new thread
Jack: Twenty or thirty years ago, it was legal to discriminate against someone because of the color of their skin, or their religious preference, or their gender. These were made illegal, with the idea being that if the person was capable of doing the job, things that were simply discriminatory and did not affect their performance on the job should not be considered. Of course, some employers still discriminate, law or no law. It is the same MENTALITY that causes employers to reject employees that won't wear neckties... never mind whether you are capable of doing the job or not, "if you don't look/act/think as I do, you're not going to work here." There IS discrimination against people who hate neckties so much that they won't wear them under any circumstances. I don't really expect that to change too much because there are so few of us (we don't have any political clout, you know!) but if you stop and think about it on a level beyond the superficial, it really is a silly reason to not hire an otherwise good employee. Some progressive firms have realized this and don't seem to be suffering any, but it may be many years before the non-functional necktie becomes a thing of the past (and when it does, it will probably be for some really stupid reason, such as having been replaced with some fashion even more ridiculous).
Jack: By the way, I might add (to expand this beyond just the narrow idea of wearing neckties, which is where we seem to get bogged down) that employers discriminate against potential employees for MANY reasons that are not protected by law, but have nothing to do with one's ability to do the job. How you dress is one such item, but others might include your political leanings and affiliations, your opinions on various issues, the fact that you don't drink or smoke (if the employer does), your accent or other speech patterns, and all sorts of other things that (in the majority of cases) have nothing to do with how well you'd perform on the job, and that can even vary from employer to employer. The problem is that society seems to say that it is illegal to discriminate against a potential employee if that person falls into certain legally-defined classes of persons, but it's perfectly okay to discriminate against anyone else who's "different" but not in such a way as to be in one of the LEGALLY protected classes. It is this sort of institutionalized schizophrenia that gives some of us a real problem in our thinking... in other words, if discrimination based on non-job-related factors (or just being mildly "different") is illegal in some cases, it ought to be illegal in all cases. But as I say, employers routinely ignore anti-discrimination laws anyway, so I don't really expect to see a lot of progress in the areas that are NOT legally "protected" until employers start to realize that being slightly different isn't always necessarily bad, particularly when really trivial matters (but those that mean a lot to the employee) are involved. I am NOT holding my breath waiting for this to happen!
[--- ConfMail VPurge-4.01]
[ * Origin: Northern Bytes BBS - OPCN (11:154/8) / Fidonet (1:154/8)]
I'm with you on this one, Hippy. I haven't been holding my breath waiting for people to grow up regarding the discrimination issue. I almost gag everytime I see a historical program regurgitating that hypocritical spew our supposed founding fathers were throwing around about all men being created equal like hey, it sounds good, but it doesn't apply to us, we just don't want the bloody English telling us what to do. Yet, some 200 years later your employer gives you hell because of a slight curl in your hair (but you're a #1 employee) or we don't dress the part just because we don't wear the socially acceptable uniforms. Everyone is so busy focusing on how you look, no one's paying attention that the incompetency rate in this country is outrageous. In my office, outside of myself, I would say that 100% of the staff dresses appropriatedly yet 80% of them can barely find the escape key on the computer and I work in a fully automated and computerized atmosphere. From my point of experience, I have more than once witnessed corporate management hiring people totally unfit for the job just by focusing on all the wrong critieria. Hey, I know plenty of idiots who managed to get a degree and since when did a long-term employment with a firm implied that you were good? More than once at my office I have seen secretaries hired who can barely work the computer or do their job and my department winds up sitting with these people all day long trying to teach them and it goes in one ear and out the other, but they look the part.
I'm hoping my daughter's generation will finally get a clue, but I'm not holding my breath about that either, but I guarantee, she will have one.
Chaeya
Wonder why there is so much sexual harassment in the work-place? Because bosses would rather hire someone who LOOKS GOOD, rather than someone who does the job well! [Remember "tastes good" instead of "good taste"?]