Do you opt out or answer to the Equal Employment Opportunity section in an application?

NikhilR

I've been seeing this section as part of the application process for a number of AAA companies. 

The options they give you may be lacking in diversity in some cases. (like in case of Gender)

While it says that your answer does not affect your chances of employment, do you generally opt out or be choose to be profiled?

Its a bit confusing since Affirmative action requirements mean that your chances of employment would be influenced by what is said here, atleast well legally speaking, I think?

I understand if this may be a sensitive topic for some, but just genuinely curious.

zachagreg

I put it just because I have always self identified. Also because from my experience hiring in various jobs (1 experience industry, the rest not) I've never seen what an applicant's identification was. Nor did I care. Most of the time they link a LinkedIn or portfolio and pictures of people are readily available across social media if someone really wanted to find out. AFAIK Affirmative Action was banned in my state so it's not a thing here anymore, there are a couple of other states that have similar things occurring; California being a big one.

I can only go off what others have told me and what I have experienced but I don't believe that self-ID is shown on any system. It's similar to the tax withholding form. It's federal level stuff. Sure someone can profile me and not hire me because of my identification but fuck that and I wouldn't want to work for a company that does that.

NikhilR

Same here, though I tend to skip it.

I feel that its mostly paranoia when people assume HR going about an applicants background trying desperately to find ways to reject them on the basis of race and sex.
Like they even have the time lol.
Though I have seen several cases where the matter has influence (the absolute worst being that horrible mess at Riot) though a form like this is more a formality if anything.

But it is startling reading this for the first time, a few students I know saw it and immediately assumed that this was some plot to identify them as minorities. I was like, its likely to benefit you instead, but it was difficult for them to see it that way. 

 Some companies just have a disclaimer saying that they do no discriminate based on profile or handicap so I'm not sure if they are required to ask this because of the law.

Alex_J

 It's law. No need to speculate, just look up EEO and it's right there for you to read.

In short, you should absolutely fill this out, especially if you are a minority. Going to help you get the job you deserve.

NikhilR

Alex Javor said:

 It's law. No need to speculate, just look up EEO and it's right there for you to read.

In short, you should absolutely fill this out, especially if you are a minority. Going to help you get the job you deserve.

I'm just curious about how this applies when a company is multinational and the same EEO appears regardless of what location you apply to.

Like one company has an office in India where we don't have an EEO, but this federal rule for USA/Canada sticks?

In canada its 4 designated groups and the grant system is tied to hiring from them, in India we have about 50 different minority groups but the same list that applies to the west is displayed?

Maybe they're trying to influence a migration lol.

Meloncov

Filling out EEO information won't personally affect you one way or the other (it's not like they aren't gonna figure out your race and gender before offering you a job anyways).

However, if there is discrimination going on, that information makes it much easier for the authorities to find it and eliminate it. It's worth doing.

NikhilR

Meloncov said:

Filling out EEO information won't personally affect you one way or the other (it's not like they aren't gonna figure out your race and gender before offering you a job anyways).

However, if there is discrimination going on, that information makes it much easier for the authorities to find it and eliminate it. It's worth doing.

Its interesting that you can opt out though, so any information they have to review it is partial at best. 
I believe they do an yearly audit to check how diverse a company is each year, though not entirely sure if it has any meaningful impact in the long run.
Most artists I know from minorities would be pretty livid if they found out that they were hired because of something like this.
Kinda devalues the merit of their portfolio and handwork.

zachagreg

This is in every job in the US that is a legal over the counter job. The partial info is just a US thing and a law thing, there's probably a dozen labor laws and loopholes somewhere that makes it so people cannot directly ask you to identify. It's not just artists. It probably exists in India or international companies because you have to cover all your bases and once you do that once it's just a waste of time and money setting up an entire different administration and hiring protocol for each country that they hire from. It also may be something under US regulation somewhere that if you operate in US at all you must include it. Don't know I don't mess with all that stuff but it sounds plausible.

Basically if you don't want to don't. If you do want to identify go for it. Either way if it is truly hurting your chances by identifying your race do you really want to work there? Also in the same vein some people just don't give a damn whether they got an extra boost due to Affirmative action or otherwise. They need/want the job so they accept that part of the system. Everything regarding race and legality is steeped in bad territory and egg shells so I try to avoid that.

Just do you and if you don't want to do something don't.

sacboi

Equal Employment Opportunity in my region, is similarly legislated. For example, many Australian employers develop EEO policies to promote workplace diversity and create a safe workplace for all employees and yes, likewise racial ethnicity is purely an optional choice in terms of whether a perspective applicant identifies themselves as being of Aboriginal or Torres Islander descent.

https://legalvision.com.au/equal-employment-opportunity-eeo/