“Progressive” bosses won’t hire Trump supporters:
It’s not legal in most cases, and certainly not right, but 1 in 5 left-leaning bosses “will not hire” supporters of President Trump, and huge majorities of hiring managers want to know the positions job candidates have on highly controversial issues including race and immigration, according to a sweeping new survey.
What’s more, job seekers reluctant to cough up their views and positions in interviews can’t hide them because nearly all employers sift through social media posts, mostly Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, of those they are considering for jobs.
Now, I didn’t vote for Trump, and I’ve certainly made my Trump-skepticism a matter of public record – but I’ve run into this, and in fact it’s not just Trump. Some “progressive” management practice cultural cleansing of all Republican and conservative thought their offices.
I pretty strenuously keep my political beliefs, this blog, and my show out of the workplace – eschewing political conversations even among friends. But I’m fairly certain my blog and / or show played a role in two contracting gigs not being renewed over the years, and I’ve got suspicions about one reorganization at a direct job back in the 2000s as well.
Of course, in every case it turned out to be their loss rather than mine – each of the teams I’d worked on has developed a reputation for incompetence and venal, petty, backbiting institutional culture and…
…well, some punch lines just write themselves, don’t they?
I avoid proximity to leftists whenever I have a choice. In addition to being mentally ill, with few exceptions, I find them to be pretty miserable human beings in general.
If I were an employer, I’d want to extend my right of association to who I hire. I believe employers have the right to make judgements about the people who they hire; including political beliefs. Also including deviant sexual behaviors that are paraded in public, mental illness that manifests in genital mutilation or gender delusions, public support for Dr. Mengele’s abattoir, support for anti-American programs, derision of traditional Western morals and values.
I also believe that employers have the right to dictate appearance in dress and grooming, and I walk that talk. My arms and back are covered with (very fine) tattoos, but I work in a profession that expects and demands a professional appearance, hence I’ve worn long sleeve shirts at work summer and winter since the day I acquired ink below my elbow.
I’ve been lucky; in 30 years I’ve had two colleagues that were supportive of leftist politics. If my experience is any measure there are very few leftist reprobates in engineering. We jealously guard and make broad use of our right to choose who we wish to do business with, why not in who we hire?
I’d be happy to let employers hire by political preference, except Liberals would object and liberal judges would punish.
Why didn’t you hire him?
He’s a liberal.
Yes, but he’s also (Black, gay, Jewish, etc.) You’re violating anti-discrimination laws.
Never works the other way, you notice.
Why didn’t you hire him?
He’s a conservative.
Yes, but he’s also competent and qualified.
And your point is . . . ?
This ‘will not hire’ sentiment can I’m sure be theoretically discerned with a survey… such that this is the basic of the clickbait article.. As a practical matter, I don’t think this is ‘a thing’ in broader commerce. I contract as a stem worker, I have for 16 years, have had perhaps a gig a year on avg. So I’ve had a hundred interviews in 16 years. I’ve never had a politics question in that time. I contracted at the state… I didn’t get political questions there in that interview.
I would say, if I was conducting interviews and the interviewee tangentially editorialized in MAGA-y ways, that might be a personality signal for ‘do not hire’.
In totalitarian Communist countries, you had to be a member of the Party to get a job – or keep it. “Political unreliability” could get you fired or demoted faster than being drunk at the control panel of a nuclear power plant.
NW
the chicoms have improved on the CCCP model by marring the concept of credit scores with Facebook dynamics, they call it a Social Credit score and they use it to regulate where you can go and what you can do. Imagine the day (coming soon) when you get in a self driving Uber at Lyndale & Broadway N, stick your credit card in the slot and tell the machine to take you to the Linden Hills Community Center. Because of where you live and who you are (3 time felon B&E, Armed robbery) the machine will inform you that you don’t have the Social Credit rating high enough to enter that neighborhood, the best you can do is get a ride to the Phillips neighborhood. Sounds like an idyllic application of current technology, no? The same will be true of job interviews, if your Social Credit rating is too low a human won’t even see your application.
Now the question is what raises or lowers your Social Credit rating and who sets the criteria – AFSCME bureaucrats?
Allow me to play devil’s advocate, (with apologies to PoD), and put the shoe on the other foot.
Given that leftist doctrine is, and has been as far back as I can remember, anti-business/capitalism, as a business owner, it would be within my purview to choose not to hire liberals or people that identify as Democrats, using the rationale that they may elect to sabotage my business. The pendulum swings both ways. That said, I believe that conservatives and Republicans definitely are more tolerant of opposing views and would not use that criteria to select an employee.
We probably do have de facto social credit scoring such that it is HR practice to look at an interviewees FB page.
Its insidious in its way, yes. But any adult person in the midst of a serious career ought not be plastering their page with political memes. And adult person has to manage how that is presented to the world.
At some point, I have to wonder whether it’s the mere fact that someone is, say, a Trump supporter or conservative, or whether someone presents their views in some pretty angry/antisocial ways. Most of the cases where I see someone get bumped from Twitter or whatever, it’s not just because their views are conservative, Trumpian, or whatever. It’s because they’re picking a fight.
Now it’s probably correct that liberals are getting more “slack” than conservatives in this regard, but still…I have to wonder whether it’s an issue of viewpoint for the most part, or “mind your manners”.
