Regarding my new survey tracking the race and ethnicity of recent hires, a reader told me in an e-mail about the Gannett paper where she worked in the 1990s: "The HR director used to count women who married Hispanics as Hispanic. I asked him if he counted women who married blacks as black. He did not find me amusing. And BTW, they won the diversity award one year using his fuzzy numbers.''Related: At Unity '08, the color of sponsorships is green
How far has your boss gone to boost minority employment figures just to keep Corporate happy? Leave a note in the comments section, below. To e-mail me confidentially, use this link from a non-work computer.
Might be off-topic, but did everyone in the Gannett network have to fill out those forms verifying the people on their medical coverage were really their sposes, children, etc.?
ReplyDeleteIf so, do you all feel slightly insulted that the company made you verify it with documentation?
@6:19 p.m.: That "interrogation'' letter went to all, I believe, Gannett employees covered by company medical benefits. I posted on that in this series: http://tinyurl.com/5xcbbt
ReplyDeleteThank you. I came to the blog after those discussions.
ReplyDeleteI'm relieved to see that I was not the only one with eyebrows raised. As you asked at one point: Why now?
(Were I conspiracy-minded or about to embark on a Jon Land-esque novel, I might think the gathering of such information had some link to gathering information for Homeland Security. But that's silly . . . isn't it?)
I can understand the company wanting to verify, but I also have to agree that the letter sounded incredibly ominous and threatening.
In my office people have horror stories about driving around to get birth certificates, college transcripts, and marriage licenses.
I am soooo tired of hearing about the race thing. I find it interesting that when an individual is half black half white they automatically consider themselves as BLACK. I don't know if the same goes for the hispanic community but of course its a lot harder to see the physical difference. Minorities have been getting breaks and concessions for years. The days of discrimination are over or at least would be if the minorities would stop playing the role of the victim. We as a people ARE the people one and all.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to health insurance with Gannett people does it not occur to everyone that we are all paying for the uninsured be they so-called minorities or not? If they aren't covered under an insurance plan, they are all covered anyway what with the free clinics and the fact that no hospital in the US can deny anyone treatment. The moneys for those services comes out of our increased benefits and our skyrocketing taxes. Not a damn thing we can do about it. So as for the healthcare audit: who cares?
The interrogation letter only went to people who have dependents on Gannett health plans.
ReplyDeleteIt's a matter of legend at the Montgomery Advertiser that when the (now-deceased) executive editor was quizzed by Corporate about the lack of diversity in management, she lied on the spot that an assistant sports editor was an American Indian.
ReplyDeleteRest assured, the closest he ever came to being an Indian was being an Atlanta Braves fan.