Job Application Form: State your sexuality. Me: Why does that even matter?

[Parasondox]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn its hot like Cleopatra in Egypt.

Looking for jobs is a pain. Filling out the application form is boring and uneventful. Filling out the same thing over and over again for different roles. On computer its fine. Copy and paste or just Google auto filler (Thank Google for that) but by paper, how many times do I need to right why I chose to apply for this job and often times I lie cause I truly want to say "I'M BROKE AND I NEED MONEY". Thats just the norm. What I noticed today, and to be honest once before, were new and interesting questions.

State your sexual orientation

Heterosexual
Homosexual
Bisexual

Why does a job that involve stocktaking need to know this? To put it into some sort or statistic and to get some sort of recognition that they are hiring LGBT workers? Should I be an extremely cynical Brit here and say maybe they do it to cross certain applicants off this list. That's a dark dark thought but it could happen.

Should a work know about your sex life and sexuality? I believe they shouldn't but I know some in the world may disagree.

What do you think and have you seen this elsewhere before?

 

[DefunctTheory]

Unless you're applying to Hobby Lobby or live in Mississippi, I can't see why this question would be asked. It's actually really weird.

What company is that from, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Angelowl]

Unless it is actually relevant to the job description, as a LGBT counsellor or similar, I really do not see the point. It would be outright stupid to do that in Sweden since anyone can argue that there is no reason for the employer to need that information for other reasons than to discriminate. One complaint and it would fly out the window. It can be viewed as an infringement of privacy as well.

 

[JoJo]

I saw this a lot earlier this year when I was applying for jobs, it seems pretty standard along with questions about your ethnicity and such for monitoring how 'diverse' their workplace is. The ones I saw were always pretty clear that it would not be considered as part of your application, just for their own internal statistics. Could they be used inappropriately? Perhaps I suppose, but I applied to work at a Catholic school while admitting on the form that I'm a bisexual atheist and I still got invited for interview, so they clearly weren't discriminating.

 

[Genocidicles]

I always just fill it in as anything other than straight, reckon it'll increase my chances because of token diversity hires.

 

[Parasondox]

Unless you're applying to Hobby Lobby or live in Mississippi, I can't see why this question would be asked. It's actually really weird.

What company is that from, if you don't mind me asking?

A company that deals with production stocks. Going round and inspecting if the goods are up to date, to UK/EU standards and are the correct ones. You can see how this would have nothing to do with ones sexuality.

 

[kurupt87]

I used to work for the DWP so saw plenty of job applications. It's not the norm but neither is it uncommon for this question to be on the form.

This question, and others like it, will be on a part of the application that is separated from the rest. The main part about your qualifications and experience etc will go to the guys who are looking to fill a vacancy, the part with the sexuality/ethnicity/etc questions will go to HR and get entered into their systems without any personal information (name etc) attached to it.

Edit: The guys who do the interview (and anyone that isn't the person that enters it into their database) won't be allowed to look at the second part.

 

[AnarchistFish]

Are they even allowed to ask that? I know they were gonna make that a question on the census but decided against it cos of the ambiguity.

 

[Greg White]

Not sure about other countries, but I'm pretty sure that's an illegal question in the US.

 

[Total LOLige]

It's for equal opportunities, I think(On a lot of application forms I've done it states that's what the questions are for. Included with the message We don't discriminate based on gender, race etc). On most of the applications that I've been filling out it seems to be an optional section.

 

[Colour Scientist]

Are they even allowed to ask that? I know they were gonna make that a question on the census but decided against it cos of the ambiguity.

It's usually not a mandatory question, at least not where I live anyway, it doesn't crop up that often.

They might just be using it for demographic statistics or to illustrate that they're an equal opportunities employer.

I always just fill it in as anything other than straight, reckon it'll increase my chances because of token diversity hires.

Well, that didn't take long.

 

[Parasondox]

Not sure about other countries, but I'm pretty sure that's an illegal question in the US.

I think as some said, most states have different laws and this situation I came across was in the UK. Also is the "don't ask don't tell" policy only enforced (I think) in the US Army or elsewhere.

 

[Aerosteam]

Wow, it's pretty sucky that they ask that. There should at least be an option for "Would rather not answer" or something.

Although if I were you, (assuming you're straight) go with bisexual. You can still mack on women while thinking your company is supporting the LGBT community because they hired you.

 

[Angelowl]

I always just fill it in as anything other than straight, reckon it'll increase my chances because of token diversity hires.

You have better odds picking gay than bisexual. A lot of "progressives" seem to despice and resent bisexuals, even more so if the person in question is gay. From what I hear straight people are more accepted at american pride events than bisexuals.

 

[Edith The Hutt]

I work as a HR Clerk for a fairly large organisation which recently added this to our application forms. I can't say how others do it but with us there is always a "Prefer not to say" option for those who for whatever reason don't want to answer the question. The data is separated from the rest of the application and is not seen by those making the recruitment decisions, it is however linked to the individual's record on our database (which is not accessible outside HR and is restricted access inside HR)

We don't use the data simply for touting how diverse we are (although we do that too) but also for analyzing our workforce and identifying whether there are any needs or deficiencies in our recruitment, retention and promotion processes. We've been doing this for years with gender and ethnicity, sexuality is now another factor we're aware of and take into account when designing policy.

Or to put it in more prosaic terms: We know that straight white men do better than others in our organisation but if we're going to do anything to change that then we need to know how much better they're doing than others so we can start to find out why.

We actually want a more diverse and representative workforce because that indicates that we're helping to retain and train a wider variety of talented individuals and since our organisation pretty much runs on that talent we'd rather not stifle it by being unwittingly exclusionary in our policies or culture.

That's why we're asking that question.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Because in Canada at least they need to hire a certain percentage of minorities to meet equal-opportunity employment regulations. That way they can make the claim 'we don't discriminate based on gender/race/orientation, see we have 5 blacks, 8 women and 4 LGBT working in our company'.

Depending on the circumstances, being a minority may help or hurt you in this case, impossible to tell.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

You have better odds picking gay than bisexual. A lot of "progressives" seem to despice and resent bisexuals, even more so if the person in question is gay. From what I hear straight people are more accepted at american pride events than bisexuals.

That's what you get for being greedy!

(I am joking since it might not be very visible)

 

[J.McMillen]

Because in Canada at least they need to hire a certain percentage of minorities to meet equal-opportunity employment regulations. That way they can make the claim 'we don't discriminate based on gender/race/orientation, see we have 5 blacks, 8 women and 4 LGBT working in our company'.

Depending on the circumstances, being a minority may help or hurt you in this case, impossible to tell.

The real issue is when a company counts someone multiple times because of overlapping categories, like if your company had a black lesbian (3 categories). Throw in veteran and disabled and you've got 5.

 

[lacktheknack]

If I was truly desperate for that stockbroker job, I might even circle "Homosexual" because they're most likely going to hire the gay guy, all other things being equal, so they can boast about their progressive hiring procedure.

Otherwise, I would probably write "asexual" underneath and circle that, because it's the most honest option at this point (and seriously, screw that question).