I don’t see why Tarpal is till here? To me, he’s a an obvious troll. Come now, a post that consists of “yawn…”?
Just me though.
Banned? LOL.
DDG means ZAR, my perceptive friend.
I don’t mean to make fun of the thread topic, but this talk about tarpal’s approach to hiring keeps reminding me of the line from the movie “Office Space”:
“Samir Naga…Nagan…Na-gonna work here anymore!”
So, is tarpal’s real name Bob Slidell, or what?
-Andrew L
Don’t you mean ‘tolerate’ other than ‘appreciate’? I don’t think there is any reason anyone has to appreciate another’s culture, but you do have to make allowences for other people’s differences. That has to work both ways. I don’t agree with Tarpal’s practice (or imaginary practice) of discounting people with names that are unusual to what you might consider normal. But, if it takes me 15 minutes to learn to pronounce your 10 syllables name (Thank you Dale Carnagie) and I ask you during your interview what do people usually call you, you then tell me the whole thing, what do you expect me to think? This person doesn’t seem flexible and how then will they deal with the customers and other people they come in contact with? Because while you have every right to call yourself whatever you like, I as your potential boss, also have the right to think of the other employees and the customers. I understand why your parents may call you ‘Mictlantecihuatl’ because of your Aztec heritage, don’t expect me to try to fit that onto a name tag. Okay, Mic?
Uzi, the word “appreciate” has a number of meanings. One of them is “admire greatly”. Another is “be aware of”.
I suspect that you were thinking of one definition, the other guy was thinking of the other.
How true. Although it is now obvious to me that tarpel is not what he says (I assume he is male), and Although it is unlikely that a personnel manager would come out and say this on a message board, possibly exposing himself to liability, I do not doubt that this kind of profiling occurs.
It could, and does happen.
I am very very sorry and I hate to be the one that posts this but you guys really need to get your head out of the sand. The attitude that tarpal shows is very common. He’s just the first one that has had the grit to admit it. I’ve watched this happen in several businesses that I’ve worked in. This is a very common practice, and also happens with not only people with hard to pronounce names, but overweight people and people past a certain age. Pepperlandgirl knows exactly what I’m talking about by her husband’s problem with his name. Yes it’s against the law, but you’ve got to be able to prove it and these human resource guys are GOOD at skirting around the issues. That application is the first impression and people that don’t write well, leave blanks, and all the issues discussed above are looked at from the beginning and judged before someone ever gets an interview. I used to work for human resources for a huge company that also practices these same techniques. I didn’t do the actual hiring but I watched them toss those applications aside even though company policy said they were kept for 60 days based on one or several of the reasons above.
Ya see! I had the feeling that Tarpal had problems reading and comprehending!
Yes, I meant tolerate. Although I think respect is in order. Also, is it that big of a deal to learn how to pronounce someone’s name? The way you make it sound is as though you would never get it correct-which is not the case. After a bit of time (perhaps even a couple of minutes), it wouldn’t be hard to pronounce the name at all.
Actually I think I’ll have to take “tolerate” back, I meant along the lines of “being aware of”. Or, as I said in my last post, respecting the diversity of the name.
I don’t think we have our head in the sand. I’ll speak for myself here, I do know that their are other’s out there that have similar, if not worse, attitudes toward other peoples characteristics (names being one of those characteristics).
I don’t think it’s right, and whenever I come across such blatant ignorance and bias, I feel the need to respond in some fashion. Just because it happens often doesn’t give Tarpal an excuse to blabber on his elitest rhetoric.
Being the OP of the discussed topic (sorry for the late reply) I have to say anyone who has the guts to say they’re “appalled” by the post either has a massive 'rhoid on their ass, or is Jessie Jackson. The post simply had people commenting on how they percieve black names as unusual. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. Tarpal can do whatever the hell he wants; with (terrible) government supported policies like affirmative action and quotas around, I don’t know what’s wrong or right any more.
By saying “What’s up with black names?” I didn’t mean to offend anyone, and if you were, well you have some issues. Someone could have very well made a post saying “copying European names is stupid and boring” and I wouldn’t give two shits. There is a gap between black and white culture, and if you don’t think blacks act in a similar manner toward white culture, you are mistaken.
I made the mistake of thinking you meant “must like” when you said appreciate.
I understand it is important to learn someone’s name, but do you expect customers to make the same effort? And if you stand there trying to correct same customer because you are upset they got it wrong, how does that help the company and your fellow employees? I understand you may be proud of your name, but it may be inconvenient to use in every day conversation, or the workplace. Most people shorten long ones out of consideration of others. If you refuse then that tells alot about how you would do in a work environment. But you’d only find that out in a proper behavioural interview. It makes no sense to toss qualified candidates because they have a tough to pronounce name.
I work in the middle east where the names are unusual to the typical north american. Since I’ve been here I’ve found that us ‘whitebread’ people actually have quite a range of names we give people comparitively. Out here if you were a school teacher and asked ‘Mohammed’ to stand up half the class would. I’ve even met a guy whose name was ‘Mohammed Mohammed’. Toss in a few Khalid’s, an Abdulla and Ahmed here and there, and a couple of Tariq’s and you can cover a lot of territory. (Actually there is a broader range than that, but I’d say that it is quite a bit smaller than what we are used to).
I think the fact is that if someone had brought up “copying European names is stupid and boring”, the same sort of response would have been elicited. You might not give two shits about how you perceive an entire cultures (african-americans) choice in names, but that doesn’t mean others are going to follow suit. What you said was, inaccurate, and a generalization. Are all African-American names “odd”? If the answer is no, then you have no right to say “what’s up with black names?”.
And before you assert why a person would be appalled by what you’ve easily dismissed, how about you put yourself in their shoes. Could it be possible that someone could’ve been offended by your blatant brush stroke?
The post was insulting and being laughed at over something you had no control over in the first place is equally insulting. There is something wrong with that juvenile behavior-don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to singling you out.
You are saying, in effect, that if I make fun of your name, and you have a problem with it, it’s your own fault? That’s lunacy.
You have no control over your customers, only yourself. If your customers have a problem, or the employee with the unusual name has a problem, those are seperate issues. You’ll never have good customers all of the time. You will have considerate customers (IMHO) most of the time. Most of the time I think the customer can get away with not saying an employees name.
I understand what your saying, so don’t think I don’t, but I think people in positions of power should be careful with the message they send. If you hire someone, it should be on merit, not on their name. If you ask them to shorten their name, keep in mind that they could be very protective of it. I think that their is a very slight possibility to dehumanize a person if you try to rob them of their name, or make them feel as though their name is obsurd. (Once again, I’m not pointing figures at you).
Why in the hell is affirmative action “terrible”, but tarpal’s brand of cowardly discrimination perfectly permissible? You are not being consistent.
Who the hell are you to tell me what offends me? And who made you the expert on what blacks do? I don’t see you in my living room quizzing me about my life.
I’m more than a little fucking sick of these racist idiots just waiting under the surface for the perfect thread to not-so-slyly inject their poisoned viewpoints into the discussion. Why beat around the bush on it? Have some fucking courage of convictions and quit sneaking around the subject. Be a racist asshole. Stand up for your dumb ass beliefs.
Why do these fucking people even come here? How many people do they think they’re gonna sway? Why the fuck does every tinfoil loony feel the need to espouse their crap here?
At work I sit next to four people who are West African or of West African descent. They all have names like Caroline and George. In fact, three of them are named George…