Fox News is reporting quite the HR snafu from energy powerhouse Exelon. It seems that the company sent out a note via an IT staffing firm requesting a writer with a focus on the nuclear industry and a certain reverence for China. Unfortunately, it wasn't worded quite as nicely as I just put it.
Toward the end of the ad's second paragraph, after discussions about job duties and skills required, is the line "An arrogant American will not work well in this role."
Apparently, that made a few Americans---both arrogant and otherwise, perhaps all a bit sensitive to the label---a tad unhappy.
See, now I know exactly how this happened. Somewhere in this process was someone just as blunt as me. Some perturbed or stress-out manager with a reputation for "plain language" said, quite directly, something about needing a person for the job who is not the typical "arrogant American" who runs over outside cultures (which we have a reputation for, unfortunately) because Chinese culture is very, very different and requires a lot of social delicacy.
And, sadly, this plain language never hit an editor or a stage where they added some fluffy verbiage to say it more PC like "attune to cultural differences and willing to defer to cultural needs." (Probably due to company lay-offs or other cutbacks, that editor/assistant/secretary/HR intern who would read it for such plain language doesn't exist anymore.)
Nope. Taken literally. Put into the ad directly. Funny stuff.
This is a good example of how an editor could save your butt. Isn't it an amusing bit of dramatic irony (giving the job ad an air of great literature) that a good writer was needed to whip up an ad to garner a good writer---the concept of which the staffing firm that penned the query apparently wasn't aware.
But, to help their defense attorney, I'd point out that the ad didn't restrict ALL Americans from the gig---just the arrogant ones. So, they could get off on a technicality, if challenged. They are not discriminating by nationality. They are discriminating by nationality plus personality. And, heck, all employers discriminate by personality. To paraphrase Pulp Fiction, a good personality goes a long way.
Makes you wonder what other plain language ads could pop up in this industry. Wind farms could ask for no former nuclear engineers. Solar proponents might restrict "the typical old school energy executive in love with coal." I'd love to have a biomass producer write "no whiny former CEOs who can't get their hands dirty."
That would make reading the industry want ads much more interesting.
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As a Canadian on the mature side of 50 who loves to travel internationally, I can say with some authority that the arrogant American is anything but typical. Only one real-life example comes to mind (a culturally insensitive clod to be sure, berating a Caribbean vendor on what he perceived as the shoddy quality of native handicrafts). Rather, Americans are typically friendly and generous, if perhaps somewhat uninformed as a group in matters beyond U.S. borders.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, the stereotypical arrogant American lives in the minds of many, both outside of the U.S. and apparently within it as well (at least, within Exelon). Proof once again: stereotypes are often inaccurate and politically incorrect, but they give rise to many a good laugh one way or another.