Hello ,
I’m a poucher from Shanghai, China. And a disabled as well. I always come to the forum to see the posts. due to the rate of J-pouch surgery is very low in China. Lack of related information. And I also recently falls into the kind of “a job seeker” at this economic winter, so here I am, a disabled job seeker who is desperate for a job nowadays. For this reason. there is an idea raised to my mind to write something for those from the vulnerable group like us by my story. I hope my topic would be picked by some interested Global Influenced media outlet eventually. The forum is where the journey begins. I will be happy to hear your opinions or comments. Since you are the people who I fully trust.
In this article, I want to talk about the paradox of EEO (Equal Employment Opportunity) and the predicament that most of the disabled job seekers fall into their job search in reality.
My comment is not directed at anyone or any organization. and is not denying the difficulties that I encountered on my way of hunting job as a disabled.
What is EEO?
Equal employment opportunity is an employment practice where employers do not engage in employment activities that are prohibited by law in the definition. It is aimed to prohibit employers from the discrimination against an applicant or employee on the basis of gender, sexual, pregnancy, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, genetic information, status as a parent, and sexual orientation. Obviously, I’m a job applicant fall into this category.
Does EEO really create equal？
Literally, yes. And most employers who abide by the law practice it in a totally equal procedure. But is the totally equal procedure/principal really “fair” to an applicant from vulnerable groups to compete for a position with other ordinary candidates? It need to be discussed.
In my country (China), there are less than 1% of people have the awareness of EEO and Diversity. Even the city (Shanghai) where I stay is one of the most developed in China. As a result, in the open job market, most of the local employers never consider EEO as a fact in their recruiting criteria because they have no idea of EEO. Their recruiting criteria is purely based on individual’s working ability. There is nothing wrong with that. Due to their concern on the uncertainty of hiring the disabled and large number of job seekers base, in reality, they will not preferentially consider a disabled candidate, even he/she is qualified, and especially “wolf culture” is full filled with the current local workplace. Except he/she has any extreme outstanding ability/skill or valuable resources/connection which the recruiter is eagerly required searching for.
After reading this, you might ask how do the international employers in this respect? Although their procedure has EEO in place with plentiful and beautiful words on how they values embracing diversity almost covering the entire career page on their official site. Unfortunately, the result is still the same, consistent with their local counterparties’. Since a large portion of international employers who abide by EEO in the local job market are the big names listed on Fortune 500. Therefore, the competition for their positions is intensive fierce. And their recruiting criteria strictly follows the principal of “selection the best from the best”. Based on rich excellent candidates pool, the lucky rarely embrace/cast on those from vulnerable groups. And usually the one who makes the final decision to hire is from the specific functions where the openings arise rather than HR function. They are not including the 1% who aware EEO. If you don't believe, you can verify the proportion of employees with disabilities in their local arm compared with the proportion of disabled people in the country as a whole. I think you might come to a conclusion if you reading this. They have nothing to do wrong in this regard, you're just not good enough for the job fundamentally. True, I admit that your conclusion is right at this point.
My Struggling
As a disabled, I share my frustrating story about how disability impacts on my education and career to tell you why the candidates from vulnerable groups, their resumes are not impressive enough. As an impressive resume is a key fact to influence the recruiter’s hiring decision. It is also the only critical criterion to decide if a candidate would be knocked/stand out in the resume screening stage. And you don’t have a chance to further proceed to the next stage which usually is a face to face round if so. Without a face to face round, there will be no chance to show your unquantified, unmeasurable and indescribable character, qualities, experiences and skillset which is a pivotal part for the recruiter to determine if you will be hired.
My Disability and Rehabilitation
Back to my own story. There was a hit-and-run traffic accident happened to me at my early twenties. It leads to a severe nerve injury which caused the movement limitation on my entire right arm and hand. I was hospitalized 6 times and undergone 3 surgeries during my medical care in the first half year. Nevertheless, my entire right arm and hand lost almost 95% of their function. Those are just my nightmares in medical and physical fields. It doesn't count the long winding litigation process for the accident in which I’m the victim not the perpetrator.
In the following rehabilitative process, I had to adapt to my post- accident life with single left arm and hand. Any tiny progress which is nothing to an able-bodied person I have made is with tears, hardships, lose and joy success. Such as: tie shoelaces, twist towel, twisting the cap off a bottle, cuts nails, learn how to write and type by my left hand and etc. When I got used to my post- accident life, I thought it was the time to get my life back. Subsequently, I started to review my lesson and took the college entrance examination. During this period, the effort I made was no less than others. Afterwards, I finally went to a university.
The Preferential Policy from Government
Time passed so quickly, I graduated. Initially, I tried to get a job on your own. No matter how much effort what I put in interview, the result was all the same after they learned my condition (disability). Stranded on job hunting way, there was a turning opportunity emerged. I was introduced to a job opportunity by the local DPF (Disabled Persons' Federation) which operated by the government. To encourage the employment of the disabled, the government provides the preferential policies to favor those employers hiring the disabled as an incentive for fee/expense relief. Indeed, there are some companies hunt for the matched disabled job seekers on local DPF’s recommendation. By the time you read this, it looks a win-win situation for all parties involved. But the truth is far from perfect, per my observation, the business quality of most companies in this kind is under average in the society as a whole. Correspondingly, they concern the incentive from the government more than the disabled candidates themselves. As a result, almost all openings posted by DPF are just for very junior positions required low skillset with low compensation. Just some auxiliary work. Even just for hiring a disabled to sit in the office from 9 to 5 without doing anything in some cases. And very little multinational companies hire the disabled in this way via DPF, too. Without exception, their openings are for the very junior position due to their focus is on the incentive as well.
