8

I'm opening a game development business and I have a page on my web-site with open vacancies.

On the page I had a statement that basically says that we don't discriminate people by race, nationality, handicaps, sex, age, sexual orientation or religious belief etc. At the time I thought it's a great statement to show how progressive and humane the company is.

But when I asked a few of my friends about it they said it's too much and I shouldn't write anything like that or point attention to that because people would get offended.

Is it really offensive to point out that information and just let it be an unwritten rule? Would you feel offended if you'd see that statement on the "Jobs" page of a company?

8
  • 17
    I disagree with your friends. I see a similar statement on many company websites
    – Brian
    Feb 5, 2015 at 2:03
  • 3
    I think it falls under "Equal Opportunity Employer" and is very common in the US.
    – user8365
    Feb 5, 2015 at 15:35
  • 7
    It shouldn't be. Perhaps your friends may believe that such discrimination is a thing of the past, and bringing up something they see is a matter of course seems to them to imply something is wrong with your company. If so, I can say I completely disagree. This kind of discrimination still happens, at least on an unconscious level, and I wish more people would pay very conscious attention to it to help prevent that kind of accidental discrimination. And so I at least appreciate it when I see statements like these.
    – Kai
    Feb 5, 2015 at 16:49
  • 6
    Did your friends mention why people would get offended?
    – komodosp
    Aug 15, 2016 at 9:28
  • 2
    Where are you located? This kind of statement is very common in some places, but might not be common where you are. Aug 15, 2016 at 18:26

4 Answers 4

25

It depends how you're stating it. This is a pretty common policy, actually, especially among big companies, it's usually called their EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) statement and is usually stated prominently in their Careers section. Here's Dell's, Microsoft's, and Google has a big ol' Diversity section that is probably the biggest extended dance remix of the topic you could hope for.

So you have a couple possibilities.

  1. You are not stating it in a professional manner, and they are reacting to that. Compare your statement to these others and make sure you're not being disrespectful under the guise of being playful.
  2. Your friends may be sexists, racists, or homophobes and they don't like it. Or they spend too much time on websites and forums where everyone is either screaming slurs at each other or being overly PC or attacking those who are overly PC or any of all that nonsense. In which case unless your target market is those types, you can safely disregard their thoughts on it.
2
  • In defense of my friends, we're a group of people who loves games, but we can no longer spend time to play them all day "screaming slurs at each other" :D And I'd say we're not the type of people who would offend other anyway. The concern of my friends was that the statement would back-fire, not that do discriminate people.
    – test
    Feb 5, 2015 at 3:48
  • 2
    @test Likely the wording just needs improving, but it may not be a bad idea to just state you're and equal opportunity employer and not dig into the specifics. (because anything you fail to mention someone out there will make a stink over) Good luck with your game company :) Feb 5, 2015 at 18:41
8

I realize you probably won't want to post your actual statement for anonymity, so I'm mostly guessing here, but one possibility is that if you say, eg "We don't discriminate based on sex, religious preference, or sexuality," a handicapped person may say "what about me?" Whether or not you plan on going as far with this as the companies mxyzlk linked, just a single statement or somewhere in-between, it may be safer to condense your initial statement to "We are an Equal Employment Opportunity company" and avoid explicit lists of factors you do not discriminate against.

6

At the time I thought it's a great statement to show how progressive and humane the company is.

Are you sure that your company's policy is going way beyond the law? If what you are stating is just what the law of the land is then how is it "great"? Isn't this similar to someone saying, "Yes I obey the law," that is supposed to be recognized as being a good person for saying it? Really?!?

Is it really offensive to point out that information and just let it be an unwritten rule?

Not offensive but I could wonder, "Why are you stating this? Are there laws you have issues with and thus you only selectively follow the law?" I would question the judgment as this seems like the minimum I'd expect from companies in the US or Canada.

Would you feel offended if you'd see that statement on the "Jobs" page of a company?

I'd question the judgment of the company that is stating boilerplate speak on their website. If you are putting something there that I'd expect to hear fro lawyers or HR folks then it may well raise some doubts to my mind.


As an extreme example, consider if banks put up signs that said, "We don't steal," or something similar to denote that they follow the law. I'm sure more than a few people may take offense at that even though banks are rarely charged with anything illegal regarding theft yet I suspect more than a few people may think the banks are crooked or corrupt on some level.

3
  • 5
    Thank you for your response. I think you're not wrong to raise these topics, but let's be real - there IS discrimination where people would discriminated even with good education and skill. And they go unpunished most of the times. And legally (in Japan) you CAN refuse job to an "elderly" person ( 30+ ) because the position is for long term ( like 20 years or more ). So I did want to explicitly write that people shouldn't be afraid to submit their CVs and that they won't be judged for anything else other than skill.
    – test
    Feb 5, 2015 at 8:00
  • 1
    Do you think those that do discriminate would tell you that they do it? Seriously, I'd like to know if you are that naive here.
    – JB King
    Feb 5, 2015 at 16:36
  • 4
    No, the point is having that statement implies that not only does your company follows the law, that preventing discrimination is something your company particularly values. It's possible to follow the law technically, and still be guilty of things that cannot be proven as being discrimination by law.
    – Kai
    Feb 5, 2015 at 16:57
4

Your friends sound... ill informed. It's actually a common practice to list things like this. Ever heard the phrase "Equal opportunity employer"? That's this. There's nothing offensive about it.

I would keep it, as long as it's written in language that you feel is both legally insulating and in tune with the company culture that you are trying to cultivate.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .