3 ms·

I recently appliedm for a job where the demographic questions of gender and hispanic origin had no opt out - I had to mark male or female. It's my understanding

by clubm8 8y ago

I recently appliedm for a job where the demographic questions of gender and hispanic origin had no opt out - I had to mark male or female. It's my understanding that's not legal, but what is my recourse aside from ending the application process early? Realistically even if I wanted to find a lawyer who'd take the case on, any future employers would be able to see the court records that I sued a potential job in a Google search and I doubt the payoff would be enough to retire on.

ta405349 8y ago
Of course you can't sue them and get enough money to retire on. They didn't destroy your life, they had a misconfigured form on their damn website. Send them an email, "I recently used your website and it appeared that several demographic questions did not have "Prefer Not To Say"/"No Answer" options, which I am used to seeing. I think these are fair to people who do not wish to provide that information at that time, and have understood opt-out options might even be required by anti-discrimination law. I wanted to let you know about this concern and hope you can fix it." Do it from a throwaway email if you are particularly paranoid.
- clubm8 8y ago
  >Of course you can't sue them and get enough money to retire on. They didn't destroy your life, they had a misconfigured form on their damn website. Most HR systems default to allowing a decline due to it being a legal requirement. I spoke to someone I know who worked HR in the valley for years - it requires quite a bit of effort to override that. So the issue isn't so much a minor mistake, it's purposefully reconfiguring a system in an illegal manner to aid discrimination. (And it is absolutely illegal to refuse to accept an application without this information)
all_blue_chucks 8y ago
It is perfectly legal to ask. It's illegal to base hiring decisions on that info though.
- clubm8 8y ago
  > It is perfectly legal to ask. It's illegal to base hiring decisions on that info though. It's not legal to make answering a condition to submit an application, whether it's a mandatory field or a secretary who won't accept the paper application until you confirm you are white and male.
deleted 8y ago
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by clubm8 8y ago

ta405349 8y ago

Of course you can't sue them and get enough money to retire on. They didn't destroy your life, they had a misconfigured form on their damn website. Send them an email, "I recently used your website and it appeared that several demographic questions did not have "Prefer Not To Say"/"No Answer" options, which I am used to seeing. I think these are fair to people who do not wish to provide that information at that time, and have understood opt-out options might even be required by anti-discrimination law. I wanted to let you know about this concern and hope you can fix it." Do it from a throwaway email if you are particularly paranoid.

clubm8 8y ago
>Of course you can't sue them and get enough money to retire on. They didn't destroy your life, they had a misconfigured form on their damn website. Most HR systems default to allowing a decline due to it being a legal requirement. I spoke to someone I know who worked HR in the valley for years - it requires quite a bit of effort to override that. So the issue isn't so much a minor mistake, it's purposefully reconfiguring a system in an illegal manner to aid discrimination. (And it is absolutely illegal to refuse to accept an application without this information)

all_blue_chucks 8y ago

It is perfectly legal to ask. It's illegal to base hiring decisions on that info though.

clubm8 8y ago
> It is perfectly legal to ask. It's illegal to base hiring decisions on that info though. It's not legal to make answering a condition to submit an application, whether it's a mandatory field or a secretary who won't accept the paper application until you confirm you are white and male.

deleted 8y ago

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