Your rights under OSHA 11(c)

When I said "adapt to changes" I was referring to changes in technical aspects of the job, changes in how women and minorities are treated.

Loyalty and the ability to follow orders is a given.

 

I also meant people who are amenable to new training methods that differ from what they learned in the past.

I suspect this is why moloko has experienced a positive response from being relatively young. This characteristic would be seen as a plus from an employer who wants to teach him their particular way of doing things.

Dogmatic people, in my definition, stubbornly cling to a belief system. And they're often more resistant to anything outside what they deems is the correct way.

 

Banks are another area that likes to cling to old ways and beliefs.

I'm not kidding. These are places that have been legislated into taking a progressive stance, publicly, but does anyone on the Senate judicial board have a husband? How many cross dressing generals are there? Do you know what the phrase "Black Betty" refers to, in a technical context?

There is a place for everyone. Not everyone is welcome everywhere. That's never going to change, no matter how much we legislate or shame people. We can sue, protest, or whatever, but none of that pays a paycheck, and even if you succeed in forcing someone to accept something that they aren't comfortable with, you won't wind up with what you wanted. You might help someone else, down the road, that way - but if you want to help yourself, in the present, you find your niche, and fill it. There is one, for everybody. Even Hitler had a niche - and he found it.

 

You're talking about people who see a world a certain way hiring others who see the world the same way.

Of course this is the way of the world.

I'm talking about employers who tend to favor applicants who they believe will be able to adapt and embrace their protocols and philosophies.

 

Hiring is done by people, and the criteria that those people use in doing so, are logically connected to the jobs that they are filling, astonishingly rarely. It's not about what you know, but who you know... you learn this rapidly, as you exit college and enter the job market, and the lesson gets reinforced at every subsequent job application or interview. Even in trucking, very little substantially differentiates applicants, so decisions are often made based more upon how the interviewer or supervisor feels, about a specific driver, than the factual reality. There are a million statistical tools that they can use, if they have to, to quantify and justify those decisions, later - but that's almost never how they were made.

HR consultants sometimes describe this as employers 'not knowing what they want', and I suppose that you can call it whatever you like - philosophy and policy, or worldview - but it all amounts to the same thing.

 

I completely disagree.

Cronyism and nepotism are real.

But I've also landed some very good jobs in my life without knowing the right people.

And to say it "all amounts to the same thing" is both evasive and defeatist.

 

Okay. So I'm not convinced that chasing this rabbit down it's hole is all that productive or wise, because this sounds like an opinion that you are already highly invested in... but here goes...

You and I are both truckers. We apply for the same job, pulling the same freight. Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that you have 15 years and I have ten. You've principally done OTR flatbed and produce, and I've mostly done dry box regional.

The job is dedicated postal freight, and we are the applicants. Do you think that the hiring decision will be based upon any of these characteristics? Once it has been established that we are both capable of performing the job, it now comes down to factors of convenience and preference. If the interviewer thinks that you look dirty, or seem like a difficult personality, or you live far away, or he thinks that your car won't survive the commute over the long term...

Honestly, if he just finds something about one or the other of us that he likes or doesn't like, that's enough to tip the balance. If he has a better relationship with my references than he does with yours... well then it really was about who I know, and not what I know.

If the interviewer doesn't like black men, and one of us happens to be black, he can certainly find an excuse to hire the other guy - even if your name merely sounds like you might be black. He doesn't have to tell anyone that this was the basis of his selection; he may not even be consciously aware of it, himself.

His philosophy and policy implementation and interpretation will be influenced by his worldview. You can call that evasive or defeatist if you like, but that doesn't make it untrue. That you may believe it is a thing worth fighting, would be as noble as it is self-destructive. But you pick your own battles, and I'll pick mine. I only make the point, so that you understand the implications of the choice that you make.

Now, if one of us is an obvious standout, that might be different - say, if one of us already had a postal ID badge, from a previous job. But if we did, the big question would be why we aren't still there - and if the guy doesn't want to hire one of us, he can still find a justifiable excuse to hire the other, if he tries.

Cronyism and nepotism are, in fact, real. And we can fight for what's right, or find the niche that works for us, and fit into it. It's a choice, and like the old saying "go big or go home"; both are legitimate options.

 

We both agree that cronyism and nepotism are real. However, there are exceptions - no matter how remote. And it's the right mindset that will open you up for such positive opportunities.

If anyone out there thinks he cannot achieve success because an aunt or uncle isn't the ceo or because his ethnicity differs from the hiring manager, he will inevitably set himself up for a self-fulfilling prophecy in which he'll find himself wallowing in self-pity. And, if he's eloquent enough, he'll spread his world views, come hell or high water, to anyone who'll read what he has to say.

Well, I refuse to live my life with such a defeatist mindset. Whether it's truck driving, setting and meeting personal health and fitness goals, meeting the right significant other, and so on.

And I strongly advise others to take a similar approach.

 

There is a place for everyone. Trucking itself is home to some of the weirdest people I have ever met - and I used to be a techie nerd.

I have reached an age at which changing the world no longer really benefits me. I still intellectually understand why it should be changed, but the reasons why I should be the one to make sacrifices to that end, are no longer meaningful to me.

So I choose to find my niche. Others may choose to break down barriers, if they wish. Very noble. Wish there were a real chance that I might see the world that they are trying to create, but in that sense, it's a young man's world.

If it helps, I apologize for being so eloquent and persuasive...

Good luck!

 

^^^

Thank you. Likewise.