Have you experienced discrimination in being hired or promoted?

[undeterred]

I realize this is subjective, but I am interested in hearing what other peoples experiences are. I feel that the poor economy makes it more difficult to find and keep a job so the likelihood that someone experiences some form of discrimination is higher.

[JuniperLea]

1. I was told to have an abortion...

When I didn't, I was fired. That's illegal now, thankfully. It was 1978. I became part of the push to change those laws.

Since then, I've been paid far less than men doing the same job... I'm still about $40k under what a man makes doing my job.

[lumberjack_jeff]

35. $40k less than a man in your job? What is your profession? n/t

[JuniperLea]

37. I'm an executive assistant and office manager...

With a lot of experience at the "C" level... working for billionaires in a corporate environment, as well as a home office environment. Currently working for the head of the west coast offices of a PR firm... not the "teach you to lie well" type firm, though, as most people would assume:) It's more the "tell the truth well and do the right thing right away" kind of firm. You'd be surprised.

Edited to say, in Los Angeles... the city makes a huge difference in salary. I couldn't get this pay in Omaha, or Des Moines. Only New York and Los Angeles... maybe San Francisco... not Seattle though.

[Coyote_Bandit]

2. All of the above except

racial discrimination.

And I have also been discriminated against because I have both vision and hearing disabilities.

And I have also been discriminated against because of my education.

[Cleita]

3. Besides sex discrimination, I also was discriminated against for not

being beautiful enough for one job I was well qualified for and in middle age of being too old. Although I am Hispanic, no one has discriminated against me for race, however, I have had Hispanic friends discriminated against because they spoke English with an accent.

[recoveringrepublican]

4. Not sure if this counts, but I do think so

I'm deaf. I am late deafened. I found out when I was trying to enlist in the ARMY. I think that is discrimination right there (come on they don't have an non-combat jobs the deaf can do?). So then when I got a transitional job at the Post Office Remote Encoding Center, I was denied a chance to become PTF or Career (does not work this way in other USPS jobs) because the boss would only make Vets career. I was also denied 10 points on the USPS test because the Army's refusal to allow me to enlist. Not to mention various other government jobs I'm already at a disadvantage at because of something beyond my control. My REC center closed, all the Career employees were found other jobs, my option was to move to another state with an REC (which will just close again, and I wasn't moving my family for this job) or lose my job.

[OhioChick]

5. Oh, hell yes.

I've gotten by-passed for jobs due to being a U.S. citizen (they wanted H-1B workers) as well as for being a woman. (The IT field seems to be driving out women)

[TahitiNut]

Gender discrimination in IT often stems from cultural biases of foreign-born hiring managers.

The dirty little 'secret' of encouraging cultural diversity is that other cultures (Japan, Middle Eaastern, etc.) are FAR more gender biased.

It really smacked me in the face in Silicon Valley. As I was enjoying the cultural diversity it became clear that it came with increased resistance to female coworkers. In effect, I was seeing progress in ethnic diversity and regression in gender diversity.

[Name removed]

18. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[undeterred]

6. I was brought in with a group of people

in a contract to hire situation. We were told that we would be evaluated and hired on the basis of highly objective statistics which are made public every day (its a call center). I am one of 2 females in a group of 4 dozen men.

The people being hired so far are white males under 30. Based on the criteria some of them are good at the job and some of them are among the worst in the group. :shrug: If they were really basing it on the objective criteria I would have been one of the first hired.

[OhioChick]

7. Are you "over-qualified?"

I hear that a lot.

[undeterred]

12. The excuse they give to middle aged women

is that we need to go back to school - to learn the job we've already been doing for ten years. But I hear the young ones with two years of technical college say they are disqualified for lack of job experience. They hire whoever they can pay the least but still get the job done.

[Echo In Light]

8. I've had very long hair/beard since I was a teen. Got a lot of tatts, also, so...ha...

Yep. Definitely based on appearance...but it's only happened a few times, and w/places I really didn't want to work at, and it involved a vocational rehab program I was in after getting badly injured on the job about ten yrs back.

The bad part was that I'd worked that job for ten yrs, and the accident forced me into more of an office type environment that I'd never experienced.

Oddly enough, despite my appearance I found my current job on my own, outside of the program I was in, and have found that I'm generally more accepted and given to socializing w/a wider variety of people here than many of the manual labor jobs I've held in the past. Some aspects of that I do miss, tho.

[undeterred]

20. There was a company I interviewed at where

they had someone who practiced a lot of discrimination. I have a friend who is a very talented computer programmer who interviewed there and was rejected. My friend grows a beard every winter and it was winter during the interview. Later on he heard from someone who knew the HR guy and said he won't hire a man who doesn't come in for an interview clean shaven and wearing a suit. That eliminates an awful lot of talent in the computer world.

[Brooklyns_Finest]

40. To the best of my knowledge

Unkempt people are not a protected class. I see no problem with a manager not hiring or promoting a person who does not keep up with basic grooming and hygiene standards.

[undeterred]

48. Its ridiculous to say that someone who has a beard

is unkempt or not keeping up with basic grooming and hygiene standards. Growing a beard or mustache is a matter of personal choice, not hygiene.

[Echo In Light]

49. Nice right-wing perception i.e. "dirty hippies!"

[LeftishBrit]

53. How is having a beard in itself contrary to hygiene or basic grooming?

[cbc5g]

55. bullshit post of the day

[ieoeja]

56. I agree and disagree.

I agree that it is not discrimination which is why I did not vote that way despite having been "rejected" at least twice for that reason. Appearances over which you have little control, I would put down as discrimination. But not hair, tattoos, etc.

And worded the way you did, "basic grooming and hygiene standards," is certainly good enough reason not to hire someone. But anyone who thinks long-hair, beards and tattoos disqualify someone on the basis of "basic grooming or hygiene" has really poor priorities.

The person I would not want to hire is any imbecile who would reject the best person for a job because of that person's hair, etc. Who wants stupid people working for them?

The post you responded to made that point. He said his company lost out on a lot of qualified candidates because of the stupid person they had doing hiring.


And I put "rejected" in quotes because...

- First time I walked out of the interview, called the head-hunter and told him I was not interested in working for someone with such a bad attitude. He called back later and told me the attitude was because the guy had no intention of hiring me the moment he saw my hair.

- Second time they did offer me the job contingent on me cutting the hair. Nobody I spoke to had an attitude, but apparently one of the owners saw me walking out and made that demand. Again, I don't want to work for stupid people with bad attitudes.

I am 47 years old now with a very impressive resume. I have never held a job in my life where I was considered second best to anyone. So I am not the one who lost out in the above two incidents. There are times I have been tempted to cut my hair. But would definitely grow it back before looking for a job. Because I actually use my hair to test prospective employers.

[BoneDaddy]

64. Having a beard does not mean you are ill groomed or lack

hygiene.

[noamnety]

9. Gender discrimination

I was explicitly told they weren't hiring women for welding/riveting jobs. (I had welding experience when I applied.)

[Canuckistanian]

10. I was discriminated against because I *wasn't* Serbian

It was a job at a small computer store (now, it's a nationwide giant).

During my interview they kept asking me these increasingly technical questions that a tech would never need to know.

I misspoke on one of my answers, corrected myself and then they suddenly said the interview was over.

I later heard it they didn't like me because I was a native Canadian. I didn't pursue it any further, though.

[On the Road]

11. A Number of Years Ago,

I was up for a Marketing Manager position that would have been a promotion. The job was given to a female co-worker who was clearly less qualified. I talked with the hiring director and was told that there was no way he would have been allowed to hire a man for the job.

Not that I'm complaining, but since you asked...
;-)

[lib2DaBone]

13. I have both Age and Sexual discrimination....

which box do I check? I was laid off becasue I was the only remaining male in the office and can't get hired to a new job because I'm over 50.

[Fumesucker]

14. Yes, religious, because I'm not a "born again"... n/t

[undeterred]

17. I had one job where I gradually discovered

that half the people working there were from the same Baptist church as the HR manager. There was a joke that you had to join the church to be considered for employment. Eventually she got fired and the people who weren't really qualified for their jobs were gone with her.

[LanternWaste]

30. Odd that... it happened to me because I was

Odd that... it happened to me because I was. :crazy:

ed sp

[Fumesucker]

33. I would say it's harder to fake *being* a born again than it is to fake *not* being one..

The problem for the non born again faking being one (around other born agains) is that you have to talk about your religion constantly, for those of us who are not religious or only slightly religious it's about impossible to carry that level of deception out for any length of time.

All a born again has to do to avoid detection as such is to not talk about their religion at work, apparently that is difficult also.

[LanternWaste]

34. Ummm... Okay.

Guess we all have a cross to bear.

[Fumesucker]

38. See...

"A cross to bear" is a religious reference..

;)

:hi:

[LanternWaste]

39. Yes... you're very clever.

Yes... you're very clever. I'd thought the reference so obvious as to not require an explanation. Maybe it's not as obvious as I'd thought.

Anyway, I'm sure you go through life acting the martyr for your world-views much more than I do.


