Published on 12, July, 2020
"Employed Temporarily Only To Fulfil A Legal Condition?"
I am asking for the the opinions of others, here, about that Title. Before I was afflicted with multiple Illnesses, the following ritual used to happen to me a lot:1 - They <>say: 'If you want your "Benefits" to continue, you will do as we say. We have a "Work Placement" for you.'2 - Everyone is very supportive, smiling, positive, encouraging.3 - Upon the Job, everyone is friendly, supportive, filling in for what I do not know.4 - Suddenly! Very suddenly!... After A day, a week, or a month... suddenly, these same persons are oddly hostile, intolerant, and at times even asking me to do things which I cannot do...5 - ...However... Even when I do the asked thing correctly, and even show initiative, it is dismissed, nit-picked, "shot down", or ignored.6 - I am continually asked to do things which I am not qualified to do. It is as if they are finding some reason to get rid of me - *but they must make myself be the cause of it*...?7 - When I quit, due to some outside reason (in my own case, multiple illnesses), they are eager again, only to make certain that the reason for my quitting is "nothing which they have done". It has to be something which "I myself or someone else has done"...?
To close, I shall say, for one thing, that I am of a certain "Ethnic Minority"... and I have seen the same thing happen to others like myself. The Gaining of miraculous "Perks" one day... and then suddenly outright hostility the the next day.
What I am asking is how much it is TRUE that some Companies must employ a certain person in order to continue themselves (Funding or whatever)...?
Age - or Gender - or Race - or Disability. (Not necessarily all of those and maybe just one.)
Thank You for reading this far.
Again, Thank You to all who responded thus far...
...Yet this Thread is dropping into "forgotten" just like so many other Threads, and, well, what more can be said concerning *that*...?
I shall at least explain that, the example I gave in starting, was my own experience of London and then a "City Farm"...
To begin with... I was encouraged a lot, to volunteer, and then given much support, at first. (I was not diagnosed Aspergers then (1990s), and so I was still a certain "Ethnic Minority" (I shall say not which!) )...
It was fun, they answered my questions, and I learnt much during my first week, there. I met Goats and Sheep and Rabbits and Cats, all with different personalities...
Then one day I was invited to attend an "Interview". This was a strange thing. They asked questions as if I had been there for Months. For example, caring for and leading Horses across Roads, which I had not yet been allowed to do.
During the interview, they more-or-less dismissed my own answers and "put words into my mouth", and then said "Yes? Is that true?"... And then after that I was allowed to go home early...
The days after this strange interview were strange. Those who were polite and supportive before, suddenly regarded myself with an obvious dismissiveness or a great hostility. I was given things to do which I could know nothing about as yet, and they would stand and watch me with a sort of sneer or leer upon their faces. Yet I still did nothing wrong, and that was when the sneer dropped yet what I did correctly was dismissed...
In the End: The reason why I quit was due to my being asked to clean out a Horse Stable and the HAY caused an Asthma Attack (I could not breathe!)... and yet upon my saying so, the person could not hide the relief and glee upon his face as he asked: "Just so long as it's your own reason and nothing to do with us or our animals."... to which I could only agree...
I could have been "snuffed off" right at that moment... but they did not care about that. They were just glad that they fulfilled their "Ethnic Minority" obligation and wanted to get rid of me after that.
Sorry for the long Post. Myself Venting, maybe. But what happened to me there, I know that it still carries on. But I am made to be too ill to tolerate it nowadays.
Disambiguating Cynosure said:
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Was the interview to turn the volunteering into a job? It wouldn't surprise me then, I've heard many people say that happened to them. First they were for free and they were given tasks that were quite manageable and people put some effort into making them feel welcome. Then they applied for a job and suddenly they should have known a lot of things without training because suddenly they would get paid and therefore it was seen as unreasonable that anyone would have to put more effort in. The same may even apply if the interview was just about continuing the volunteering - they may have assumed that they can also find a volunteer who can just do it with a lot less of input from them, so you may have been seen as expensive and therefore not worth keeping. Another version of this is to consistently kick people out at the end of their probation period because the employer doesn't want to make any commitment. That's especially common in jobs that do not require very extensive training.
The other thing may be that, diagnosis or not, you had ASD. Someone may have taken offense in whatever you did or said, totally without any intention to offend, but they would not tell you directly. Someone may actually have "told" you in various nonverbal ways and you just didn't get it. At least that seems to happen to me a lot.
Being asked to clean a horse stable when you have asthma is disability discrimination. I guess it's too late now, but did the person know you had asthma before asking you to do that task?
It all seems very suspicious. If you were doing a good job, what logical reason would they have had not to want you around? But neurotypicals don't often behave according to rules of logic. I have been through a similar experience (not being from an ethnic minority per se, but having an obvious accent indicating that I am from another country). I don't even know whether I was originally hired to fulfill some quota (there aren't a representative number of females in my field of research). In the end, I don't know exactly what it was that made everyone behave in a hostile way toward me. I can only conclude it was the ASD, because that's what several of them made comments about. However, strangely enough, if I were male with ASD, my being around in the position I was in would have been quite commonplace and even desireable, so it could be a combination of factors.
Hello DC, that is so horribly wrong on every count, How nasty and unkind, I really do not understand prejudice of any kind, it makes my blood boil, so I am prejudice to prejudice people, human beings are all human beings, ethnicity should make no difference to how some one is treated,
I am so sorry you were treated that way, it really highlights how ridiculous it is to have such thoughts when coming here for instance, I may be from any country ok my English is ok, but that is not a guarantee of my skin colour,
I do not have any better words now as I am struggling a bit lately( cloudy mind and words take time to think up), just had to say how very much I like you as a human being and that your ethnicity makes no difference to me. Take care x()x