Is the recession leading to discrimination?

[Cornish Steve]

I received a phone call this afternoon from a lady I know in San Francisco who recently lost her job as vice president of quite a large company. In the last few weeks, she's been rather taken aback by the attitude of companies with which she's interviewed. One male interviewer, for example, told her straight that she didn't need the job because she has a husband who works.

Being charitable, maybe the company is looking to hire someone with no current breadwinner in the family - because they will be more hard hit during difficult times. Being realistic, though, it seems that discrimination is rearing its ugly head: When the chips are down, women are suffering more in the workplace than men.

Has anyone encountered such behaviour in the British job market?

[obscure]

You gave a very good reason why the company might have decided not to give her the job so why is it you assume that it was related to her sex?

[Cornish Steve]

You gave a very good reason why the company might have decided not to give her the job so why is it you assume that it was related to her sex?
Because I seriously doubt whether a man would be turned down because he has a wife who works.

[An Oasis]

One male interviewer, for example, told her straight that she didn't need the job because she has a husband who works.

Would she want to work for a company when some jerk wade came out with a statement like that. She's well rid, that ****** did her a favour, she could have walked into a job in a company where it sucked to high hell to work. She should be thankful that there are transparent idiots like that around.

To quote John Wayne “ a cow ain’t nothing but a whole heap of trouble wrapped up in a leather bag”. She just missed out on the trouble, it's the sneaky ****ers that you have to watch out for.

[KidsBeeHappy]

If you're going to look at it from the sexual discrimination angle, then it is MORE likely that a woman would be employed than a man during a recession, because in very many sectors industry is still getting away with paying a woman substantially less than a man.

[sirearl]

All the legistration under the sun will not get rid of biase.

After all we are alleged to be human beings.

Sure the lady was not over qualified for the positions she was after.?

Earl

[Mister B]

I would agree that in this instance, better out than in.

But going back to the original point, I've heard no instances of sexual discrimination, but quite a few cases of jobs been given to "British" workers as opposed to "immigrants."

Mister B

[deniser]

Women of child bearing age are routinely discrimated against - this is probably the real reason.

I went for a job interview once to replace someone who was going on maternity leave and they actually told me in the interview that they wanted a male so he didn't go off on maternity leave as well but hadn't found one which is why they were now interviewing women.

I did take the job - I admired the fact that they came out and said it - there is nothing worse than hidden discrimination. And of course I did go on maternity leave although it was 4 years later after I'd put in about 6 years work so they'd got their money's worth!

[thebigIAM]

You might doubt that a man might be turned down because he has a wife who works, but surely this reflects your own attitudes, rather than someone else's?

Could be someone might also have made an estimated guess as to the likely salary of the spouse? Some people's spouses are very highly paid.

We recently advertised a vacancy with the specific aim of taking on someone who did not already have a job. This is because there is high social deprivation in our rural area. It is possibly not the best way to find the right candidate, but I thought it was a reasonable starting point.

[BusinessIdeas]

Well for what its worth: There are two sides to every story and maybe that is not all he said to the lady. He may very well have had other reasons for not giving her the job, but didn't want to express or admit them to her. We all tend to believe the version of events that we hear from someone we know. Often that may not be the whole story, or may not always be the truth. It is even possible that there is no truth in her story at all and that she had a hidden agenda for relating the story in the first place. :) Things are not always what they first appear to be...

[sirearl]

Well for what its worth: There are two sides to every story and maybe that is not all he said to the lady. He may very well have had other reasons for not giving her the job, but didn't want to express or admit them to her. We all tend to believe the version of events that we hear from someone we know. Often that may not be the whole story, or may not always be the truth. It is even possible that there is no truth in her story at all and that she had a hidden agenda for relating the story in the first place. :) Things are not always what they first appear to be...

Very very true.

I feel a second home coming on.:|

Earl

[maria102]

I was surprised in the week about an asian customer who is convinced that a lot of her peers don't get jobs because of their race, she is doing a masters in Clinical Psychology and is convinced she will get turned down for jobs when she finishes because of her race. I doubted this as professionals at that level must get selected for their ability regardless of their race, however its difficult for me to comment when I am not in her shoes.

[obscure]

There was an interesting documentary some years ago in which they took a young Asian girl and sent her into a middle class white neighbourhood to do a door to door survey. Having done the survey the girl stated that she felt some of the home owners were rude to her because of her race. The production company then used state of the art makeup techniques to turn her white and sent her back to the same area to do the door to door again. The girl admitted that the people were just as rude to her when she was white as when she was Asian.

I have no doubt that there is far too much discrimination in the world but it is also true that not everything we perceive as discrimination actually is. That is what makes it such a difficult problem to eradicate. Maybe it wasn't the fact that you were black/female/gay that stopped you getting that promotion. maybe you actually aren't as good at your job as you thought.

[billie1]

Alot of jobs I've been to, white candidates tend to be in higher positions than ethnic minorities even though they are less qualified. Not sure how to explain this, perhaps its coincidence.