Odd-- I'd thought this was a thread about specific discriminations we've suffered through rather than a "it's tougher to pretend you're religious than it is to pretend to be an atheist" thread. I'm sure it's much, much tougher to pretend one is religious-- but I wouldn't know-- I've stopped pretending things a long time ago. :P

ed: sp

[Fumesucker]

42. It's known as "thread drift" and it's so common that it has a specific name..

Generally it is minorities which tend to suffer the most discrimination in any given society and, even today, those who are not religious are in the distinct minority in the USA.

I've never pretended to be anything I'm not either, I'm just making a generalized speculative comment on the problems one might encounter trying to evade religiously based discrimination in either direction.

And as for acting the martyr, take a look around DU, where atheists are far more common than in the general population, the religious here are constantly complaining of being bashed or discriminated against by atheistic DU'ers, it happens on damn near every thread that has much to do with religion.

Where I live, the second thing most people ask you after they ask what you do for a living (in order to determine your social class) is what church do you go to (also about social class to some extent).

I opened a new bank account the other day and the lady at the bank asked me what I do for a living, when I answered that I was an electromechanical troubleshooter she looked at me like I had sprouted a third head so I said "just write down electrician" although that is a quite different (and considerably less skilled) trade, but it was something she thought she understood. It takes a lot more skill to diagnose and repair problems in a complex piece of equipment than it does to just build (one part of) the thing from a blueprint that is already drawn up.

[ieoeja]

57. I would love to read that story. n/t

[Javaman]

15. Yes, I have been bald since I was 5...

I interviewed for a job in CA years ago and the guy hiring me said, I should wear a hat so people don't get the wrong impression. I tried to explain to him why I was bald and he said he didn't want to know.

the next day (first day on the job) I didn't wear a hat. He got in my face and said, "I thought I told you to wear a hat".

I looked at him up and down and said, "when you lose weight, I'll wear the hat, in the mean time, I have the number for the ACLU in my pocket, want to fire me?"

He shut up and walked away. Jerk off.

he later moved to dallas texas, I'm sure he fits right in their.

[undeterred]

16. That's goofy. What wrong impression are people going to get?

I have a lot of respect for the women I've worked with who lost their hair during chemo and kept working, with their bald heads exposed or not.

[Javaman]

19. he was an ignoramus. it was his way of calling me a skinhead (which I'm not)

while trying to hide his bigotry.

FYI, my baldness is a family oriented genetic disorder. not much I can do about it. :shrug: just the luck of the DNA draw. :)

[BoneDaddy]

65. Brilliant

The times I wish I could say the perfect thing in response to ignorance. Gave me a deep belly laugh.

[Pab Sungenis]

21. What about more than one?

I've been discriminated against for being gay, and in one field (broadcasting) been discriminated against for being a man.

[guitar man]

22. age

When I cam out of trade school, I was almost 29 and the company I wanted to go to work for came to the school and hired all the 18-21 year olds they could find and left all of us older folks in the cold. I can't prove it, but deep down I know they were wanting to pack the union with kids who really didn't have a clue what it's all about. A few years later, they scared them into taking big wage/benefit cuts.

[Contrary1]

23. I was hired once because I had nice legs...

Hell, the ass wipe even told me that was the reason. Didn't have a choice, as hubby was in the service, and I needed a job I could walk to and from. It was only going to be for a few months, so I pretended not to notice his tongue hanging out of his mouth every time I walked past him.

Also, Home Interiors had a restriction against drinking and smoking. So, I passed on that one just on principle.

[RaleighNCDUer]

27. Hey, when you have to walk to and from work

nice legs are a plus.

I bicycle to and from work every day and I have nice legs - the rest of me, however, is an overweight middle-aged man.

[TahitiNut]

43. This subthread is useless without photos

... of your legs. :dunce:


:hide:

[Contrary1]

60. They ain't so nice these days...

but here is a reasonable facsimile of what they used to be:



:rofl:

[TahitiNut]

66. Foot torture! Foot torture!

As long as I live, I'll NEVER fully comprehend high heels. I just can't imagine doing something like that to my feet for the sake of "fashion." If it's done to be "attractive," I just wouldn't want to "attract" someone with such a mentality.

Nice bone structure! :silly:

[DefenseLawyer]

24. As hard as it is for a middle aged white guy to catch a break in this country

believe it or not I have never been discriminated against. I'm just one of the lucky few I guess.

[TheKentuckian]

25. I've been "over-qualified" many times and have been harrased by a headhunter

only to show up and the position was "already filled".

Who knows? Discrimination is a possibility but I don't know for sure so I don't chalk it as such.

[TahitiNut]

32. "Over-qualified" is the typical claim where age discrimination is endemic.

