Clueless businesses
Just trying to buy a couple of domain names for a planned project.
First Mr/Ms Easyspace, you didn't get my business because I don't think my marital status is any of your business. (The titles on offer for registration were Mr/Mrs/Miss/Dr. They obviously haven't emerged from the 1950s!)
Then another mob wanted me to enter all my personal details on a non-secure website, and yet another lot wanted me to register all my details before telling me what they wanted to charge me. Really folks - surely these are business basics.
Anyway, I finally went with 1&1 Internet Lrd, who didn't commit any of these errors. Now, go on, tell me your horror stories about THEM!
Yours exasperatedly ....
posted by Natalie Bennett at 10/29/2005 10:55:00 pm
13 Comments:
Yes, unforgivable to miss out Ms, but when people try too hard you get some strange results, as here.
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Of course it is. I would consider it a gross intrusion.
What do they want? "well I used to be married to someone, but now I'm living with someone else, and seeing someone on the side".
Why should your sex life or personal living arrangements be your employer's business?
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Nice post. Silly that any business would leave out "Ms." nowadays - that would turn me off from doing business with them, too.
Sorry Hugh, I don't agree. You had to ask (although if you were prepared to pay for a partner and/or dependents it would have been preferable to have done so after deciding the position on the applicants' professional abilities) what sort of accommodation she would require - with a partner or children?
But not if she was MARRIED?
What if she had a female partner, or an unmarried male partner, or any other arrangement that was none of your business?
Asking if she was married did nothing to obtain the information you say you are asking for.
How muddled you are! Asking if she's married is an unwarrantable intrusion on her private life, but asking if she has a partner or children is not?
I have no further comment. Farewell.
Only, as I said, if it is necessary information with regard to the provision of accommodation. Perhaps I could prescribe a course in logic for you? Info for accommodation requires knowledge of partners/children; info for accommodation does not require knowledge of marital status - it is quite simple really.
well done girl you sure told that jelly-assed limy straihgt! he doesnt want no lesson in logic my girl patsy said what he needs is a smack inthe teeth
go it girl!
Thanks Arkansassy - and I did enjoy your blog. Hugh did do that classic male thing; having lost the argument he stormed off in a hissy fit claiming loudly to have won it.
In Japan, it's one of the first questions you are asked. "Are you married?" (Along with "How old are you?" "Do you have children?" and if the answer is no, "Why not?)
Yes it's intensely irritating, but it all has to do with status (and therefore hierarchy - and Japan is an EXTREMELY hierarchical society). They don't know how to treat you if they don't know your status, and status all hinges on how old you are and your family. ANNOYING AS SHIT and I like to flummux them by saying, "I have a partner," and refused to say how old I am, which leaves them utterly confused.
But it would make it hard to get a job, if you refused to state these things on your job application.
I'd agree the applicant's reaction in this case showed a lack of understanding and possibly character flaws that might make her unsuitable for the post.
(In Thailand, by contrast, the first question you are asked is "how much money are you paid?", which often produces similar bridling in newcomers.)
But this is a question being asked in the UK - albeit by a Japanese employer. I'm not sure whose employment law would be relevant, but if it is British, then the question should not be asked. If it is, the applicant would be perfectly justified in gracefully sidestepping it.
Thank you Badaunt, my point exactly: the woman was foolish not to have learnt something about Japan before applying for the job, as the other two finalists had done.
In answer to Natalie's question, a Japanese company with its HQ in Japan offering a job in Japan is not subject to the law of the country where the interview takes place. And even if it were, it would be a very silly applicant who raised such a point with a prospective employer, however graceful her sidestepping.
I say, I just love girly language: "hissy fit", eh? Splendid! And I'll take Arkansassy on any time: he looks a bit of a weed to me.
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