I question the wisdom of my friends in senior positions who without fail switch to plan B for hiring new staff. Handling volume of applications, short listing suitable candidates, and conducting personal interviews are tiresome set of tasks which may not lead to favorable outcomes. Why waste time and efforts if personal recommendation can do the trick, they tell me. With a moral obligation weighing heavy on such candidate, there is a greater chance for him/her to deliver results. There is some logic in the argument for sure!
It isn't as if the conventional recruitment process has failed the test, but that the employers have mixed feeling on reference checks for hiring fresh faces. Often times, hiring managers fall in love with a candidate on paper and then again in an interview, only to find out through a reference check later that none of their previous employers would ever hire that candidate again. At the other end of the spectrum are those who, despite a favorable reference check, turn out quite on the opposite. Getting right person for the right job seems pot luck!
So, where does this take us? There is no denying that references listed at the end of curriculum vitae are tutored to provide glowing reports on the candidate. To ride over such predictable outcomes, employers have now started switching to social networking sites to check on candidate's outpourings and public image. What kind of people the candidate networks with; with whom the candidate is close enough and what kind of opinion s/he holds on general issues. Though it helps eliminate the weakness inherent in the conventional referral system, it becomes so watered down that it often falls short of credible conclusion.
I suspect the entire exercise is not as trivial as it has been made out to be. At the end, all potential candidates are but social animals and there is not much they can do to hide their behavior, attitude, aptitude, aspiration and ambitions. There are surely people out there who would know their antecedents better, and who would be willing to share it for the sake of the candidate's future. The challenge is to know who these persons could be and what kind of information one can seek from them.
After careful research I have drawn a list of resource persons who will do the honors. Here it goes - contact the maid servant for candidate's gender sensitivity, check with the plumber for candidate's attitude towards people; meet the landlord for candidate's aptitude towards others' property; and the girl next door for checking on candidate's aspirations in life. Interestingly, each of these references is available online 24x7. For senior level hiring, however, I can’t resist recommending ex-boss's wife and the candidate's former driver as perfect reference checks!
Looking at my reference check list my friends wonder if it will hasten 'firing' and not 'hiring' employees instead.
First published in the
Deccan Herald, issue dated
Dec 28, 2018, and
The Tribune dated
Dec 31, 2018.
Nothing could be more unreasonable to imagine than blood in blue colour, and yet it evokes collective embarrassment for the entire family on seeing a sanitary napkin advertisement on TV. As soon as the visuals pop on the screen, the channel is quickly changed. This is how society tackles head on the self-inflicted shame imposed on menstruation. Despite half of the world’s population menstruating for large periods of their lives, a culture of shame and taboo has been allowed to persist.
I find it hard to agree that part of the blame must rest with women who have hidden their perfectly natural bodily function, punishing themselves for being women. Breanne Fahs, a menstrual activist, writer, and a professor of gender studies at Arizona University, argues that the lack of a culture of menstruation could be the cause. She questions why this biological activity is viewed as a disgusting aspect of a woman’s life, and why it remains a subject less worthy of social and psychological inquiry. Isn’t the missing public discourse on the subject a reason for it being a taboo, and somewhat silly?
Had it not been for the recent movie Padman, the subject would have continued to be under wraps. The film presented the idea of feminine hygiene, but the script did not stretch beyond the idea of fixing women’s ‘troublesome’ bodies.
Why is menstruation not viewed as an event of joyous rhythm? It may sound radical, but we should undermine institutions that deplete and eradicate the natural cycle of human life in favour of sexism and profit. In the West, coming-of-age narratives are beginning to challenge the entrenched notions of silence and shame. These stories on defiance are rewriting the long history of panic surrounding menstruation. The core argument is that if women don’t defy taboos themselves, they will remain trapped within the boundaries of patriarchy.
The emphasis of the culturally-defying narratives, wherein women have come out in the public to share their monthly experiences is that ‘the body, after all, absorbs, reflects, and mirrors the fundamental social forces of our times’. This new genre has begun to challenge the gendered notion and demonstrates the potential for menstruation as a radical form of feminist resistance. From menstrual art to menstrual stunts, from menstrual e-magazines to menstrual graffiti, there are provocative initiatives that view menstrual activism as a game-changer to make the inevitable monthly event playful.
From women being ostracised during ‘that time of the month’ to young girls shying away from school to avoid any ‘embarrassment’, restricting the function to just a case of hygiene serves limited purpose. Unless it disrupts the boundaries of patriarchy, and underscores the reality of misogyny, the case for writing a new story to destroy conventional narratives will remain an open invitation.
F
irst published in The Tribune, issue dated Dec 19, 2018.
