The rise of intrusive questioning on employment forms

Admittedly, I have been involved in the world of job hunting for a fraction of the amount of time most of you will have, but even a 23 year old like me has noticed a worrying lurch towards ever increasing intrusive questions on forms when applying for jobs.

I understand the need for employers to find out about you, as a potential employee. However, I do not subscribe to the growing belief that some employers have, that the more they know about you, the better. What worries me is that the ratio between work available and job seekers is so out of proportion that employers can, literally, ask what they want of you. For every person who stands up and puts 'refused' on the question of ethnicity, there will be ten people willing to answer the question without thinking why this information is needed and what its output be used for.

The question that infuriates me is one you get on practically every type of form you will ever find; "What ethnicity are you". Perhaps it infuriates me because I simply do not know. What do you call someone born in Turkey, with an Irish mother, Turkish father and living in England since the age of 4?

That, however, is not the point. Why should an employer need to know what ethnicity somebody is, unless their decision on employment is based on ethnicity? Just as much as the thought of being refused a job on the grounds of ethnicity infuriates me, the thought of getting a job on the grounds of ethnicity infuriates me even more. I would rather be out of a job because of the colour of my skin, then have a job because of the colour of my skin. Any person with any degree of dignity would agree.

A seemingly innocent and simple question of ethnicity can cause all these concerns. Do I want people around me to think I got the job as the token immigrant? What if people think I'm a token? Am I a token?

All these concerns arise from intrusive questions. Other such ones are 'what sexuality are you'. Unless you're applying to be the Homosexual Outreach Officer for a gay bar, is that question in any way relevant? Will I as a heterosexual male do the job better or worse than a homosexual male? If I were a gay male, would I really want my employee knowing about a potentially large proportion of my personal life?

One that I always refuse to answer is 'do you smoke'. What if I do? What is it to my employer? I smoke every now and then, is that enough for them to label me a smoker? What happens if I'm labelled a smoker? Will they think I'll be dead within a few years and mark me out of an upcoming promotion? Is my potential boss one of these anti-smoking missionaries I've been reading about in the press?

As far as I am concerned, and I challenge anybody to tell me different, these questions are there for one reason and one reason only. To discriminate. If I were looking for new staff and had a problem with gay people I could easily have the question of sexuality on forms, under the guise of 'ensuring we meet equality standards'. The same goes for smokers and the same goes for ethnicity.

What frustrates me the most is the fact that right now, employers have the power. There are far less jobs then there are job seekers. As this imbalance increases we will see more and more intrusive questions on employment forms. I know, when filling in application forms that writing 'refused' next to such questions is more or less saving time for the employer to write in capitals REFUSED on my application. For every person that stands up, there are many that take it sitting down.

By Yasin Akgun.

If you would be interested in writing a guest post, please e-mail info@bigbrotherwatch.org.uk.

Comments

[Demeter]

Yasin, perhaps you could try writing "N/A" ("Not Applicable") against those questions you do not wish to answer. It is far less confrontational than "Refused" and in my experience is very rarely, if ever, challenged (possibly because the form reader hasn't a clue what it means). It doesn't make quite the stand that your approach does, but then it is also probably rather more successful :-)

[Sati Pera]

I have just seen another right wing "free market" Tory capitalist on the telly (Douglas Carswell). All you have to do is google any of their names and add taxpayers alliance and you can see the real aims of this site.

Big Brother Watch (an offshoot of the Taxpayers Alliance)is just one of a series of websites that appears to be sticking up for the rights of the person in the street but is in reality funded by business and promotes their interests.

Also Google astroturfing.

[Paul Coombes]

I completely agree with you regarding the ethnicity question. I refuse to answer it as I consider its very presence to be racist. As far as I can tell the only reason for the presence of the question on forms is so that the business in question can show its ethnic diversity.
I must admit to having contemplated answering with 'Not known' but I think I prefer Demeter's suggestion of N/A.

[Richard Craven]

Whenever I am asked to tick an ethnicity box, I always make it my business to look my interlocutor in the eye and say firmly "I consider myself to be a black African". I am white.

@Sati Pera. Look, just fuck off will you.

[Richard Craven]

@Yasin

This is something which I warmly encourage you to lie about. Tell them you're Samoan.

[Purlieu]

How about "I'm sorry but this question is too vague and open to misinterpretation, and I want to give you a concise and accurate answer. Could you please rephrase it."

[toad]

sati pera you rotten protoza. go smoke some more recycled hemp & save the pandas. viva la revolución

[Dave Atherton]

Hi Yasin, I hope you are well. One thing about 13 years of ZanuLabour was the bureaucratic tick box culture of local and central government. Alas it has seeped down to Human Resources who via the Department Of Employment have to prove their innocence when hiring that no one is discriminated against.

On hiring smokers it is legal to advertise any position that they will not be hired.

[Richard Craven]

@Paul

"I completely agree with you regarding the ethnicity question. I refuse to answer it as I consider its very presence to be racist."

To be fair, I don't think this is quite right. Racism is treating people differently because of their race. Evidently, asking EVERYONE to tick an ethnicity box isn't racist. It's just silly.

[anon]

The Conservative Party's standard application form includes questions like these, so don't expect government to change anything!

http://www.conservatives.com/get_involved/~/media/Files/Downloadable%20Files/CCHQ-Standard-Application-Form-oct10.ashx

[jn]

@anon

How saddening that even the tories should engage in this nonsense.

[oakley outlet]

::@I've sat down here to blog several times but gotten interrupted by one thing or another. I've been busy the past few days (with one thing or another). I painted with a group of friends in Grove last Thursday and we had a live model. #@#