Salon told to change ad looking for 'happy' stylist because it 'discriminated against unhappy people'
- Reference: 1599215475
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/04/salon_told_to_change_ad_discriminating_against_unhappy_people/
- Source link:
"Been up to much today?"
"No."
... is how your correspondent's chats with barbers normally start and finish, which is why I've taken to buzzing off what's left of the barnet from the relative safety of my home, and not because of coronavirus.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not some sort of arch-small-talk crusher. I just don't like people very much. But I do understand why a cheerful and talkative hairdresser would be preferable to the following exchange:
"Been up to much today?"
"No."
"I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed."
"... OK?"
Which is why the owner of a hair salon in Gloucestershire, England, has been left baffled by the reaction to the wording of an ad she posted to the Jobcentre Plus website.
The offending passage? That AJ's in the Cotswolds town of Stroud is a "happy salon looking for happy people".
God, no.
The [1]BBC reports that 54-year-old Alison Birch thought the call from the Department for Work and Pensions' job-seeking service was a "wind up".
"They said we can't place your advert because you have put a discriminatory word in it and we need to change it," she said.
"They said you're not allowed to use the word happy, in case somebody thinks they can't apply because they are not a happy person."
Let's just take a step back now and consider why an unhappy person would devote tremendous time and resources to learn how to cut other people's hair, only to then balk at the fact the job involves possibly talking to other people.
On the other hand, a depressives-only salon would be an experience in itself:
"Finished."
"How does it look?"
"I hate it."
"Me too."
True happiness is a lofty if not somewhat unattainable goal anyway. Nobody walks around in a constant state of ecstasy when they have work, bills, kids, and life-threatening pandemics to worry about, and a house that no one wants to buy.
Unfortunately, "contented salon looking for contented stylist who can switch on the charm when a customer walks in" doesn't have the same ring to it.
In any case, Birch was "adamant" that she "didn't want to change it".
"I only want happy people but I am too scared to advertise my job now in case I discriminate against anybody," she said.
"Surely by asking for happy applicants I won't make unhappy people even more unhappy by not offering them a job.
"Anyway I haven't had an application yet and I am still looking for a stylist."
So, "happy" IT professionals, [2]step this way if you need a job switch and don't mind entering Zuck's realm, where AJ's has now been forced to advertise. Or browse our listings [3]here . Only if you're happy, though.
The Department for Work and Pensions told the Beeb: "We mistakenly advised a customer to amend a job advert but have since offered to repost the original copy and apologised for the error." ®
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[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-54009032
[2] https://www.facebook.com/job_opening/384553882529715/?source=post_homepage_stream
[3] https://www.theregister.com/Tag/job%20ads
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: How I feel in the office
So how did you get over thirty parsecs away?
How to travel 30 parsecs?
If you have to ask you aren't classified as intelligent.
Re: How to travel 30 parsecs?
That's longer than the Kessel run!
I'm with Richard
I don't need talk of depression but I'm fine with
'Good morning
'Just a cut please
'Is that OK ?
'Yes thanks.
Re: I'm with Richard
Stating that it's a good morning could be triggering to those who are depressed or suicidal.
Re: I'm with Richard
Just a cut please
Just as long as you didn't walk in to the vasectomy clinic next door
Re: I'm with Richard
I hate getting my hair cut by a random person who expects me to talk to them. Thankfully, I'm nearly bald now, so I can just buzz it myself. Saves the need for any kind of conversations with a random stranger, happy or otherwise.
Wouldn't it be nice
To meet a happy taxi driver.
Re: Wouldn't it be nice
I would settle for one with a vow of silence
Re: Wouldn't it be nice
And then I totally like to take a cab when being at a new place - they sort of stick to the route, but also show me some sights while driving by, entertaining me with "and people used to say that the owner of this place.... (strange stroy followed)". Totally worth it, and well within the travel budget I had then... (and was allowed to travel)
Re: Wouldn't it be nice
The great Stewart Lee :-
I’ll give you an example of what I mean. I got in, er, a cab in, in London in December, and about five minutes into the journey, a propos of nothing, early on a Sunday morning, the cab driver turned round to me and he said, ‘I think all homosexuals should be killed.’
Now, whatever you think of that, Glasgow, as a statement, you have to admit it’s a bold opening conversational gambit. You know, with a stranger. And I was a bit taken aback. I went, ‘Oh, why do you think that?’ And then there was a pause, ’cause he’d obviously never had to go to the next level of the argument, fraternising mainly with cab drivers, so … where that was just accepted as a point. No …
And he said, ‘Well …’ after a moment, he said, ‘Well, because homosexuality is immoral.’
And I said – this is honestly true – I said, ‘Um, I’m not sure how much weight you can afford to place on the notion of morality in this argument, because morality’s not a fixed thing. It changes its parameters, culturally, historically, over time.’ I said, ‘For example, look at ancient Greece. To this day, we still take most of our most fundamental principles about ethics, aesthetics, er, philosophy, medicine, science, whatever from ancient Greece. And yet’, I said, ‘in ancient Greece, love between two men, far from being immoral, was actually considered the highest, most ethical, most profound, if you will, most moral form of love that there could be. So all I’m saying’, I said to him, ‘is I’m not sure how useful morality is, given its flexible nature, as a cornerstone of your argument on this subject.’
And then he said to me – this is honestly true – he said to me, ‘Well, you can prove anything with facts, can’t you?’
For a minute, I went, ‘Yeah.’ And then I thought, ‘Hang on! That’s the most fantastic way of winning an argument I’ve ever heard! “You can … I’m not interested in facts. I find they tend to cloud my judgement. I prefer to rely on instinct and blind prejudice.” ’
'Tis nothing new:
The 10th oldest joke was found in the world's oldest "joke book," called "Philogelos" (or "Laughter-Lover"), written by Greeks Hierocles and Philagrius in the 4th century.
"Asked by the court barber how he wanted his hair cut, the king replied: "In silence"."
discriminatory
I thought the purpose of selecting someone for a job was to be discriminatory. There must be some things you can ask for in an applicant and some you can't.
As the applicant if you turn up and you dislike the grumpy boss do you still have to take the job?
Thought that the call was a "wind up"
So it seems that someone from the DWP 'phoned and did not say enough to show that s/he really was from DWP. This is how 'phone calls that end up in identity theft, or something, start out - social engineering. So DWP is clueless that they are making things worse.
Actually: I am not surprised. I get unexpected calls from banks, etc, where they ask ME to prove who I am before they will talk. I always insist that it is the wrong way round.
Sigh
What is it with DWP and their precursors? My direct experience of them is limited but does extent back more than 50 years and is consistent with stories such as this. Is it simply self-perpetuating ineptness - the inept rising up a management structure of their peers and recruiting more like themselves? Or is the the Civil Service filtering recruits, the flyers going to Treasury and FCO whilst those who didn't even make HO end up in DWP?
They have a point.
After all, if you are going to get sued for discrimination, it's always going to be by some miserable bastard. Cheerful, pleasant people just aren't that vindictive.
Probably best not to be seen to discriminate against them.
How I feel in the office
There's only one life-form as intelligent as me within thirty parsecs of here and that's me.