cheapie

So I have lunch with my boss today with a couple other guys. We took a walk outside afterwards because it's a pretty nice day. The conversation turns to open positions and hiring. My boss just hired a good friend of mine, who is white. My boss started talking about it and said that he has been getting calls from the VP of our division who is on his a$$ about not hiring a diversity candidate. The VP, who is, uhhh, not white, presumably gets graded by the BOD on the diversity of the division he runs. I think it's pretty ****ty that a VP of a multi-billion dollar company would be concerned about the nationality of our department. What kind of chance do I as a white male have in the next job opening when the ****ing vice-president is calling my boss upset that he hired a white guy. **** me.

my boss was kind of laughing about it. i wanted to say, **** you man. that's my future you're joking about.

__________________
70% of the world is covered by water. The rest is covered by Bob Sanders

LPMiller

Yeah, it sucks being white.

__________________
lpmiller
Chief News Editor
Nobel Prize Nominee
Reverend in the Universal Life Church
Once Shot A Man For Snoring Too Loud
Way Too Lazy To Change His Signature

"The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and the incapacity to tell the difference." - Calvin and Hobbes

cheapie

i have absolutely no problem with them making sure there are NO impediments to women and minorities getting hired. it's been a long time coming. we're a bit old-school in that regard. but actively discouraging and getting upset when a white guy is hired is just bull****, plain and simple.

DarkFury

So basically, if things don't work out for me here... can I get a job at where you're at?

__________________


DarkFury's Pimptopia - Don't Hate the Playa, Hate the Game!
Home of the Original OG Pimp (accept NO imitations)

cheapie

no problem man.


i hope i'm expressing my expression in a way that doesn't sound like i am against the hiring of african-americans and women. once you get to my level and higher you get judged and paid bonuses based on a balanced scored card, and the diversity of the dept is sometime a measurable. i think it's wrong that people get bonus' for how non-white-male their departments are.

DarkFury

My question is... if they are trying to increase their diversity, are those candidates of the same qualifications as you are? Or are they just being "tokened" by the company?

nickel

are you?


----------------------------------------------

i'd like the answer to that question, too.
because it is a big can o' worms if they don't consider the best qualifications for the job.

__________________
*click me*

cheapie

with the exception of a couple women they brought in, the candidates (women and minorities) have been very professional and good employees. it has obviously taken them some time to acclimate but that's natural.

i just have a major problem with a VP actively discouraging the hiring of a white guy. that's illegal. also, the positions take forever to fill because mgmt. looks at the candidates that have applied, and then go looking in other companies and divisions for diversity candidates that might fill the bill.

i work with a black woman that took over a position. she was basically an appointee. there were a lot of people that applied for the job but got denied. after a long time, they found her w/in the company and offered the job to her. i believe she turned down the first offer and eventually accepted.

she's great. a hard worker, asset to our dept., etc. but all the other non-diversity candidates that had the same qualifications got ****ed because of their gender/color. how do you deal with that as an aspiring candidate?

nickel

things that make you go hmmmm.

i am all for equal opportunity, OH I AM SO FOR THAT, but something smells fishy in what you describe cheapie.

ray

It is actually illegal.

Houdini

Discrimination against anyone based on any race simply sucks. People of all races can be disadvantaged. And affirmative action can hurt qualified white guys. I know several people who refuse to check any box, or check "other" when applying for positions. It would be cool if schools, etc., had a colorblind way of interviewing people/reviewing applications just to take it out of the equation. But that's not going to happen.

Sure it's illegal, but as long as corporations undergo shakedowns that, well, encourage racism or make someone's race a central "qualification," it's going to happen. And a white guy in that position who sues may be labeled a racist.

faither

How could things not work out at the gubment??? I'd heard you need to kill someone in the office, during working hours, to lose a governmental job.


Re diversity, my company has a corporate goal to fill at least 30% of management positions with diversity candidates.

DarkFury

Honestly the "Gubment" has been changing since Gee Dub got into office... pretty much his administration has set the wheels in motion to try to privatize and contract out those services that they don't consider "military essential"...

Pretty much this has included the contracting out of much of the IT workforce... which treads pretty close to where I'm sitting.

