Posted on 01/23/2022 9:58:54 AM PST by karpov
I work in an engineering department at a tech company in the USA. I've worked on many hiring projects over the years but the latest project is different to the others. In the spreadsheet that lists all the open positions, there's a new column next to open positions with DEI comments. It has a line like this:
Senior Software Engineer (must be female)
If I follow this spreadsheet and exclude male applicants, then would I break any laws? Or if not laws, then would I violate other regulations or ethical standards in the industry?
I ask because my understanding of anti-discrimination law is that there are certain classes of people that cannot be excluded from job openings. Things like sex and race.
If this is illegal then what's the right way to handle this? Are there other ways I should think about this besides legal/illegal or ethical/unethical? Does region or state within the USA matter?
A little more context:
As a SSE I would do interviews or screen candidates but now in a Sr Manager role I'm more involved in the early planning and management of the process. In the first meeting where I saw the comments I said nothing. I followed up a few days later with an email to VP eng to say I opposed. 2 days after that I had a call with VP eng where I raised the issue again and they insisted that the requirement remain. I've taken no more action after that.
illegal as hell. If I were you, I would tell the boss or management team in person & turn in my resignation. I would work for such a deceitful company. You should simply give the example of putting the advertisement in the paper with the wording of this last column in bold! I am sure they would blanch at that! Stupid pricks.
Ask these supervisors , in writing, to confirm this is their intent, you are ordered to do so,, and to indemnify you against any future criminal or civil prosecution
The last part, legally speaking, does nothing, but it forces them to be absolutely clear. You probably won’t get a response
The key to choosing to hire employees of only one gender lies in the ability to prove that the employees’ gender is crucial to their job performance. This is known as a Bona Fide Occupational Qualification, or BFOQ. It can be incredibly difficult for an employer to use the BFOQ exception to justify only hiring employees that meet a certain characteristic. An example of where this is a valid requirement are cases where churches only hiring members of their religion for clergy positions. Another one is going to be challenged before you know it as companies like to hire female models to show female clothing.
Companies can cite any characteristic protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act except race as a bona fide occupational qualification. There was a big push for minority hiring in California with Southern California Edison in the early 70’s when I left the military for the first time. I tested high and they wanted me for hydro electrics, but couldn’t hire me due to their low numbers of minority employees. So in that case, race was a factor.
Wy69
I highly recommend that-
1) You dust off your resume just in case the company retaliates and start a running log on your personal phone / home PC, of all dates and interactions.
2) Create a document that requests a one on one meeting with legal. In that document, let them know that you are there to formally request legal advice and request that the meeting be recorded. Send the document via email to your legal department and your manager.
3) Before you send the document, use a crypto hash function to generate the secure “finger print” of the attachment. (https://www.howtohaven.com/system/how-to-hash-file-on-windows.shtml). Save the file and the hash output. One copy on your company computer, one copy elsewhere. This might be an extra or unnecessary step but it provides you a means of knowing if the file was altered in any way as if you repeat the hash process, you should get the same hash result. Any differences indicates changes to the document.
4) In the meeting with legal, present the spreadsheet and your concerns to legal during the meeting. Let them know that you will follow their directives regarding of how to handle this. Request a copy of the recording.
* There are two probable outcomes *
A) Legal will tell HR to stop
B) Legal will tell you to go ahead and use the spreadsheet (I highly doubt)
If outcome A ... you may see some retaliation. Be on your best behavior, Do NOT give them any reason to fire you.
Their linguistic ancestor appears to have been good old 'PC' that meant being 'Politically Correct'. That was driven by the fear of offending someone else who was sensitized to TAKING OFFENSE. Thus the art of victimhood as a winning strategy was born! With no surprise, the origin of PC appears to have derived from the 1930's Communism where a humorous, but telling, quip became popular;
“Comrade, your statement is factually incorrect.”
“Yes, it is. But it is politically correct.”
One thing I will note about this acronym of 'DEI', the small but interesting coincidence that "Dei", as found in such phrases as "vox populi vox Dei" (the voice of the people (is) the voice of God), is the Latin word for God. Wonder how that match just happened? [SARCASM]
You can’t even tell what their product happens to be from that page.
Discrimination is illegal, wrong, and unconstitutional even if there’s an order that mandates it. Any such order is invalid and not binding. You still get fired for not obeying it.
Do the right thing. Follow the law. How can ya go wrong.
Hmm. Most of the requirments I’ve seen in the past have allowed for consideration of UMMs. (Underrepresented Minority Males) So Black, Hispanic and certain Asian males can be considered. Only White, Chinese, and Indians are automatically excluded.
If you ever hear of a successful tech company brag about their incredibly diverse engineering staff, you can bet it’s due to Indians, Chinese, and Koreans on staff.
—I’d like to start with absolute affirmative action in sports-
-NFL, NBA , 51% FEMALE as is the general population—then we could start on the race thing—12% black , etc.,—
—(the best way to get rid of an obnoxious law is by strictly enforcing it)
This is nothing new. I was hired to begin work at the state park 40 years ago. Well, I was until the HQ came back saying it had to be a black hire. The position remained opened for several years.
Your company is doomed to failure, frankly. You should be looking for work with company not concerned with issues like this in such a blatantly discriminatory manner.
Jordan Peterson reorders the acronym letters to "DIE."
“you could anonymously report it to I don’t know the dept of labor? But instead why not send it to somebody like Fox news?”
Biden’s DOJ/FBI SWAT teams would desend on this guy’s house in the middle of the night and arrest him. The company would be given the Gold Star of DEI.
You are absolutely right.
Time to find the exit. In a couple of years this firm will have a bridge on top of a dozen cars.
If you go the whistleblower route, it is very likely nothing will happen. Whistleblower laws generally only protects you for three months. Judges say any action by the company after three months is not connected to that report. If you approach them, do it in writing to HR and upper level management. Approach it as asking if this is their intention and if it is you cannot be involved with such illegal action. This will only slow them down and again last only three months. Get a labor lawyer involved and even a meeting for advice is likely to cost you.
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