By Yelena Dzhanova | Insider
Christoph Dernbach/picture alliance via Getty Images
- Three
Black people allege Facebook chose not to hire them because they weren't a
"culture fit."
- "There's
no doubt you can do the job," a manager said before using the
culture-fit line, a report says.
- Critics
have criticized the idea of a "culture fit," arguing it
sidelines people of color.
After initial
reports of Facebook turning down Black applicants for positions
because they weren't a "culture fit," more people have filed
complaints alleging similar experiences.
A Washington
Post article published Tuesday said three Black applicants were
rejected from jobs at Facebook despite having met all the qualifications.
The three applicants filed a complaint with the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency that investigates workplace
discrimination.
"There's no doubt you can do the job, but we're
really looking for a culture fit," one hiring manager told one of the
three candidates, according to The Post.
A Facebook operations manager, Oscar Veneszee Jr., told
the paper he believes several qualified applicants he referred to jobs at the
company were rejected because they weren't a "culture fit."
"When I was interviewing at Facebook, the thing I
was told constantly was that I needed to be a culture fit, and when I tried to
recruit people, I knew I needed [to] find people who were a culture fit,"
he told The Post. "But unfortunately not many people I knew could pass
that challenge because the culture here does not reflect the culture of Black
people."
The EEOC began investigating Facebook last summer over
bias allegations, The Post added.
Critics have criticized workplaces pursuing the idea of a
"culture fit" in their hiring practices because, they argue, it
creates an inclination to hire white workers while sidelining people of color.
In a 2018 article published
by the Society for Human Resource Management, a professional membership
association in Alexandria, Virginia, one HR expert said "culture
fit" is subjective and indicates the hiring decision is largely not based
"on the candidate's ability to deliver results."
A Facebook spokesperson, when reached for comment, gave
the following statement.
"We've added diversity and inclusion goals to senior
leaders' performance reviews. We take seriously allegations of discrimination
and have robust policies and processes in place for employees to report
concerns, including concerns about microaggressions and policy
violations," the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also said the company did not take
"culture fit" into account when hiring for jobs.
Rhett Lindsey, a former recruiter with Facebook, told The
Post, "There is no culture fit check mark on an application form, but at
Facebook it is like this invisible cloud that hangs over candidates of
color."
https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-workplace-hiring-eeoc-black-employees-culture-fit-2021-4
