[Ohio-talk] pro tip for employment searching people and those who represent them

[Annette Lutz]

Good Morning Gabe,

Usually, I am not one to make many comments on a group such as this, but as
one employer to another, I find your email concerning.  First of all, I am
not sure why you chose to post such a reaction to this list.  I can Only
assume that the emails you received were concerning blind applicants, and
you believed that by reaching out to a list consisting primarily of blind
individuals, you would reach the correct parties.  There is a chance that
those you are referring to could read this list, but there is no guarantee
of this.

However, the ideas that you expressed on your email are what I find most
disturbing.  I am a small business owner, and I share your desire to hire
self-motivated, independent, driven individuals to fill any openings that I
may have.  Such people are hard to find, and I have found that those with
such a skill set are an asset to my business.  However, the fact that
someone who needs assistance in applying for, and being trained for a job
due to a disability does not necessarily mean that they do not possess such
traits.  For example, you mention your unwillingness to accept the services
of a job coach for a perspective employee, implying that if the person needs
such assistance, they are not independent enough to do the job you ask of
them well.  Though in some cases this could be true, in many it is not.
Sometimes, a job coach or vocational rehabilitation counselor is merely
involved to help assist the employee and employer to make the job accessable
to allow the employee to do the job independently.  In the case of a blind
person, this might simply mean assessing the software that your company uses
to do your work and making a screen reader to become usable for the blind
person.  Once the blind person could identify what is on the screen through
speech, or in some cases, magnification, then that person becomes just as
capable as anyone else, but may not have been able to achieve this on their
own.  Job coaches or VR Counselors may also be needed by persons with other
types of disabilities by providing interpreting services for the deaf, or
making a workspace wheelchair accessable.  My point is, please don't be
short sighted about this by believing that people who might need a little
more assistance to get started wouldn't make a fine employee in the long run
and prove to be a great asset to your business.

One other point that should be made is that such items as the need for a job
coach or VR counselor in most cases could be viewed as a reasonable
accommodation.  The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits employers from
discriminating against persons with disabilities who can do a job with
reasonable accomodations.  Therefore, please keep this in mind when making
such determinations in the future.

You sound like a successful and intelligent businessperson, and I
congratulat you on your business success, but I encourage you to give
disabled applicants a fair shot.  Look past their disability and evaluate
them for what they bring to the table to serve your customers.

Annette Lutz

-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio-talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Commtech
Customer-Service via Ohio-talk
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2015 11:30 AM
To: jobs at nfbnet.org
Cc: Commtech Customer-Service; ohio-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Ohio-talk] pro tip for employment searching people and those who
represent them

I just got an email in my inbox this morning, from a person involved with
blind rehab asking me about a resume status, or hiring status for a couple
of clients. In early April, or it might have been late march, I went through
24 resumes, and some interviews and hired on 3 individuals out of a total of
wishing to hire 5.  here is a couple of reasons why you were not called
back, not followed up with, or just not considered in general.

 

1.       I will not deal with a 3rd party, if you want the job, be an adult
and call me like any nondisabled applicant and show some
self-accountability.

2.       2 When you call my IVR, my menu driven phone system, in order to
inquire about a job, directly dial the extension mentioned in the job
listing, don't play on my phone system, and dial random extensions just to
see what they do, and do not call and hang up and continue to play with my
phone system because you think it's a toy, I pay lots a money for this
system, and I even pay for the toll free call you are making to my company,
and at 6 cents a minute I can't have you playing on my phone system because
you have nothing better to do.

3.       I don't deal with job coaches, vr councilors or any other state
provided support, my positions require self-motivated, independent, driven
workers, either tech support, training, or sells, I need you to be able to
send me your own resume, fill out any questions we may have online, and send
me documents in the format we ask for, not one that you are comfortable
with.

4.       When you call and speak to me or either of my staff, show the
upmost respect, we are a close nit team, a national company such as ours
works hard and cohesively to provide our customers the best quality of
service, but you on the other hand are not our customer, if you aren't
pleasant or respectful, you will not be considered.

So, any questions, give me a call, I'll be glad to talk. (888) 351-5289 Ext.
710.

Gabe Vega | CEO

CommtechLLC

http://commtechusa.net

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