Discrimination Raises Its Ugly Head, Legally.

Employment discrimination can raise its ugly head in all sorts of ways. If not race, then age. If not sex, then sexual preference. If not the disabled, then the faithful. Every time someone discriminates — illegal or not — in their own mind it’s justified. After all, THOSE people can’t/don’t/won’t (or not) something that makes most of them unsuitable for the job. Of course this is usually dead opposite the empirical evidence, but why let facts get in the way of a handy assumption?!

Before you think that this is a problem of THOSE people — THOSE bigots or THOSE unenlightened — point that shaky, gnarled finger right back at yourself. Yes, we all do it — even the best intended of us.

So it’s not too surprising to learn in a recent newscast of the latest (and legal) discrimination trend: unemployment. According to the story, there is a trend to overtly do what people have been subtly doing for years (sound familiar?) — putting out signs that say “current unemployed need not apply.”

I can hear you say now, “Hey, that’s not fair!” But who said that life was fair? The assumption is that the currently employed are more valuable candidates because in the current economic turmoil they were the ones their employer kept.

There’s a whole lot wrong with this logic, starting from the assumption that you’re letting a past employer’s judgment — someone you never met, running an operation your never saw — make a decision for you. Let’s not even go to “last in, first out” employment policies, or that even in the best of economies good people leave or lose their jobs. But it is what it is, for good or ill.

How is this a career lesson in NPOs? It’s certainly not to keep you in a job that’s not right and not to depress you any further if you’re between paid work. After all, even great fundraisers are unwillingly unemployed from time-to-time. Besides, most unemployed that I know will work twice as hard on their next job because they see the downside of not having that job. Just see it for what it is: an attempt by some people to get out of the hard work of actually investigating a candidate’s abilities. Unfortunately, what’s meant as a risk reducer ends up being a gain limiter. Their loss.

So, no great solutions on this one. No witty endings -– just know about it, and keep your eyes open for great people who are between jobs. There are some fine people out there -– don’t be afraid to give them a chance.