In KFC for a morning coffee (if anyone knows somewhere else that serves up a semblance of caffine at 8.20am near my house, let me know) and the woman in front of me in the queue asks . . ..
Are you hiring?
Are you looking for work?
Yes.
No. If you were a man, maybe, but we don’t need any women just now.
Reminded me of when I started my current job and helped out with some job interviews. They were quite openly hoping to employ more men, as the office was currently mostly women and this was apparently ‘unbalanced’.
I was horrified the first time I saw this sort of thing when working in Beijing. I was turned down for a couple of teaching positions because they wanted Men. But then I saw the opposite side too. It was one of those real culture shock moments.
Comment by Merrie — 11/22/2004 @ 8:16 am