revised

Interview-1

· How old are you?

21

· What is your highest level of education?

College Graduation

· Are you currently employed?

Yes,

· What is your occupation and job responsibilities?

I am working as a supervisor in a retail store and my job responsibilities includes supervising a team of 5 sales persons in the grocery department of the store.

· Are you satisfied with your hourly rate/ yearly salary?

No, I am not satisfied with my hourly rate because the average retail supervisor hourly rate in the country is about $16.02, while being a women and belonging to black background I only get $10.05/hour, which is quite bellow the average rate of the industry, I have been facing this discriminating treatment since, I was working as a sale person in another retail store.

· How do you define discrimination?

I think discrimination refers to the unjust or prejudicial treatment with different categories of people in a particular community or group, especially on the basis of age, sex, religion or race. It is basically felt when someone treats you with a negative approach as compared to your peer or give preferential treatment to your peer on the basis of your race, sex or religion.

· As a Black/ Minority woman in the work force do you feel like you get paid less compared to men and white women? Why?

The average hourly rate of a supervisor in a retail industry is $16.02, while I have been paid with only $10.05/hr, which quite bellow the average rate of the industry. I feel that being a black women, the organization has been treating me discriminately. I see that some of the supervisors in our store that are supervising the electronics or other departments are paid with the same industry average rate or above, which make me further de-motivated and lower down my morale to the work. Most of these supervisors are either white men or women. Once I lodged a complaint against this discrimination to the store manager, then instead of resolving my grievance, I was threatened of dismissal and told that they posses more knowledge and expertise then I do, while I haven’t provided a logical justification in this regard.

· Why do you think you have experienced work place discrimination? Explain How? What else?

One of the major reasons that cause me to think that I have been treated discriminately is the salary difference because I have been given comparatively low salary as compared to my other peers. Apart from the salary differences, I also came across a number of events where I feel that I have been treated discriminately, for example when it come to performance appraisal mechanism and measures used for performance appraisal, I feel that the manager show biasness in determining my performance.

If, you have experienced discrimination in the workforce, what effects did it have on you? In what ways did you change? Explain in great detail?

Yes, I have experienced discrimination in the workplace over different matters. These discriminations put me into great stress and de-motivation. It affected both of my personal and professional lives and peace of mind. I become aggressive on tiny matters, which badly affected my relationships with friends and family member. The biased attitude from my managers significantly lowered down my confidence in both the personal and professional dealings and significantly transformed my overall personality.

Did you ever feel like you were more qualified for a position and didn’t get it?

No I haven’t felt such because my qualification better suits the position I have been working for and I am quite satisfied with that.

Do you find yourself more Depressed, stressed or having anxiety attacks when I comes to:

· Going into work because of the discriminating attitude of the co-workers and executives.

In the past 12 months, have you experienced (at work)

· Favoritism: by the senior management of the company where I work, especially with reference to the mechanism used for performance appraisal and promotion.

Have you received any unnecessary complaints or write-ups at work? Do you feel like it was discrimination? Why?

Yes, I have experienced such a situation in my workplace, when a complaint was lodged against me from a customer to the grievance committee of the store without specifying any valid reason and the management imposed punishments on the basis of that complaint without giving me a chance to be heard or to give explanation in my support. I felt that the complaint filed by the customer and the treatment I received from the management was just because of my color and race because majority of my colleagues even supported me against the management’s decision and told them that I haven’t did anything wrong.

Where you ever terminated at a job with no explanation or no good enough reason? Explain?

No, I haven’t faced any such situation because after completing my graduation, my current job was the first job I have started since.

Why do you think you will have more opportunities getting the undesirable jobs rather than the forbidden jobs? What are undesirable jobs and forbidden jobs to you? How does this make you feel?

Because whenever, I start searching a job I always look for such jobs which are suitable to my qualification and experience therefore the question of coming across a forbidden job do not arise. Most of the times I also came across undesirable jobs during my interviews. For me undesirable jobs are such types of jobs that I am eligible to do, but I don’t like the overall environment or salary package of that particular job, while on the other hand the forbidden jobs are those jobs to which I am either not allowed by the law of the state or due to my qualification. I haven’t came across such a situation yet, where I forcefully joined an undesirable job because as I mentioned earlier that I have just joined my current job right after completion of my graduation.

Do you have any health problems? Do you think discrimination in the workforce has anything to do with or caused health issues? What and how?

No I am quite healthy and physically fit for the job I have been doing since my graduation. Yes, I think most of the time people show unnecessary sympathy and biased attitude towards the physically or mentally disabled people, which caused them feel their disability and lowered down their morale and confidence. I also observed that the physically disabled people are treated discriminately in terms of allocation of jobs and compensation plans, i.e. whenever a new advertisement is posted, about a job the requirements mostly contain information related to the physical health conditions and fitness of the candidate, which shows that physically disabled people or people having certain serious health issues are mostly treated preferentially with respect to employment and deciding their formal job description.

Thank you for participating in his interview