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> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> techwr-l-bounces+bgranat=granatedit -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+bgranat=granatedit -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l
> .com] On Behalf Of Administrator at TECHWR-L
> Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 5:47 AM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: FWD: Hiring Discrimination
>
> Forwarded anonymously on request:
>
> As backup to the fact that it is impossible to prove age/sex
> discrimination during the hiring process, I offer the following
> example,
>
> The company I work for is a small, privately owned software company. I
> think we just hit the 100 employee mark, and that's a 100% increase
> over 2 years ago.
>
> In a recent discussion about hiring a technical writing intern, the
> hiring manager made a comment that she was more interested in resumes
> from male applicants and/or older women. Why? Because they don't get
> pregnant and end up on mat leave for a year. I was aghast!! That's
> discrimination. I understand their position, they've hired a lot of
> people and many are on mat leave now or currently pregnant. Only about
> 50% of them return after mat leave. Small companies can have a hard
> time financially - it takes months to train someone and then you have
> to hire and train someone while they're on mat leave. If they return
> after mat leave, you can potentially end up with more employees than
> you really need. Contract doesn't work because of the time it takes to
> train people on our software / systems / development environment, etc.
> In my mind though, that's the cost of doing business. It shocked me
> though to hear someone say it out loud.
>
> Out of curiosity, how would you react to hearing that? Should I have
> done anything with that information?
>
Discrimination is fine; it's illegal discrimination that you have to worry
about. In this case, it appears that continuity is a bona fide job
requirement.
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