A Park Slope "Children's Boutique" That Won't Hire Moms?
We have been known to crack a joke or two about Park Slope moms and their big strollers. But this email from Park Slope parenting circles that was passed along to us by a reader isn't funny, although it is oozing with nasty irony. It concerns an unnamed Park Slope kid's shop alleged to be practicing something that sounds like employment discrimination against moms. Here is the email:
A week or so ago I was at one of our favorite local kids boutiques...picking up a birthday gift, and the woman behind the counter was talking loudly on the phone, and walking through the tiny store with the phone, about how she doesn't hire mothers with children because "they are unreliable and they don't show up." She was going on about how she made an exception this one time, knowing she shouldn't have done it, and now the woman's babysitter didn't show up and she had to work and this is why she's going back to not hiring women with kids.We are not naive and we know that employment discrimination of this kind--and other kinds--goes on every day. All we can say in this case is: Won't someone please, please let us know which kiddie shop doesn't like moms with children as employees.
When she got off of the phone, I put the things I was going to buy back and asked if she was the owner. When she said yes I told her that after hearing that she doesn't hire women with children I wouldn't be shopping there anymore. Her response was that she did hire someone with kids this time, and look what happens when she does - they don't show up!...The irony is, this woman makes her living off of CHILDREN'S boutiques!
Labels: Park Slope
posted by rsguskind at 7:50 AM
8 Comments:
I'd like to know what store it is whose owner is so stupid she talks loudly on the phone with customers around about her discrimatory hiring practices.
It has to be one of the Area stores, right?
Some people forget that all demographics are unreliable.
Young kids
Working moms
Old people
It's just hard to find good help these days...
Gosh - someone sent this email directly to you? Really? Unheard of!
Ah actually, I think if I sunk a ton of money into opening a store in NYC, fully aware 10% of new stores and restaurants don't make it, yeah I'd only hire people who show up too. I don't see anything wrong with this.
Retail jobs are difficult to staff well , especially when the store has only one employee like a lot of small stores in park slope area. Stores are reliant on that one employee. If the employee does not show up then the owner must work in the store or choose to not be open. Maybe they had their own kids to take care of which may have been stressful.
Most people probably put their kids first before a retail job. This is not working in finance for $150,000 a year with two rotating nannies & a housecleaner. The turnover is a lot higher as these jobs are seen as being more disposable.
A store should be able to hire anyone or not hire anyone they want.
This annoying emailer must be giddy over having another "cause" to talk about over wine drinking.
right. come on people. do you really think the business owner's concerns about her store making money or not somehow make it ok for her to discriminate? it doesn't.
it's amazing to me that people still try to defend business interests against individuals' rights. do you seriously think this business owner's money is more important than another person's civil right to equal opportunity?
if she was saying, oh, i don't hire black people anymore, i hired one of them once and look what happened, would you guys think THAT was ok?
we have laws against discrimination on the basis of sex, race, and family status for a reason. everyone should be judged on the basis of their ability to do the job, not on their social status.
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