Witnessed Discrimination @ work!! What to do!!

sazzie_sue

Hi all, I was wondering if all you lovely people can give me some advice about something that has happened @ work, this post may be a bit long so my apologies in advance.

I'll try to explain my best so here goes, I have worked for my company for 5 years and worked closely with my manager for 3years, I kinda act as his PA. We have been recently interviewed staff for a new telephone based role as were really short staffed. I do not conduct the interviews my self my manager does this and makes the decisions I just go in to take minutes to help with his decision.

We got sent 2 people by the agency last week and interviewed them, we interviewed a woman who was perfect for the job, she had great experience she had worked for a major bank for 15 years in a telephone based role, she was so down to earth, would fit in well with the team we really like her. The problem for my manager is she had no front teeth and a few of her teeth were black and rotten. His exact words when we came out of the interview was ' we can't hire her she looks awful and would be totally inappropriate'

This has got me so mad and worked up, i know this is not discrimination in its usual form but to me its still unfair to judge her on this, He has decided to take on a grad with little experience just because her face doesn't fit. I will hold my hands up and say I did look twice when I saw here but after 5 mins of talking to her I soon forgot about her teeth as she was so friendly and chatty she was a lovely woman with some fantastic experience.

If this was based on skin colour i know he wouldn't do this or if someone had been in an accident and had scares you couldn't not discriminate them for this, she could of had an accident that's why she has no front teeth for all he knows, I just feel so bad and guilty about this I feel I should do something as he has not yet offered the other bloke a job so I feel I should do something before its to late. Its not like were even customer facing.

My biggest problem is that I am very close with my manager we are good friends and I really don't want to get him into trouble, he will know its me who has said something as I was the only one in the interview room so if I go to HR he will know. My manager is a decent man really he has helped me when having personal problems at home give me a shoulder to cry on so I am stuck on what to do,on one hand i'm loyal to him but on the other and can't sit back and let this happen just cause her face doesn't fit and he being so vain.

Please help!!

Am I just over reacting and poking my nose in where its not needed? Should I tell HR? Is is worth risking my friendship and not knowing how it will affect my work life? Should I just stay quiet?

I really don't know what to do, any advice would be sooooooo much appreciated.

SS!x

Money_maker

I would just speak to your manager about it and try to win him round to her.

I know its the wrong thing but speaking to HR would open a hornets nest. IMHO.

sazzie_sue

I did think about speaking to him direct but @ the mo I'm quite mad about this, I'm quite hot headed and prob would say summort I'll regret just typical me.

Maby food 4 though when I have calmed down.

Quasar

If her post does not involve facing customers, I think your boss is out of order. Who can see her teeth on the phone?

juliescot

If it is a telephone based role then looks do not come into it but did the lack of front teeth have any effect on her speech?

Your boss may well be able to justify his choice of appointee by many means so all I suspect you can do is ask him what made him choose the person he did.

PasturesNew

Maybe she wants the job to pay for dental surgery too.

sazzie_sue

There was nothing wrong with her speech, she was lovley, just him being a pompus pr1ck.

Guess i need to grow sum courage to say sumthing to him.

juliescot

sazzie_sue wrote: »

There was nothing wrong with her speech, she was lovley, just him being a pompus pr1ck.

Guess i need to grow sum courage to say sumthing to him.

In your opinion.

Ask him why he chose person A over person B.
He will perhaps come up with an answer that is non-discriminatory.
In which case I would leave it - not worth bothering about.

Rockporkchop

I would say nothing. Just forget about it, if she's good she will find something else. Why force him to hire someone he doesn't want? She could have lost her teeth in an accident as you say or she could be an extremely heavy smoker who would be taking breaks every five minutes - who knows.

Maybe he has chosen the graduate as he will be able to pay him considerably less?

I agree with what someone else said though, having no teeth will be really noticeable over the telephone.

UnoriginalGuy_2

Unfortunately this is how the world really works. People make a hire Vs. no hire decision within seconds of meeting someone, particularly now with ages and genders disappearing from CVs.

You're far more likely to not get the job because they envisioned a young kid in the job or an older person in that management position, or a guy in the "needs to have authority" position, or that pretty blonde PA in the PA spot...

Just as with dating, you're more likely to get and keep a job if you're attractive. Your average pay will be higher. etc etc etc

Long story short, the world is a bad place and humans are bad people.

PS - If you say anything avoid being accusatory. Just ask why they didn't hire her, if they say it was because of that reason just ask if that is fair and suggest she was a good applicant....

DVardysShadow

I think the interesting problem comes for the OP if the applicant comes back and asks for feedback. OP: what will you say?