Fitting the ‘file’ image.











2 thoughts on “Fitting the ‘file’ image.

  1. The charge to make some change in this process is sort of an assumption, as if what is happening in this process is necessarily wrong. It goes back to another important message Jessica and many supporters of social justice always come back to: recognize and acknowledge your biases and judgments. Biases and judgments, while often used contextually as negative terms, are the core to the human experience. Basically, we do it all the time and every day. A lot of it depends on a sense of survival or needs.

    In a professional setting, this phenomenon is often hidden as the term “fit.” Candidates in an application and interview process are just as responsible in assessing their “fit” in the organization and institution as the hiring agents are in identifying those same qualities. What might be questionable is the biases and judgments that do shape what our definition of “fit” actually means. Hiring processes are especially subject to a sort of group-think. Because then, even the most individuals might be forced to fit in with a set of values that may not even be their own rather the institutions.

    The related phenomenon that comes into play is that many people would choose candidates who have similar qualities, ideas, or experiences as themselves. What we have to acknowledge is that we don’t just hire people who do work, we hire people who we can potentially spend a good deal of our time with. Even if we see an individual only 25% of our time at work, 10 hours is a large portion of our lives. It’s hard to not consider that as a factor. What matters: how inclusive are we really of others who are different from us… us as an institution, as an organization, and as individuals… each full of standards, expectations, and histories?

    Plain and simple… it’s not easy.

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