Erika Flory, MJ-LEL, Capstone Fall 2022
I had the pleasure of reviewing a group within my Capstone class that had presented on the following topics: Age and Weight Discrimination and ADA requirements. This group stood out to me the most because as a recruiter, I find myself constantly training my hiring managers on the following topics of age and weight discrimination.
The topic of age discrimination is one that I face quite often (more than I would like to). As a recruiter, hiring managers are looking for candidates to be a good culture fit within their department and company. One presenter talked about a court case in which a past employee of Google brought a claim of age discrimination against google when they made an offer. This was interesting to me to hear because I have always thought it was hard for companies to discriminate against someone against their age. But the presenter explained that many companies will use sourcing tactics to look for age on a person's resume. (i.e. to look for high school graduation dates as well as the employee's first job and year of start date.) This is something hiring managers constantly worry about if they are able to hire someone who is tech savvy since a majority of the work will be spent on technologies which unfortunately is a form of bias that is considered to be age discrimination.
The next topic of this group's presentation highlighted best practices for requirements for ADA. This portion of the presentation was really interesting to me because I have always had an unclear understanding of how this applies to many workplaces. I have learned during this portion that many companies do not have to provide recommendations if the disability does not fall under ADA Requirements. This information was quite interesting to me since I thought all employers must make accommodations for any employee who has a disability.
The third topic highlighted discrimination against weight was really interesting to hear and is probably my favorite topic out of the three. I have learned quite a bit by listening to this presenter. One of the facts that I have learned is that Michigan is the only state that has some sort of anti-weight discrimination. But federally, there is no law that recognizes weight to be a discriminatory law. However, the EEOC has participated in claims of weight discrimination. In the US, many people are looked over in the hiring process because of the stereotype that people who are overweight are lazy and may have to take a lot of time off due to obesity. I have a hiring manager at my previous company who told me that he worried that a person he interviewed would be able to do the job because of her size. He did not move forward with hiring her even though she has met all of the qualifications on paper. This truly upset me because this was a candidate that met the qualifications and was referred to the company by a current employee. However, the hiring manger decided not to move forward with hiring her.
I truly enjoyed listening to this group. I have learned so much by listening to their topics.
Observing my Peers Presentation © 2022 by Erika Flory is licensed underCC BY 4.0
Comments