Dallas, Texas

"Harve, tell me, what's all this nonsense about age discrimination? This damn agency and my HR department keep sending me resumes of men older than JR and I'm getting sick and tired of hearing that it's illegal for them to disregard those applications for no reason other than because they're not an ideal age. We're looking for a young, unattached man, someone who doesn't have a wife and children expecting him to be home every night, someone who can completely commit themselves to the lifestyle the position requires. Tell me there's some legal jargon we can say to applicants to indicate they are unsuitable for the job because they're too old, you know, something like they're 'overqualified in life experience', or more honestly, it's a job suited for a young, single man, for both believability of pre-arranged situations and the reality of life in Dallas. That's true you know, if I were a businessman being wined and dined by a Ewing Oil representative, I would believe some of those women were 'old friends' of Bobby's before I'd believe they were friends of mine; JR's another story, but that's JR himself, nothing to do with his age. Does that make sense? Ewing Oil has a nice little operation running and just because Bobby has decided he doesn't want to be a part of it anymore doesn't mean the position ceases to exist; I'm not interested in changing anything more than the name of the man Ewing Oil pays to be its roadman though. Now, tell me straight, because I'm sick of these damn HR people messing about, legally, how do I make it clear the role is for a young man?" Closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead, Jock sighed to himself as he waited for Harve Smithfield to respond to his questions. Nothing seemed to be going right lately and he wasn't happy about it, not one bit. First Bobby had announced his resignation from Ewing Oil, leaving him and JR scrambling to organize things in just a few weeks; then he had had his granddaughter put him in his place regarding his grandson; then he had had an earful from his wife and later JR and Sue Ellen about JR's supposed traumatising childhood; and now this. He was the president of a large, successful company, he was a busy man, he didn't have time to take on any more responsibility regarding recruitment than he and JR already dealt with in doing second interviews, re-checking references, and making final decisions. The sooner he could get an answer from Harve to pass on to his incompetent staff so he could stop dealing with the small details, the better; he paid his HR staff and an employment agency good money to do their jobs and he expected them to accomplish their end of the bargain.

"Well Jock, I'm afraid your people are right, if you look in the handbooks I put together for you a few years ago when the law changed, you'll see all of the categories you cannot discriminate based on, age being one of them, and while we're discussing it, sex is another one. It is illegal for you to discriminate based solely on age or sex, so you cannot instruct anyone to simply throw away resumes that indicate the applicant is over forty years of age, in fact, it's illegal for you to even ask an applicant their age. It is illegal too to disregard applications from women just because they are women, now I'm not saying you're doing that, but I thought I should remind you. Before you ask what you can do, I'll tell you, you can be more specific about what the requirements of the position are and rule out those applicants who do not meet the job criteria rather than the personal criteria which is legally irrelevant. For example, make it very clear that there is frequent travel involved, explain the types of interactions and responsibilities that are associates with the role, give as much detail as you can about the job in order to give potential applicants an idea of what it is they're applying for, and interviewees a sense of what is expected. The aim is to get people thinking about how the role will fit in to their existing personal responsibilities and to get them thinking about that before you ever have any contact with them. I think you'll find that the type of applicant you are looking for and the type of applicant you'd rather not have to spend time checking out actually sort themselves; it's when things are too general that people apply for things they and the employer later realise they're not suitable for. Did that answer your question? I'll have my secretary send you some information for you to read through".

As he listened to Harve speaking, Jock made small grumbling and grunting sounds as he agreed or disagreed with what he was saying, and as his lawyer finished speaking, he was silent for a moment before responding. "I don't like it; the government is always trying to make things 'better' but all these laws seem to do is get in the way of productivity. I'll talk to my people though, tell them what you said about changing the ad, hopefully that works. Thanks for the recommendations". Finishing the conversation with a few pleasantries, he then hung up the phone, scribbled a few notes down, called Julie in to bring him a fresh copy of the current job advertisement, and then stood to walk down the hall to JR's office. If they were going to redefine the job specifications, he'd like to get it done as quickly as possible and that meant instead of double handling the matter by making changes himself, handing them over to JR to check, and then editing them himself again, it was easier to instead just collaborate with JR to make one set of edits. Unfortunately, his effort to be inclusive and productive was going to have to wait, because after walking down the hall, knocking on JR's door, receiving no answer, and then entering anyway, the highlighted appointment in JR's calendar told him everything he needed to know about JR's priorities. Of course he wanted his son to be a good and honourable husband and father, but did he have to work on his personal life during work hours? It didn't matter to him that JR was technically taking an early lunch, so he wasn't actually working any less hours, his unavailability during the middle of the work day due to personal commitments wasn't appreciated. Turning and leaving JR's office, he walked back down the hall to his own office, sat down, and began to edit the job advertisement himself. It wasn't his fault JR wasn't present to participate and since he had other things to do later in the day, JR was just going to have to live with not having the first word.

To be continued…