WotC WotC is hiring Senior Manager for Diversity, equity and inclusion.

[Umbran]

Most the time it’s not going to be legal though.

Yeah, neither you nor I are lawyers in the field, so I'll take that as your personal speculation.

It’s going to be an uphill battle to claim in court that someone experiencing more discrimination should actually be a requirement of a job like the one described above or impact the hiring decision in any way.

So, here's what you are missing. I'm not talking about "requirements". I'm talking about statistical likelihood.

The person who has personally felt these aspects of our society is more likely to have fully educated themselves (like, maybe having a college degree in diversity studies), and engaged with their communities and employers about fixing things. The better candidates are going to be in the not-straight-white-guy demographics, simply because straight white guys don't have life experience that drives their decisions to the relevant field.

 

[FrogReaver]

Yeah, neither you nor I are lawyers in the field, so I'll take that as your personal speculation.



So, here's what you are missing. I'm not talking about "requirements". I'm talking about statistical likelihood.

The person who has personally felt these aspects of our society is more likely to have fully educated themselves (like, maybe having a college degree in diversity studies), and engaged with their communities and employers about fixing things. The better candidates are going to be in the not-straight-white-guy demographics, simply because straight white guys don't have life experience that drives their decisions to the relevant field.

I don’t think you understand. They call that statistical likelihood when Affecting a prohibited class a disparate impact.

 

[Umbran]

His work experience should absolutely be a factor. His life? I'm not sure what you mean by that.

We are talking about an area that includes a lot of not-for-pay activity. Like, did you step into your local sci-fi convention, and help them with diversity initiatives? That's not "work" but can be very relevant.

 

[Umbran]

I don’t think you understand. They call that statistical likelihood when Affecting a prohibited class a disparate impact.

So... what you're saying is I am not wrong, but you insist on attaching the jargon to it? I'm okay with that.

 

[FrogReaver]

So... what you're saying is I am not wrong, but you insist on attaching the jargon to it? I'm okay with that.

Huh?

If you understood what disparate impact is then you would realize why that’s a big deal.

 

[MGibster]

Speaking as someone in Great Britain, I would say job interviews here boil down to who can roll highest in Deception?

Ha! I tend to describe the hiring process as a crap shoot. You can shave the dice in your favor, but sometimes you're going to come up snake eyes. I've seen candidates who looked great on paper and knocked their interview out of the park, but ended up being terrible employees. And of course I've also seen candidates who weren't very impressive on paper or in the interview turn out to be great.

 

[FrogReaver]

I’m going to leave it at this. Half the things being advocated for in this thread are illegal by U.S. law.

 

[MGibster]

We are talking about an area that includes a lot of not-for-pay activity. Like, did you step into your local sci-fi convention, and help them with diversity initiatives? That's not "work" but can be very relevant.

Oh, yeah, it's totally fine to take volunteer work into consideration.

 

[FrogReaver]

Oh, yeah, it's totally fine to take volunteer work into consideration.

Yep. But it’s illegal to to base a hiring decision on if you have been discriminated against. If it wasn’t you could base a hiring decision on not being discriminated against.

work experience, both volunteer and paid may very well generate disparate impacts. Say, women in computer programming jobs. That’s fine as experience to programming is directly relevant to a programming job and there’s not a better or equal non-disparate impact criteria to use.

Having been discriminated against isn’t the same. Having been discriminated against doesn’t enable you to implement any kind of diversity initiatives. Its not relevant experience.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Ha! I tend to describe the hiring process as a crap shoot. You can shave the dice in your favor, but sometimes you're going to come up snake eyes. I've seen candidates who looked great on paper and knocked their interview out of the park, but ended up being terrible employees. And of course I've also seen candidates who weren't very impressive on paper or in the interview turn out to be great.

Yeah. To give a straight answer to your question:

Do you get asked about your personal life in the UK? Yes, sometimes.

Do you get asked about your qualifications? Often not, if you didn't have the right pieces of embossed paper you wouldn't be at the interview in the first place. (NB, getting those pieces of paper is possibly the biggest point of discrimination in the UK).