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

Tue Jun 16 13:40:24 UTC 2015

Well said Annette!

Jw

Dr. JW Smith
Associate Professor
School of Communication Studies
Schoonover Center, Rm. 427
Athens, OH 45701
smithj at ohio.edu
T: 740-593-4838
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-----Original Message-----
From: Ohio-talk [mailto:ohio-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Annette Lutz via Ohio-talk
Sent: Friday, June 12, 2015 9:41 AM
To: 'NFB of Ohio Announcement and Discussion List'; jobs at nfbnet.org
Cc: Annette Lutz
Subject: Re: [Ohio-talk] pro tip for employment searching people and those who represent them

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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