Yes, in the "old" gubment... your example might apply, however with a few bills currently circulating in Congress, your boy Rumsfeld is really trying hard to change that.

Job security my @ss...

Kevster

I look white. People also think I look white. I was adopted into a mega-Irish family that's pale as can be so my actual skin color starts to stand out a bit. If diversity was ever an issue for me, I have solid documentation saying I happen to be 1/4 American Indian. I haven't had to use it yet and I didn't use it to get into college (I didn't have the paperwork then). It did help my previous employer though - it looks really good having an underrepresented minority in a position of middle management (engineering) when you have to file workplace diversity reports when bidding on public contracts.

__________________
I think over again
My small adventures, my fears.
The small ones that seemed so big,
For all the vital things I had to get and to reach.

And yet there is only one great thing, the only thing:

To live to see the great day that dawns,
And the light that fills the world.

-old Inuit song

Jeffbx

It's funny you say that... I just submitted my resume for an opening (I'm not actively looking, but this one is a great opportunity).

I sat there for a looong time at the page where you can voluntarily give your gender & race, and then declined to put either. I decided that putting 'white male' certainly wasn't going to be any help in getting me an interview.

zenbooty

Eh, just suck it up, people. You're opportunities are still far greater than your average black or hispanic in this country.

__________________
Common sense is what tells you the Earth is flat.

nickel

if you were in cheapie's shoes (not that they'd fit ) you wouldn't be so quick to spit that statement out.

cheapie

no offense but i don't care. while i can certainly appreciate that minorities and women have/are getting screwed, i'm not sacrificing a promotion, or clothes and food on the table for my family to help a situation that i did not contribute to.

cheapie

zenbooty

I've been through college admissions like everbody else. I've job hunted like everybody else. At no time have I ever concerned myself with competing with minority applicants. In fact, I've never concerned myself with other applicants at all. I just concentrate on showing what I bring to the table, and let the chips fall where they may. Probably why they've fallen well for the most part.

And I know better than to allow my professional fate to fall in the hands of my managers. I will rise, here or elsewhere, and my employers are aware of that.

No offense but I don't care either. For someone who seems to have it very good (nice family, nice house, job in management, trips to go biking, etc), you sure do a lot of whining.

nickel

suuuuuuure, keep telling yourself that. i guess you haven't had the disillusionment yet of someone with less on the table getting the job over you because the company doesn't employ enough women to make it look good.

----------------------------------------------------
let he who is without whining cast the first stone.
zen, you got it goin' on in that dept too.

cheapie

you're correct, i do have it good. but would you tell a woman trying to get a job in management, hey, you're making a lot of money. you've got a nice car, job, etc. why rock the boat?



and believe me, when you have a wife, mortgage, and two kids (and contemplating another) you need all the money you can get.

zenbooty

1. Having worked in IT and software engineering for the past 8 years, I've yet to work for a company that employed enough women

2. I've experienced no such disillusionment because I don't pay attention to or even care about who else is applying. In fact, I'm surprised how some people are able to determine that they lost out on an opportunity due to diversity hiring. When it happens, I assume either somebody is making assumptions, or some manager really f'ed up telling his employee that was why he wasn' promoted. I dunno



What are you talking about? I know not of what you speak.

No, but I wouldn't listen sympathetically to her excuses, either, so don't feel bad.



Crystal meth is cheap to make, and I hear there's a fair bit of demand for that sort of thing out in the midwest .

cheapie

no kidding. and now i'm seeing signs talking about how you can get arrested for selling oxy. wtf is oxy?

and believe me, i'm not whining that i'm not furthur ahead. i am just getting ready to make the next step in 4-7 months and i DON'T want the freakin' vice president telling my boss that he shouldn't have hired a white guy.

revil

oxy... as in oxy clean... The next generation is doomed to be zit ridden freaks!

zenbooty

Oxycontin, or hillbilly heroin, as some call it. Also very popular, but not as simple to make.

DarkFury

Bwaaa haa haa haa...

Maarchk

www.oxy.edu

my home land...

__________________
"The girl is crafty like ice is cold."

"I left my heart in san francisco... And my liver at Moe's Tavern."

A real friend is one who listens to you as much as they talk to you.