Candidate being rejected because she stutters ignites debate on hiring discrimination

If a person is actively looking for a job, getting turned down can be very disappointing. However, for one candidate getting rejected from a job was actually a "blessing in disguise," according to a current employee of the company. According to a post by u/10percenttiddy on Reddit, their office turned down a candidate because they had a stutter. They shared that they feel it happened for the best as the company had a bad reputation among its staff.

The headline of the post read, "My work turned down someone because of a stutter." The person explained, "She is the best candidate for the position but because it's public-facing, the boss is saying it isn't discrimination because it would prevent her from performing the job's essential functions (talking to people)." However, there's a twist in the situation, "Here's the best part - she's currently a professor. I hate it here." People took to the comments section of the post to share similar experiences and express how the candidate actually dodged a bullet.

u/Mental_Mixture8306 wrote, "I had a very similar situation at a place I worked in the past. We had an urgent need for a person with specific skills. I had done my own search on LinkedIn and found a candidate that met our needs. He was also local. I sent the contact info over to HR to reach out. After not hearing anything back, I called HR to ask what happened. They said he 'failed' their phone screen - he couldn't communicate. I told them to bring him in anyway because he was a good fit on paper."

They added, "Turned out the person had a speech impediment, and when he got nervous (ie, during an interview) he would lock up and be unable to speak. The interview took longer but with patience, I got to know him. We ended up hiring him and he was a great team member. He just wasn't the most social of people but that was okay. Sometimes you have to insist on giving people a chance - it seems like management is looking for reasons not to hire people."

The current employee of the discriminatory company replied to the comment by describing the situation at their workplace: "We have nine people working here and turnover is atrocious. Hilarious to me that they are shooting themselves in the foot because they're a******s. Blessing in disguise for this candidate at least. Giving people a chance doesn't happen here even after you're hired. But I certainly made my opinion on the matter very known." u/RosieQParker commented, "As soon as a hiring manager says 'It isn't discrimination because...,' you know they're fully aware they're discriminating."

u/phznmshr shared, "I'm always upfront about my stutter. Whenever I have to apply for jobs, I get denied by most of them. They never say it, but it's very easy to assume it's because of it because I always get the 'You're not our ideal candidate' not five minutes after the interview. My current job has a lot of forward-facing stuff where I have to talk to people and I stutter a storm, but my boss doesn't give a s***. It's all about hitting that and finding the one person who doesn't hate you for having a stutter jackpot." u/MsArtio expressed, "Jesus, I stutter and have worked in customer service as an administrator for 2.5 years. Stuttering doesn't equal incompetence and being unable to do the job/tasks, insanity."