:shrug:

Perhaps we should ask our political leaders to address the employment problem of "over-qualified" workers??
:eyes:

[RaleighNCDUer]

26. Yes, to racial/sexual discrimination.

Only I was the beneficiary, not the victim. I can't prove it, but I'm sure that I have landed jobs that others were equally or better qualified for because I am a white male, and I fit the comfort level of the employer. (Caveat - not my current circumstance at either of the jobs I hold now; this was @20 years back, in Missouri.)

[Gidney N Cloyd]

28. One guy told me I had spunk. But he hated spunk.

[Furry Dance]

29. The FBI told me they could not hire me

People mock complaints of hiring quotas, but it is indeed rotten when you are on the wrong end. When I was in high school, the FBI was interested in recruiting me, but they needed to hire more minority women at the time. They said that before the could even consider hiring me, a white male, I had to acquire additional skills such as an Asian language and a pilot's license. I can't say that I would have definitely been offered a job, but I was rather discouraged from pursuing it.

[Luna_C_06]

31. Does sexual

harassment count?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

47. I was sexually harassed by an assistant district attorney.

He committed indecent exposure at me. Took it out and showed it to me.

I was petrified.

I did not tell the DA b/c I thought I would get fired.

[Luna_C_06]

67. Damn mol

WTF IS WRONG WITH HIM?? You should have grabbed it and pulled. What? He was probably looking for a tug job. :evilgrin:

[The Straight Story]

36. No, but then I have not applied for the supreme court

:rofl:

[juno jones]

41. My current job in point:

I was hired in an emergency because the guy who'd gotten the job during the initial interviews didn't work out. He was still in baking school, I've had 20+ years in the restaurant field, but they hired him first. I've been there 6 months and am now fighting for raises that guys who have been there less time are getting automatically.

It's partly because I'm invisible as a graveyard shift worker, but I can't help but feel that being a woman adds to my invisibility. I always have to fight for the raises the guys get as a matter of course.

Yeah, and 'lookism' plays a role as well. Doubt that as a 45-year-old size 16 (but mighty buff I tells ya!) I could get a job in the front of any house except for the 24-hour cafe where old waitresses go to die.

[Iggo]

44. Recuse.

Got my job through nepotism.

[MrSlayer]

45. I'm in a union, we don't do discrimination.

Ostensibly anyway.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

46. Yes for numerous reasons.

Overeducated. Female. Over 40. Not attractive enough. Wear glasses.

True story: I applied to work as a court coordinator/court stenographer for a district judge in the next county. The judge had two applicants: One who had been a court reporter for two years, with no college besides that. The Court Reporting degree is a 2 year vocational degree separate from any regular college program.

I, OTOH, had the 2 yr court reporting degree, a BA in pre-med, a Juris Doctor in law, and 18 years experience as a court reporter.

So who did the judge hire? The inexperienced person with no college.

Why was I not hired? Because "I didn't know the people I would be working with".

However, I live in the next county over, NOT that county.

That pissed me off sorely. :wtf: I could not believe the judge told me that with a straight face.

:grr: :banghead: :puke: :wtf: :eyes:

[raccoon]

50. Age and sex discrimination. nt

[KansDem]

51. Does cronyism count?

I applied for a position at a community college for which I was imminently qualified. I didn't get the job but heard afterward from reliable sources that one of the members of the search committee wanted her friend in. She prevailed and got her friend the job.

Later, she was overhead by my wife who worked in the library there saying, "I worked hard to get my friend that job!"

So, yeah...it was "Friend of Connie only--Dr. KansDem need not apply" time.

There have been other times I suspected discrimination by gender, marital status, and age, but couldn't prove.

[Dulcinea]

52. Other.

I was pushed out of the company I had worked at for nearly 2 decades because I was job sharing, refused to kiss ass, and they could find someone to work full-time for what they paid me to work 3 days/week. Does that count as sex discrimination, age discrimination, or both?

[Ohio Joe]

54. No.

I expect it will shock everyone that I am a white male.

[bikebloke]

58. Wasn't a local

In Seattle, they told me that they preferred locals. I was stuck there for 7 years doing moron work (and pulling the slack of local beneficiaries of nepotism who weren't required to lift a finger to collect a pay check). Finally, I managed to save enough money to move away.

[Forkboy]

59. I don't know for sure, but I'm betting my old green spiked mohawk didn't help my employment chances.

:D

[myrna minx]

63. I remember the days (late 80s-early 90s) when I had to take out my nose ring

while at work. Now bank tellers, bus drivers etc all have them. :hi: The times do change.

[Ganja Ninja]

61. I was once fired so a guy could hire his cousin. n/t

[bunnies]

62. Yes, but only in my favor.

Does that still count? :shrug: