Fun and games with job applications

[redbird]

I've been filling out a Stop and Shop online job application, since they're near here and apparently hiring. It's full of weird questions about personality and such, most of which I knew how I should answer. And some odd stuff: I've just clicked a box for "I have read this statement": the statement is about a Massachusetts law on polygraphs. I do not live, and am not apply for employment, in Massachusetts.

Oh, and they believe in three genders: male, female, and skip. The question is optional, and "skip" also (perhaps only, in their minds) means "I do not want to answer this question", but at least it's space for people to whom the other two don't apply.

(minnehaha, roadnotes, and womzilla, I listed you as references.)

Comments

[roadnotes.livejournal.com]

No problem.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

As usual, male and female aren't genders, they're sexes :-)

An interesting sociology investigation, at least... did you select skip?

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I've seen "skip" on several official and semi-official forms, with the implicit meaning of "I do not want to answer this question." It distinguishes the response from "I didn't read the question" or "I forgot to answer the question." The phrasing is clumsy, but it's nice that they have the option.

"I do not want to answer this question" covers, "the answer is none of your business" as well as (perhaps more often than) "neither answer you suggest quite applies to me." Around here, I've also seen it on job applications that ask "Are you married?" and "Do you have a car?" where the answer really is none of their damn business. When I was looking for work, my legal advisor informed me that the law prohibits discrimination according to various kinds of status.(*) Contrary to my expectation, that does NOT mean companies are not allowed to inquire about those kinds of status. They can ask, and a prospective employee can refuse to answer, or answer and trust them not to use the information inappropriately.

(*) I can be quietly open about gender in job interviews. I was trying to conceal disability issues. And I know a few women who try to conceal whether they're married, or have kids.