RE: Employment question

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Anon wrote: 

> The question is, would it be ethical to deny employment to a 
> person (otherwise eminently qualified) based on his/her 
> political views, though the real reason is never mentioned? 
> On the other hand, is a new person (however well qualified) 
> worth the possible disruption (97% possibility) to the sense 
> of good will in the team?

Wow. Encountering someone with different values and ideas puts your team
under a "visible strain"? You believe a person who doesn't think in
lock-step with you will disrupt your team's "sense of good will"? What
"good will"? 

If this person were apologetic about thinking differently, might your
team's "good will" survive this harrowing encounter? Or are you all so
close-minded, insecure, and defensive that even a more timid "other"
would be too threatening?

Your group's attitude is what leads to college faculties that are 95% to
the left of Ted Kennedy. I don't suppose what you're considering is
illegal, but it's certainly shameful. 

Coincidentally, I recently read an interview (http://tinyurl.com/35vkc3)
with Canadian documentary film-maker Martyn Burke, whose film "Islam vs.
Islamists: Voices from the Muslim Center" was rejected by PBS (which
commissioned it) in part because Burke wouldn't fire a co-producer who
happened to be a conservative. 

According to Burke, at the meeting where the demand was made, a PBS vice
president asked Burke incredulously, "Don't you check into the politics
of the people you work with?" Burke said he replied, "No. No, I do not.
I check into their journalistic integrity." 

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------






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