My Career and the episode of UC (Ulcerative Colitis) surgeries
Let’s get back to my story, for me, better than no job at that moment. I joined a company on DPF’s introduction. An entry-level office job. Maybe it’s not bad for a fresh graduate. However there is no reason to stay long at a career without prospects, either. And I naively thought that I should shape my career while I was still young. So I left the job after I served at the company for two years. However, there was the harsh reality ahead that I have to confront. In the following two years, the career that I went through was totally bumpy. In order to have a cash incoming, my role was changed all the time during the period. From freelance, part-time to temporary job respectively. Therefrom, the messy work history was likely to carry a foreshadowing in my later job search although I myself learnt a lot through. But I never hide the part of my experience on my resume.
Until one day, I gained an interview opportunity at a big multinational company in my desperate circumstance. In fact, it’s the company’s disability employment program. The same story of very junior positions. In my interview, I impressed the interviewer who is a gentle Indian by my oral English and my interest in banking. He made an exception to put me at a role on behalf of a top reputable Swiss investment bank where never acquired a qualified disabled talent before. And most of my colleagues are overseas returnees who used to be trained in US AU and UK universities. All went well on engaging in the role, I found a big company is operated in systemic and scientific management following procedure orientation. When you fully understand the workflow, after then is the repetitive work day by day. Long story short, soon after around 3 years, the bank restructured its operation. As a result, the process that we engaged in was decided to relocate another city. It was not easy for me to relocate without family care as a disabled.
Moreover, I was suffered from a torturing chronic disease called UC (Ulcerative Colitis) then. And my illness got deteriorated later; I had to put on steroids and immune suppressor module to keep my symptoms in remission. Both medicines have severe side effects. I didn’t want to be on either of them for long term. The only therapy to achieve a cure is to have the surgeries. Hence I went to have the surgeries in the last days when I served for the bank. The surgeries are consisting of two phases. The first phase is to remove entire colon, fold and suture the end part of the small intestine into a “pouch” to replace the function of the colon and then create an ileostomy which is an open on the abdominal wall by which to excrete stool for temporary looping. The second phase is called “take down” which is to attach the pouch into anal so as to defecate as normal again. I went through all the process for about half year then. When my health back, the job search was put on the agenda again. Luckily, I got a content job after another two jobs in brief this time. It’s attributed to my insights regarding the new business field which my latest company intended to step into was accepted by the interviewer who later became my boss. It’s a financial service start-up. The working experience within a start-up was quite different from a big company, where everything is about result and growth. The role should be varied with the characters of imagination, flexibility, and execution. Soon after, I take charge of a new challengeable project start from very beginning. From this, I got the chance to learn and get a bigger view of the business through. But the prosperity is not long, after the intensive investigation and study on feasibility analysis was conducted, the project was eventually terminated due to a facts combination of market, complexity and cost. That’s why I began my way to job search once again.
The Predicament
From my narrative, you can see a disabled’s growth and career paths have been rugged for a variety of reasons. Back on the subject of “employment of the disabled”
For big multinational companies, they are the only group of employers who value embracing diversity, but their "One Size Fits All" recruiting criteria which advocates so call absolutely fair principal, plus their inherent worship of “elite culture”, both union excludes the disabled candidates from the job opportunities in the resume screening stage. On the other hand, from my own story, you can see how many difficulties that a disabled went through in their education and career growth path. So a disabled job candidate’s resume barely impressed resume screener. If they don’t compromise on their talent acquisition criteria for the disabled group, the EEO and Diversity is just words on a page otherwise.
For most of the local companies in the open job market, their concern of uncertainty on hiring the disabled, lack awareness of “EEO”, and the worship of “wolf culture”, combining the facts together hardly give a chance to the disabled. As a consequence, their practices are equivalent to puts the disabled job seekers exposing to the jungle rule unintentionally.
For those companies who initiatively hunt for the disabled job seekers through DPF’s recommendation, almost all of them concern how to enjoy preferential policy from hiring the disabled more than the disabled employee’s skillset themselves. It is hard to allow the disabled to have a career development in such platforms. Thus, the disabled employee are always trapped at the bottom of the food chain in the “career ecosystem”.
Accordingly, the combination of the above barriers contributes to fundamental factors why people with disabilities and those suffering from chronic diseases have poorer health, lower educational achievements, fewer economic opportunities, and higher rates of poverty than people without disabilities.
Concluding words
For writing this article, I tear me apart again and then put my pieces together with great strength, which is definitely a painful process for me. But under my family and friend’s encouragement, I still wish to finish this topic and raise people’s consciousness to EEO(Equal Employment Opportunity) in the working environment. As well as paying attention to those who suffer from the chronic disease UC (Ulcerative Colitis). Maybe you also feel helpless toward these vulnerable people, but please help spreading this article and let more people know about EEO.