blhowes
Puritan Board Professor
I was providentially hindered from a situation which, quite frankly, I don't know how I would have reacted.
We're hiring some new people at work, so a number of us were asked to interview the two people yesterday, then give our feedback to our manager. I was supposed to go with my wife yesterday to get a second opinion regarding her back surgery, so I interviewed the first one in the morning and asked to opt out of the second one. My boss said that wouldn't be a problem.
One of the girls in our group that interviewed the second person related her experience. (long story short) She went to the interview room, saw the person from the back and assumed it was a lady because of the long hair. She waited outside the door for a while, and ended up going back to her desk for a while. The person was still with my manager, so the girl called and said she would be glad to interview her when he was through. So as not to cause her any embarrassment, he responded that he'd bring HIM (emphasis) down to her office so she could interview HIM.
They met up with each other and she conducted the interview. At the end, she said, "You've been interviewing different people now for almost three hours. Are there any question that you have that weren't answered yet?"
The person responded, "I recently had an operation and I'm in transition from male to female. Do you think that'll be a problem with the people at this company?"
The lady was dumbfounded, but managed to sqeak out a response about how diverse our company is, etc.
I honestly don't know how I would have responded. I'm glad I was providentially hindered from that situation.
Disgust aside, it got me thinking afterwards about whether or not that should be grounds for not hiring a person. Assuming he/she was just as qualified or more than the other candidate, should the person be denied the job because of the operation? Legally, I guess that can't be the criteria used to deny somebody employment. What do you think? Should an employer have the right to not hire somebody on these grounds?
[Edited on 3-24-2006 by blhowes]
We're hiring some new people at work, so a number of us were asked to interview the two people yesterday, then give our feedback to our manager. I was supposed to go with my wife yesterday to get a second opinion regarding her back surgery, so I interviewed the first one in the morning and asked to opt out of the second one. My boss said that wouldn't be a problem.
One of the girls in our group that interviewed the second person related her experience. (long story short) She went to the interview room, saw the person from the back and assumed it was a lady because of the long hair. She waited outside the door for a while, and ended up going back to her desk for a while. The person was still with my manager, so the girl called and said she would be glad to interview her when he was through. So as not to cause her any embarrassment, he responded that he'd bring HIM (emphasis) down to her office so she could interview HIM.
They met up with each other and she conducted the interview. At the end, she said, "You've been interviewing different people now for almost three hours. Are there any question that you have that weren't answered yet?"
The person responded, "I recently had an operation and I'm in transition from male to female. Do you think that'll be a problem with the people at this company?"
The lady was dumbfounded, but managed to sqeak out a response about how diverse our company is, etc.
I honestly don't know how I would have responded. I'm glad I was providentially hindered from that situation.
Disgust aside, it got me thinking afterwards about whether or not that should be grounds for not hiring a person. Assuming he/she was just as qualified or more than the other candidate, should the person be denied the job because of the operation? Legally, I guess that can't be the criteria used to deny somebody employment. What do you think? Should an employer have the right to not hire somebody on these grounds?
[Edited on 3-24-2006 by blhowes]