I’ve been looking for work for about two months now after the company I was working for lost a contract and announced it would have to make some of us redundant. So have my co-workers.
I’ve been advised of several job opportunities through two major recruiting companies I registered with.
Strangely, one of my co-workers who is also registered with them has not.
I have a university degree. I’m in my late 30s. My co-worker is too, being 2 years older than me. My co-worker has almost the same degree. I have 10 years experience in my field. My co-worker has 12. I have extensive training, experience and skills in my field. So does my co-worker, they have better experience than me really. I have a good work history, no complaints, nothing dodgy, no issues. The same with my co-worker. I was born in England. My co-worker was born in Australia. I had a security clearance, so did my co-worker. I have short, neatly cropped hair and am well presented. My co-worker has hair down past her shoulders and is reasonably presented. I wear ties and a suit. She wears dresses or skirts and a blouse. I’m straight. My co-worker doesn’t talk about her sexuality, but when prompted, once mentioned she is a lesbian, and does not hide that, but nor does she go out of her way to make it known. I have a nice Anglo Saxon name. My co-worker has a name that took me a week to learn to pronounce and longer to learn how to spell properly.
I’ve been told I have the right image, attitude and cultural fit the recruiting companies are looking for. My co-worker has not heard those terms mentioned.
I have been put forward for five jobs. My co-worker has been put forward for none.
I read this article about skills being overlooked in favour of cultural fit.
It seems to me, that’s the new term these days for discrimination. Being hired for attitude and cultural fit over skills and experience? It does seem very discriminatory when I’m being put forward for jobs that I know my co-workers is better qualified for. Until I asked if she had been advised of those jobs I wasn’t even aware of this sort of thing. Though speaking to other co-workers with foreign sounding names, this is quite a common experience in Canberra. My Aboriginal co-worker said they don’t bother using the major recruiting companies anymore because they’ve never been put forward for a single job ever.
I’ve woken up to discrimination. My co-worker has experienced it for years.
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LSWCHP said :
+1. This is how I recruit also. There are lots of people (regardless of background) who have poor communication skills. When you find people who not only fit the technical criteria but also have good communication skills and are personable enough to work with, hire them.
Slightly off topic, but…
Last night on the ABC news I saw some appalling footage from the Ukraine where the 2012 UEFA championships will shortly be held. It showed stadiums full of idiots giving the Nazi salute, a bunch of degenerates gibbering and making monkey gestures and noises at some black players entering the field, and a gang of gigantic shaven headed hoods beating the crap out of some spectators, apparently because they weren’t white. It was mad. Utterly insane, disgusting and horrifying.
The ex-captain of the Pommy team (a black guy) was interviewed and said that he thought there was no way that Ukraine should have anything to do with the cup based on what he’d seen.
Racism anywhere is ridiculous, stupid and counter-productive. There is undoubtedly racism aplenty in Australia, and it should be stamped out wherever it is found. But based on the obscene crap I saw last night, however bad things may be here, they are obviously far worse in other parts of the world.
Overheard said :
Perhaps you’d like to re-read your first reply to me:
Overheard said :
HenryBG said :
Lol. Communists.
Good one Grandpa!
HenryBG said :
Sorry, I guess that is an offensive term. I’ll just refer to white devils like yourself as ‘crackers’ from now on. Better, cracker?
chewy14 said :
Correct.
And if you look carefully, you’ll also notice I have not cried, spake or mumbled ‘racist’ either.
So I invite you to pull your head in!
MightyJoe said :
When she says, “anglo”, is that her racist code for “white”?
I’m only asking, because a majority of we white people are far from being “anglo”. In fact, there are dozens of ethnicities that we belong to apart from “anglo”.
Maybe, to your wife, we all look the same?
DrKoresh said :
So you’ll be going down to Jabal’s in Mawson outrage-demanding they explain precisely how they came about the particular ethnic mix that makes up their counter staff?
I guess not.
What about, come election-time, when the Canberra Times runs its “voter interviews” where they cover a page with the photos of about a dozen voters together with a line from each where they explain their voting intentions, you always get at least one saying,
“Oh, I’ll vote for Andrew Barr, because I’m gay”.
Never heard these communists outraged by that one.
Change it it,
“Oh, I always ask the white shop assistant for help because I’m white”.
Bingo! Communists come out of the woodwork for it…
Overheard said :
Oh no, Overheard hasn’t provided anything other than cries of raccciiiissst and that’s not how you spell “its”.
I’d try to read and possibly refute your cogent points but you haven’t presented any.
chewy14 said :
“Some of my favourite employees are Asian.”
Oh no! He’s quoting Wikipedia. There goes every cogent point I had out the window. Damn that chewy and his irrefutable evidence.
Overheard said :
Yeah, I can’t believe I made a typo on my mobile phone when it autocorrected. Totally refutes my point.
Here’s a simple start on stereotyping from the font of all knowledge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereotype
I’ve never suggested that people of other races or nationalities are inferior or superior to others. I’ve given a reason why people may stereotype on foreign souding names and why it may be an efficient way of filtering potential applicants based on the skill sets needed by potential businesses.
As I’ve said, it’s not fair but it’s understandable and I don’t think any amount of well meaning indoctrination will change it.
Oh and for the record, the last three people I hired came from India, China and Bangladesh. Two of them used anglicised names when applying for the jobs and one used their real, extremely foreign sounding name. Damn me and my racist hide.
chewy14 said :
It’s probably more worthwhile to have all potential job applicants be thoroughly examined by a phrenologist.
I’ve sometimes wondered about this sort of thing. In my case, I won’t employ people who don’t have acceptable spoken and written business English skills, and it doesn’t matter what their name sounds like. Admittedly this will filter out a lot of NESB folks, but it also filters out a lot of ESB people as well.
I’m continually amazed by how many people (with or without Anglo sounding names) submit crap job applications that are littered with typographical errors, misspellings, completely garbled paragraphs that have blown up due to incorrect cut-and-paste etc etc. They all go into the “no thanks” bin.
chewy14 said :
Oh dear. I think this might actually be someone’s racist grandfather.
And the word is “its” accuracy. Best be brushing up on them English language skills, bozo.
chewy14 said :
Ahh a defence of racism. Quite rare in this day and age.
Jim Jones said :
I would disagree with every point except your first. I think that having a foreign sounding name would be correlated well with lower levels of English language skills which are fundamental for most jobs.
I think you need to do some research on stereotyping and it’s accuracy.
But to be honest, which migrant with less than 5 years English under their belt does have a perfect Australian / English (the language) accent except for the English speaking countries.
MightyJoe said :
No, She is clear and concise in her language skills. She is however dark skinned and obviously doesn’t have an Australian accent..
Mysteryman said :
MightyJoe said :
Is it possible that the customers go to the “anglo shop assistant” because they simply can’t understand your wife?
Anna Key said :
Not that it matters, but just to clarify, I have several co-workers. The lesbian with the European name is not the same person as the Aboriginal with the Anglo name.