Challenges at work
By Ozinabox
February 5, 2010
The other day, I was talking to one of my deaf friends, and the subject came
up that he was planning to continue to attend school. This was after the
fact that he’s almost finished with his MBA. His aspirations were bigger
than anticipated, so he decided to pursue another degree in Management
Information System (MIS). I encouraged him by telling the story of a hearing
friend who graduated with his Masters and got flooded with offers from
different companies even though he was not actively looking for a job. But,
my deaf friend had a different version of the situation. He said that his
particular degree was basically useless without the other, and that
positions like the one my hearing friend got (who is now a project manager
for a technology company in New York) were the kinds of jobs that most deaf
people couldn’t obtain easily.
My first reaction was to disagree with him. I initially focused my attention
on the fact that he’s got the credentials and experience to get any
promotion available for him, or easily get a new job within a matter of
days. His degrees show many qualities that a successful professional ought
to have, which most companies would definitely want. Then it struck me. I
was ignoring a piece of information that made his argument valid: his
disability playing against him to achieve his goals. And that is what got me
thinking.
Truth be told, any kind of disability do work against smart people in many
ways. First, getting a good job is challenging as it is. Scratch that.
Getting ANY kind of job during economic recession is difficult. I never
really realized the adversities presented in the process: some decide to
hide the fact that they have a disability to improve their chances of
getting a job. Others don’t, but companies often do not call when they
realize that candidates use a relay service. Hearing people have many
challenges during the face-to-face interviews. How do those really go for
people with disabilities? I cannot begin to imagine. The possibility of
frustration from one after another is just one of a few examples of all the
problems that people face in order to get in.
Second, the work environment is a jungle on its own. With many ways of
discrimination, such as bullying, omission, un-equal remuneration and lack
of opportunities to advance, are just a few where disadvantages are
reflected. It doesn’t matter if you have the experience, the know-how or
the credentials with the conviction, people are likely to take you for
granted, maybe even toss you to the side.
Still to this date, I believe that companies are very passive when dealing
with this situation. They need to step up and make an effort to be more
disabled-friendly. Like Bangalore, where companies are understanding that
the disabled are a great resource, and are changing their culture to take
advantage of this talent. Below is a snippet of an article from a firm at
Bangalore.
“Of late, Bangalore’s private firms, including IT companies, are showing
considerable amount of interest in training and recruiting persons with
disabilities,” said M Srinivas, chief executive of the Karnataka chapter of
National Association for the Blind.
“However, one thing has to be kept in mind — companies don’t recruit
disabled people out of sympathy, but because they are efficient,” Srinivas
said.
Now consider this deaf friend of mine who has a lot of experience in the
computer field, and worked for several companies in the industry. I’m quite
sure he had helped companies in ways that they may never realize. Of all the
companies he has worked for, only ONE company was really disabled friendly.
Creating this type of environment is hard and takes time. But in the long
run, it’s a good change for both disabilities and business alike. The
variation of possibilities and such diversity could dramatically improve and
impact companies’ outlook regardless of products or services they provide.
This is especially in the realms of technology where deaf people heavily
rely on. There’s just too much talent wasted, and if done right and put to
good use, the rewards for the effort would be much more than compensated.
I, Oswaldo Rodriguez, am a hearing person and never understood what it took
for disabled people to get and maintain a good career until now. I am
currently working with a deaf person, and he has proved himself time after
time. He’s one of the most valuable assets of the company, and nobody takes
him for granted. Not even himself.
Source:
http://www.houstondeafnetwork.com/articles/blogs/challenges-at-work/