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Unemployment and the workplace

duchess_of_meh
Community Member

Hello,

For a few years now, I have been between jobs. I am looking for my forever home employment wise. I am very tired of job searching with extremely judgemental results. I don't really want to do it anymore and am fed up with the mainstream attitude of my past coworkers and employers. I struggle with references and I struggle with people taking me seriously. So pretty much I attend all of my shifts, Interviews and always try to be pleasant, agreeable and friendly. When I am employed I stay away from everyone's dramas and just want to go to work and come home. I don't mind working by myself or in a team. I have studied really hard to get anywhere and it has been a journey that has confused the people i live with.

So i am mid thirties but look mid twenties. I have a near legal aged child who still lives with me. I have dark hair and am pasty white ( its genetics, i don't tan, i just burn ). I try to not think it is because of this. But i can't help that it is and feel people are writing me off left right and centre because I do not look like them ( the nautical color scheme people; all beige blue and white dress code aka lemmings. ) I dress alternatively in my free personal time but when I am at work, I dress conservatively boring to avoid any drama my way.

Little hints along the way have shaped this view. eg bleaching my hair platinum blonde and wearing fake tan, ill actually get hired looking like this but i don't like it. I lost my job because i changed my hair color back to how it was and my employers freaked out and thought i was an alco ( im not an alco but this is what they told me )

I am having a bad sad day and i would love to know if people have come across this because it is too weird. I know people aren't allowed to discriminate but they do. I am quickly running out of money to get a business together but i am also running out of patience with the covid stuff because it is making people irrational and extremely difficult to work with because they are worried but projecting it on to you. I am just tired of it and want to know if there is anyone on this forum that have any advice.

 

 

1 Reply 1

tranzcrybe
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor
Hm, and we all know alcoholics have dark hair...?
And how was this put in your dismissal -
'Inappropriate genetic makeup';
'Makes us feel uncomfortable as we overlay generic stereotypes';
'Deceptive behaviour by leading us to believe she was somebody else'
?
Unless your ability to do the work as per the job description was directly connected to your hair colour and complexion (ie, must be inherently Swedish... with a healthy outdoor lifestyle!), it sounds like unfair dismissal (if not short of being slanderous).
It would seem you have dealt with this your whole life and find yourself on the 'fringe of respectability', whereas you exhibit a certain resilience and pride in your uniqueness - possibly defiantly so?
Good on you for that, don't ever lose it. But sometimes don't you find yourself just waiting for this happen and have shackles raised in anticipation?