FWD: Employment question

[H Arnold]

regarding screening new hires for political views, i believe in the most 
stark terms it's illegal.  perhaps the reason for this post being anonymous. 
  my husband and i live in a largely republican religiously fundamentalist 
area of the country.  fortunately we are currently, formerly academics and 
at least subscribe to the notion that the university system was built to 
protect intellectual freedom.  tho under the current political regime that 
may have become a myth of days gone by.  i've been out of the academy for 
seven years now.

i once worked for a company where management would remove the NYT op-ed page 
from the lunchroom to maintain harmony.  everyone got along.

fwiw

h



www.heidiarnold.org
www.peaceraptor.blogspot.com





>From: TECHWR-L Administrator <admin at techwr-l.com>
>To: techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com
>Subject: FWD: Employment question
>Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2007 10:41:32 -0600
>
>
>Forwarded anonymously on request. Please respond on list--
>no responses will be privately forwarded. TECHWR-L Admin
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>We are a five person documentation group at a mid-sized company. I
>started here as a lone writer eight years back. The team grew to its
>current size, over the years as the need arose. Though I have the final
>say in the selection of a new writer, the team members are involved in
>the screening and interviewing process, and the final decision is a
>consensus.
>
>We are a pretty close-knit team, and fit in together well. Though each
>writer works on individual books and products, the rest of the team
>pitches in whenever necessary, like in a crunch at release time or when
>some one needs time-off with a scheduled release coming up. Our regular
>table in the cafeteria is called the Doc Table where people stop by to
>chat us up. Of course, we do enjoy our private jokes about the rest of
>the company… :-)
>
>Now we are in need of another writer and have been going through a round
>of interviewing. Been a bit frustrating till we found the ideal
>candidate. Articulate, good language skills, in-depth knowledge in our
>technologies, friendly nature… The interviewing team were exchanging
>gratified smiles till we took the candidate for lunch.
>
>The contrast in views couldn't have been any greater. And the person was
>not the least bit reluctant to express them either. Like it was a given
>that no one could ever disagree with those opinions. (Did I tell you our
>team all fall into the same side of the political spectrum?) The visible
>strain the team was under to keep the situation from sliding to an Al
>Franken date with Ann Coulter would have made me smile if I was not
>under the same strain.
>
>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?
>
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