Over the years, I've told colleagues and friends about things I have seen or experienced. Many times, people have said that I should write them down so that they won't be lost and forgotten, since some of them might be useful parts of our history. I've been writing them down, without being sure what I would do with them. I decided to gradually post them on this website, and see what reactions I get. I suggest reading from the bottom up (starting with the August 2017 post "The Meritocracy"). Thoughtful and kind feedback would be useful for me, and would help me to revise the exposition to make it as useful as possible. I hope that while you read my stories you will ask yourself "What can I learn from this?" I'm particularly interested in knowing what you see as the point of the story, or what you take away from it. Please send feedback to asilverb@gmail.com. Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully reflect on them!

I often run the stories past the people I mention, even when they are anonymized, to get their feedback and give them a chance to correct the record or ask for changes. When they tell me they're happy to be named, I sometimes do so. When I give letters as pseudonyms, there is no correlation between those letters and the names of the real people.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

"We'd love to hire a woman"

The below is a lightly modified version of a real conversation.

"We'd love to hire a woman. It's too bad there aren't any." How many times have I heard that? This time, it's from the chair of the math department at a large state university.

I look at him in amazement. "What about A, B, C, D, and E? They were all on the job market last year. Why didn't you hire any of them?"

"We made an offer to X."

"But he turned it down, didn't he?"

"Yes. Isn't that a shame? It would have been great if he had accepted."

"But when X turned you down, you could have hired A. She's great. Why didn't you make her an offer?"

"We didn't have a job for her husband."

"Did she say she'd only accept an offer if you made an offer to her husband too?"

"No. She didn't mention him in her application."

"Do you know if they're still married?"

"Well, no. But that's what people tell me, so I'm sure she wouldn't have taken the job if we'd offered it to her."

"She ended up accepting an offer at a place where her husband didn't get an offer, and I think she would have preferred a job at your university." This doesn't seem to faze him. 

"What about B? She's also great."

"Her husband is a lawyer, and there aren't any jobs for lawyers around here."

"No jobs for lawyers? Near [the mid-sized city his university is in, which is close to a major urban area]? I'm surprised."

"What about C? She'd be a great hire."

"She's not in the right field. We were looking for someone who works on Z theory."

"But X doesn't work on Z theory, and you made him an offer."

"Yes, isn't it a shame that he didn't come? It would have been great if he had."

"What about D?"

"She wasn't good enough."

"That's interesting. A lot of people think she's better than X, and you offered X a job." Again, he's unperturbed. But at least the excuse was a valid reason to turn someone down. He can't possibly use that excuse with someone as good as E. "E is truly exceptional. Why didn't you hire her?"

"She didn't send in a job application. We can't make her an offer if she doesn't apply."

I can't let that slip by. "That makes sense. But X didn't apply, and you made him an offer."

"Yes, isn't it a shame that he didn't accept it? It would have been great if he had."

We seem to be going in circles. Has he been listening to me at all? Let's give it one more try. "Next time I hope you'll consider hiring a woman."

"We'd love to. It's too bad there aren't any."