people"

[kormantic.livejournal.com]

Dude.

Re: "those people"

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

And the sad thing is, she'd be shocked at this conversation. "But I said nice things about both of them!"

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

That is a really dangerous line of work! I hope that even though they aren't careful about non-discriminatory hiring practices, that they are SUPER careful about the safety stuff.

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

I don't know whether they are or not, but in the eighteen months I've known them, the only injuries I've heard about have been guys throwing their backs out.

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

A house burnt to the ground around the corner from me in an accident involving floor refinishing. Okay, I'm not trying to freak you out though! Safety and ventilation!