Male discrimination from a HR Woman

[jack]

This job position was for the Admissions Supervisor. I am a white male and defiantly the minority applying for this position when it comes to women and men. I felt I was discriminated against and not hired based on my sex as a Male. Within this department it employees around 13 employee’s which are all women. The reason I know this is because the manager interviewing me made this very, very clear that they are all women and asked if I have worked with women. The person that held this supervisor position before was also a woman and she made this very clear to me too. Just about like a woman would be better in the position then a man.

This was the hiring manager that interviewed me. All through the interview she talked about employees based on gender and everyone was a women. She referred to a manager that I would be running in to conflicts with and then she said that this manager is also a woman. She said most of the people I would be working with would be women. When I asked how many employees I would have reporting to me if I was offered the job, she stated 13 and they are all women. She asked me how I felt about working with women and have I ever worked with a lot of women before and stated they are different to work with then men. I told her I have worked with both women and men before and it would not be a problem for me. I found my self trying to convince her I was very capable working with women during this interview.


She then said that some of the problems I would be dealing with if I were offered the job would be with other women and particular this one other manager from another department that always blames the admissions department even if it is not our fault and she noted that she also was a women. I told her I would be able to work through any situation or issues with a man or women and that it did not make a difference to me. She then stated that they have new admissions software and it is kind of hard to learn and very touchy. Then she stared off in to space for a few seconds and said…I should put a man in this position…just to shake things up a bit. Then she looked like she came back to earth/reality.

She then looked at me and said she had to warn me that she is looking at another woman that already work’s at the hospital for this position. She said she did not think she had applied for the position but she already learned the software and was going to try to talk her in to applying for this position. She then said a person within the department applied but she was not qualified for this position and did not think she had any supervisor experience. I asked why no men are in the department and has a man ever worked in this department. She said she thinks one worked in the department part time a while back.

I told her that if all these other 13 women within this department learned this software and others had learned it that I am confident I could learn the software too. She did not say anything after my comment. She said working with all these women is different then working with men. I then told me how much the position paid and I said I was not concerned about the pay and that I would work hard and give 100% no matter what I was going to get paid. She said that was true for anyone from North Dakota. I felt even when I tried to stand out a bit she shut the door in my face.



The only thing that was really job related was the software program the Hospital used and she tried to convince me it was to hard to learn for me but not all the other women This whole interview was about working with women and not the job. On Feb 1st 2005 I received a letter in the mail from the HR office stating they offered the position to another person within the department that had more experience.

Besides already having learned the software program, I would sure like to know what experience this person had that I did not have that gave her the job before me. I would also like to know why did we talk about women the whole interview and the questions about how to work around and deal with women and could I do it. Everyone learned this software that was so difficult but everyone else learned no problem. My last position I held I was an HR/Health & Safety/ Training manager and we had many different software programs to learn and 350 employees. I feel I had all the qualification needed to fill this position besides being a woman! Based on her talking about women the whole interview I felt the only reason I did not get this job was because I was not a women. When I sent the hospital 3 e-mail letters to talk about it they had thier attourny send me a letter telling me in his opinion I was NOT discriminated against.

[LConnell]

Let me get this straight...you say that the hospital's attorney said that you had been a victim of discrimination? I am surprised that they would admit it so readily.

If you believe that you are a victim of discrimination, you should file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Their website may be found at: www.eeoc.gov.

[ausi]

No...the hospital's attorney said he didn't think there was discrimination. I would contact the EEOC based on illegal questions in the interview. If the genders were reversed...this would definately be discrimination-therefore, I think you have a good case.

[Davidh]

Jack,
I just read your post on Labor Law Talk from 2/2005 regarding discrimination from the HR manager. I just went through the exact same interview with a company here in Maryland. I was wondering if you ever contacted the EEOC and if so what happened?
Thank you,
David

[ScottB]

David, Jack's posts date back almost two years. Don't hold your breath waiting on him to respond.

Open up a new thread and ask your questions.