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

Fri Jun 12 14:00:48 UTC 2015

Did I miss an email? Did somebody actually say they would not use an agent who used a job coach?

Is this individual never heard of the EEOC or the Americans with disabilities act?  

I need to ponder this for a bit get to my MacBook or I can actually type with my fingers as opposed to dictation and reply to this somewhat ignorant individual.

I love your response Annette. You do what I wouldn't, you were nice.   I've been in call centers my entire working career. I can tell you right now the center is not worth a second look.   

Wow...

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jun 12, 2015, at 9:40 AM, Annette Lutz via Ohio-talk <ohio-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 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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