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Dear Liz,
I work for an insurance agent who is very successful and has made many other people successful, too. I’ve had this job for seven years. I see young people come into our company and advance quickly. My boss is a great guy. The only thing that bothers me is that his hiring policy is only to hire young people from well-to-do families. Sometimes our new hires are the kids of my boss’s friends. Sometimes they are new grads from upper-tier universities.
“Kurt” doesn’t apologize for hiring only kids from rich families. He won’t even consider kids from middle-class or working-class families, and he’ll tell anybody who wants to know all about it. He doesn’t beat around the bush. He says, “I hire rich kids — period.”
Kurt says, “Rich kids know how to act. They know how to talk and how to eat a meal in a nice restaurant. I don’t have to train them on social skills. They know how to dress. They know about the world because they’ve traveled the world with their families. They are already trained in a lot of skills that they’re going to need to know to make it in this business.”
Our company is small enough that we aren’t subject to most of the equal employment laws. As you can imagine, our team is not diverse. We hire very few experienced agents because my boss prefers to train young people his way. They are great co-workers but they live in a bubble.What Should I Do?
They don’t know about social issues that affect the world and even our clients. They know that they were hired into our agency because their parents are successful. I have never heard one of my co-workers suggest a change in our hiring policy or comment on the lack of diversity in our company.
It causes me internal conflict to work here because although I’m doing well in my job and Kurt loves me, I feel like I haven’t been able to influence his unfair hiring practice even a tiny bit. I’ve talked with him about my concerns regarding his hiring policy a dozen times. He says, “Why would I stop hiring kids from rich families when it’s working so well for me?”
What should I do?
Thanks Liz –
Marcia