Cultural cleansing has been the default mode of the media and academia for the last hundred years. I can think of no other professions where ideology serves as a resume and is on display in every written or spoken word.
It is why PC is so prevalent on colleges and in the news.
It has to be – because their peers are peering over their shoulders, ready to pounce with lethal force – at even a slightly errant keystroke.
So here are two questions:
Why aren’t conservatives working to defund the liberal arts?
Why aren’t conservatives putting pressure on advertisers?
Imagine what would happen if conservatives refused to buy tires from any outfit advertising on the Strib’s sports page.
Imagine a two day boycott of Casey’s (the gas station and store in almost every rural town) to protest the sale of the StarTribune.
Imagine the defunding of “the studies” departments, as well as visual arts and creative writing. There are other, better, models to deliver these things.
It is time to put these *&^%$ under the same pressure they have been putting us.
“And adult person has to manage how that is presented to the world.”
Sounds great, John. But what to do when Frank waltzes in one day wearing a cocktail dress and demands everyone, including customers, address him as Cindy?
Greg;
I believe that one U of M’s alumni benefactors, allegedly a significant one, already pulled his donations in protest to the U’s handling of Ben Shapiro’s speaking engagement last year.
Swiftee I dont think we are talking about the same thing
Bosshoss no worries my good man, that was actually pretty good. Now that Im in a job I like I avoid anything but the most general political discussions like the plague. I have discerned that almost no one in my office comes close to agreeing with me on anything and you know what? That’s just fine. I also make it a point that none of them are my friends on Facebook and I have my profile locked down unless you are my friend. Its called preservation. I did have a honest to goodness heart to heart political discussion for a solid 2 hours with the CEO of my company while we were doing Meals on Wheels (Yep my company does that the first Friday of every month, its a solid organization) but he agreed that politics should simply not be talked about in the office. I mean it was kind of a unspoken thing pre-Trump but post-Trump its been explicit if not written in to mine (and I’m sure other) companies handbooks.
PoD;
Yea, I agree. Fortunately, there are a lot of conservatives working in my company. The husband of one of them, used to work for John Kline. Another one is gay. Both he and his partner, are members of the Log Cabin Republicans. Funniest two guys I’ve ever met, too.
Thats awesome bosshoss. I mean I complain about how hard it is to be a millenial Republicn but 2 groups definitley have me beat in the hardship factory. Gays/lesbians for sure are one and millenial women are the other. They have to be funny because if they werent they’d probably be really depressed. My first “real” job I made friends with a gay man who was awesome and yet a practicing Catholic. He was a awesome and outgoing dude and I never asked how he reconciled his life vs. his beliefs because at that point in time I wasnt terribly religious and frankly didnt care.
background on SCS, China’s Social Credit System
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/dec/9/social-credit-system-china-mass-surveillance-tool-/
Eventually this will kill China’s economy. I am not one of those people who believe that capitalism will fail w/o individual liberty. The historical record is mixed. But eventually the sheer expense of monitoring a population of a billion people will stifle economic growth. “Big Data” can only do so much. People fight back & game the system (there are already reports of a Chinese black market in positive social credit score points). Personally, I think AI is overrated. Computers are deterministic machines, human beings are not.
POD, until the early 1970s being homosexual was considered a mental disorder, because it was strongly associated with certain pathologies, among them, depression and alcohol/drug abuse. The numbers are hard to find, but homosexual women accept infidelity at about the same rate as hetero men. Homosexual men are off the frikkin’ scale.
Lucky is the man (or woman) who is happy in this world! Most heterosexuals have mental disorders, I suppose. I know my own weaknesses and failures intimately. But I do not pretend that they are “okay.”
Interviewer: “Okay, one last question and we’re done here. Who did you vote for in the last presidential election – Hillary or Trump?”
Applicant: “Um, sorry, how is that relevant to the job?”
Interviewer: “Well, if you voted for HIllary, then you’re likely to have little understanding of how business works and why. You’ll probably blame others for your failures and to demand compensation beyond what you’re worth. Also, if you like her values enough to vote for her, then it’s doubtful you fit into the ‘culture’ of this workplace, where employees own guns, drive SUVs, and are faithful to their spouses. Given all the negatives likely associated with having voted for Hillary, we won’t hire you.”
Sounds wonderful. Where do I apply?
Joe, another thing about Hillary supporters concerns me.
Ring! Ring! Ring!
Employee in next cube: For God sake, answer your phone. It’s been ringing all morning.
Hillary supporting employee: No way, access isn’t free.
MP, interesting I never learned that. And I agree with you on China 100%. They are a paper tiger and I have been telling anyone who listens this whole decade that we really have nothing to fear from them economically long term. If they can’t grow at a consistant 8% GDP rate their system implodes because their economy is a literal house of cards. Also they have as many peasants as we do people and now with Hong Kong rising up the chance that the people will rise up and start to take on the PRC are growing and Bejing knows this. I guarantee they are in full panic mode now.
Last February I heard a fascinating presentation about the social evolution of humans and technology from an expert who was born in Australia and raised in Hong Kong. He mentioned that in China, even beggars have QR codes so you can give them money electronically. I asked him specifically about the social scoring in China.
He said that is very true, but we need to remember that China is a closed-system and the government will do that. In the West, he said, that same role is being handled by corporations.