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01:25 - 06.10.06
interview with a vampire
I got a call from an interviewer who had just been assessing one of the people who worked for me last election. I had agreed to stand as a reference, so that part didn't surprise me. The first questions were the standard data and behavioural benchmarks that let them know if the applicant has the skill sets pertinent to the position being considered. Then came one that troubled me. I had mentioned the person's close attention to detail and their report writing skills. Instead of following up on that, the interviewer asked if that meant there were language barriers. Huh? Well the person is not of European descent. Well no, but so what. The interviewer had spoken face to face with the applicant. Obviously they had responded well enough to merit a reference check. Not only that, that person can actually speak three languages, thank you very much. What a lot of interviewers don't realize is that a lot of the commonwealth countries still have British run schools or systems. Means that the children attending those likely have better English grammar and syntax than those of us raised in the casual west.

Then came the entirely illegal question. Another one of those ones that left me speechless as I tried to calm down enough to respond appropriately. The question? Could I tell the caller if I knew of any home or personal factors, such as family violence or health issues that might be a barrier to their work. Firstly, those questions are illegal plain and simple. As we all know too, there are disabled or chronically ill people who are much better workers than their peers. There are also people in unhappy personal circumstances, such as divorce proceedings or deaths in the family, who can still be very professional at work, while their peers with charmed lives barely pull a day's weight of work once a week. That question was a fishing expedition as if as though the person was looking for any reason not to hire the applicant. What made it all the more offensive was that it came from the hiring staff in the justice department of one of our three levels of government here. The same justice department where that one person I've described in earlier posts, who felt it was acceptable to mine personal and protected data about her co-workers, supervisors and neighbours in order to "put them in their place" is working. How can any interviewer have the nerve to ask for a former employer to dish personal dirt on an applicant, when their own internal staff are not being held to the same standard of behaviour. In addition, under the federal privacy act I cannot keep, let alone provide, such information to anyone else for any purpose, nor do I want to. I pointed out, after making it very clear why I was declining to respond to that question, that should that become a criteria whereby staff were chosen for work, then it would become a matter for the human rights tribunal to become involved if not lawyers as well. Settlements for that form of discrimination are very high by Canadian standards.

It also hit a very raw nerve where I was concerned personally. I've lost count of the number of times that I was told, as a temp or consultant, by my supervisors that they would and could do anything to me they wanted because they had me over a barrel as a single parent. If I complained about wages or working conditions, then they would fire me and make certain that bad references would find their way into any other company in that industry that might consider hiring me. I have to wonder if that hasn't happened through that one immediate supervisor I had in the assignment I had as the last federal election was being called in November 2005. The one who seemed to be deeply involved in whatever illegal scheme was going on with that one company in the archived material. The one company that had no assets, but huge sums of money flowing through it and all its funny little spin-off shell companies. Frustrating, because no one will tell one what is said so that one can at least defend one's character. That is why that legislation is in place so that one can't be black-balled by a malicious supervisor or co-worker.

I talked with the staff member later and found out they had been offered the position, despite my refusal to dish on them. I did tell them what had been asked though, because I think one needs to know not to respond to any personal discussion once one is working in an office like that. I asked them to let me know when they had decided to accept the position and if they did, when they received their written offer of employment. I'm willing to wait until I know my actions won't cost them a job, but I am going to write to the justice department and whoever else needs to be involved to get that practice changed. One of the other people who worked for me interviewed in that same department and was rejected. I had given her a letter of reference, so hadn't been called for a background check. That staffer would have done a great job in the position she applied for. If she was rejected for a catty or thoughtless remark from some other supervisor or co-worker that is a real miscarriage of justice. Maybe that's why I've been having dreams about the one supervisor I had for five years. He doesn't do or say anything, he just looks sad and defeated.

The rest of the day was spent working on things election. Talked to one other Returning Officer who is into their next assignment and found out that we were both encountering the same problems with the allocation of hours to do our jobs, payment for work completed and a number of logistical and political matters too. They have friends all over Canada, so that they can check to see what is being done in those places too. We are not being allowed equal footing with regions where there is no population growth and where their vacancy/jobless rate makes it easy for them to rent facilities and find workers. Just frustrating. I spent more time on websites with the demographic data and maps I need, so I did move a few steps ahead I guess. Even found a satellite map in NASA's database that has my home included in it. Way cool! Shine on Harvest Moon too. Better yet were the aerial photos of the parts of my electoral district where massive amounts of residential construction are underway. Think I'll be sending those links to headquarters for show and tell. Don't really know what else I can do. Anyway time for bed before the cats stage a work to rule campaign. Maybe I should call it a sleep to rule campaign in their case though. Good night dear diary.

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