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Comments please: Telling a prospective employer
I have been looking for work for 5 months now with little success. Today I received a call back about a job I applied for and after the phone interview an appointment has been made for Monday for the in person interview. I was so excited I phoned my jobnetwork provider to let them know.
When I informed them about the interview I was asked if I had told them I was transgendered which I hadn’t. They now want me to tell any prospective employer up front about being transgendered. To tell the truth I feel appalled and violated that I have been told to do this. As can be seen by my pics I am not very high on the passability scale but have been living full time as a woman for almost 2 years now. To me I feel I do not have to disclose that I am transgendered, even though it is pretty obvious, and to disclose it says that it can be an issue for an employer to employ me and by the equal opportunities and anti discrimination laws it should make no difference at all.
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13 Replies
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Stephanie, I don’t think that your job network has the right to tell you to out yourself, mine always plays down my appearance when I go to interviews. I say do what you feel is best for you, no pressure, the employer will see for themselves when you turn up and they can make up their minds based on their needs and your qualifications.
Good luck with the interview. -
Quote:When I informed them about the interview I was asked if I had told them I was transgendered which I hadn’t. They now want me to tell any prospective employer up front about being transgendered.
That actually transgresses the NSW+ACT laws on discrimination (take it from someone who had to know the law because of discrimination.)
You are not required to state you are transgendered and it is against the law for someone to require that you do or for someone to do it on your behalf without your written authority.
Similar laws exist for the other issue that comes up: If you are asked to use a disabled toilet rather than either the mens or the womens, they also break the law (I have had this done to me, and lawyers representing me informed the company that they had breached the law… They were somewhat apologetic.)
Michelle
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and here is a web site which you may find useful:
http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/lawlink/adb/ll_adb.nsf/pages/adb_transgender
and you may want to download this fact sheet:
good luck in your hunting. if you can prove that they gave the job to someone else with inferior skills and qualifications, you will have a case.
my take on this is that the law may be more favorable to transgender people than the world at large, and in reality, subtle discrimination will occur notwithstanding the law. one day this will change and we will be accepted for the fantastic people that we are! may governments roll out more educaiton about us.
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Great reply, shells. And great thread.
Hold you head high and be proud.
Hugs,
Claire -
Sounds like jobnetwork providers need educating before employers
Good luck Stephanie and thanks for sharing and starting this valuable thread
cheers
Sarah
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I’m currently looking for work and this thread inspired me to see what the law is in WA. Wow….. we are not covered, only post-op people are covered for anti-discrimination. They don’t even need it half as much, they’ve made it to the other side!!!!!! how backwards is that! Why would someone make that the law, that is so …mean.
So yeah that was all I could find on it regarding WA. *hates perth even more now*.
I should print out the NSW copy and take it into the WA offices and challenge them on why wwhhyhyyyy wwwwwhhhhyyyy!!!! ok that may be a little melodramatic.
Ok
Did they explain why you should do this? They may have a good reason from their point of view.
Is your jobnetwork provider personal view or the official view of the provider?Once you have answers to these questions you can then figure out what to do.
If good reasons work with them to over come them or reduce their impact.
If no good reason educate them. Suggest you print out the information Virginia posted and go have a chat with a supervisor of the provider. You may wish to direct them to their lawyer or the gender centre for some training.
From the legal point there are both state and federal laws about anti-discrimination, these laws also have a number of out clauses as well. Also some jobs and/or companies clubs etc are allowed to discriminate for various reasons. People sometime forgot this. If your provider sent you off to interview for one of these jobs than you would need to advise the employer.
Most employers just want some to do the job without problems. They can be sensitive about how others view them. If a mechanic has girls working on cars a lot of guys would most likely not do business with them (for the record I know several girls who can do mechanical work better then guys)*.
In cases like this, it’s a matter of eduction; you sit down with them and work it out.
* In IT this seems not to apply, given some of the interesting types that appear at times.
The reason they have asked this is due to my lack of success in obtaining a job after quite a few interviews some which required staff immediately. My resume is getting me the phone interview, the phone interview is getting me the in person interview. The in person interview is getting me a communication blackout where I never hear back from the employer or employment agency. So by this my resume is showing I have the skills, the phone interview shows I have the answers they are looking for. So they think the reason I don’t get past the in person interview is because I am transgendered. They believe if I OUT myself at the phone interview stage they will not be put on the spot at the in person interview.
To me being transgendered, (I don’t think of myself as transgender but as a woman), is irrelevant to my ability to do the job and I am under no obligation to mention this. This has really gotten my back up and stressed me out and I was up till 4am scouring the internet to find my rights in writing so I could refuse but failed to find anything.
With my job interview tomorrow I hope the stress doesn’t keep me up again tonight. After the interview I have to report in to them to let them know how things went and I am sure they will want to discuss this further and I am not ready for that.
Stephanie , so am I right in reading that they want you to out yourself before you even get a face to face interview? Surely this will make finding a job even harder! It makes no sense as at least F to F they can see that you aren’t a two headed monster ( unless you are one , which is cool with me!)
I once had an experience with a job provider who was a very naive Christian big dump of a schoolgirly kind of woman ( I am not bitter!) and she had put me up for a job as a hairdresser . I had not heard back and when I asked her she said that she was worried that my ” lifestyle” may offend the shop’s customers. I played dumb and said, “I went to the tip yesterday and am building a shed at the moment, what is offensive about that? ” She said “well you know , your blonde bob and the clothes you wear” I then asked her if she thought I was gay and she said” well yeah??” I said Noo ..I’m a transvestite!!” She nearly choked as she backpeddled and gasped for breath!! Next time I visited I had a new case worker. I said nothing but kept it aside in case she ever got heavy with me and I could report her as breaching the Discrimination act. GOD Forbid that a hairdresser should ever be a gay man!!Quote:Stephanie , so am I right in reading that they want you to out yourself before you even get a face to face interview? Surely this will make finding a job even harder!That is correct Christina and I agree it would probably stop me getting a call back for an in person interview.
Interesting in this is the second instance I have heard of recently of Job Network agency personel behaving in an illegal discrimitory way towards a transgendered woman. Perhaps it’s an indication that their training is lacking or it may be that they have difficulty recruiting suitable staff themselves. In any event the behaviour is totally non acceptable and should result in a complaint. After your interview!
Hi , imm trangendering at work in health industry ! not the goverment but private organisation . When I told them at work they made it very clear that they or any employee cannot cannot tell anyone imm transgendered without my permission !! They have been advised this breaches anti descrimination law .Employment agencies are funded by Goverment too find a client work !!wether they be muslim black gay,Trans or have limbs missing ,ect ,,, I think you need too complain and demand a new employment officer/office .
This might be a little late but I agree with the girls on this one. It shouldn’t make any difference to you job agency nor your employer. Your selected for your job on your application, skill sets and referees.. I should know having sat as an interview panel member. I suggest your agency isn’t working in your best interest hon.. Maybe it’s time to look for another placement agency.. Remember your selected on your merits and for no other reason.
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