Serious question - at what point in hiring do employers start to look at equally weighted white male candidates and female and/or minority candidates and consider which is statistically more likely to get them sued for sexual harassment or shoot up the workplace?
Follow up - is a remote workplace safer and more equitable for women and minority workers?
@Cosmichomicide From my experience, depending upon the size of the company, employers will hire people they know, or ask their employees who they know, or hire people who don't threaten their position, or hire those who 'check-off' a box for minorities and the corporation receives a big tax break.....
@ReneeVoiceBrand @Cosmichomicide I worked in state government. The state personnel department had a checklist, of more or less reasonable requirements. However, when we were hiring someone, it was usually a scientist who had to have pretty particular skill set. If we were lucky enough to get even one applicant who fit the bill, if that person was not one of the top few according to the standard rating system, we couldn't hire them.
@DavidKMresists @Cosmichomicide There are many, many roadblocks for a good hire. Government is heavily regulated.
@Cosmichomicide I haven’t got any answers to these questions that are surely asked in some cases. A related issue is confidentiality around the “real” reason that people are terminated. My husband’s colleague’s ex-wife was a deliberate serial litigator, bringing sexual harassment or discrimination suits against one after another corporation. She even joked that she made more in settlements than in salary. The settlements required confidentiality so each new employer was unaware of the grift.
@Cosmichomicide I can't answer your first question, but I can answer your second question definitively. There is no question that working remotely is much safer and more equitable for women and minority workers in the sense that they aren't subjected to microaggressions and sometimes outright harassment that they are in the office. On the other hand, remote workers are more likely to be left out of impromptu meetings and thus miss key bits of information.
@Cosmichomicide
Hospitals are full of women. Nurses are primarily women. Ask a nurse how safe she feels these days. How protected and valued.
I definitely feel it is less safe.
I wish employers would consider this, but I am not going to hold my breath.