Instead of bitching about how much I hate PowerPoint again, I thought about the root of the cause for my hatred: I work with people that think PowerPoint is the greatest fucking concept on the planet. When I delve deeper and think about these people, I come to the conclusion that I work with people wholly unqualified, uneducated, and incapable of their positions, which begs to eventually ask the question of how these people got their jobs. And the answer to that, is sadly the easiest to hypothesize.
I recently read an article about how in Fulton County, the current workforce diversity breakdown currently stands at 83% black, 9% white, with the remaining 6% being “other,” AKA Asians and Hispanics. I live in Fulton County. Fulton County is pretty large overall, so these same statisticians saw it fit to isolate and examine just the City of Atlanta, which is within Fulton County. And within Atlanta itself, it breaks down to 75% black, 9% white, and 16% other.
The point I’m getting to is the fact that nowhere in the United States is there such an overwhelming discrepancy in the ethnic diversity of the workforce, as there is in Atlanta. The article I read (I’d link to it, but it’s subscriber-walled), basically insinuates how affirmative action not only fails in Atlanta, but leans to go extremely far overboard, in the opposite direction, and essentially accuses Fulton County and the City of Atlanta of favoring black people above everyone else, due to the overwhelming numbers as their proof. Now I can’t say that some census numbers are good enough justification for me, but I can understand the accusations, and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t feel the same way about how suspicious it sometimes feels.
I’ll come out and say it: I’m against affirmative action. It’s stupid and apologist for actions that happened so far ago that today’s society is forced to suffer. In no way should race, class, gender or orientation ever trump pedigree, qualification and necessary skill in the job market, but what was created with the best of intentions decades ago appears to have exploded in the face of modern society, and has been doing so for quite an unfortunate length of time.
It seems like it was once a forced quota system to get more minority demographics into the work force, but now it appears that it’s become a system that favors the people they were once forced to hire.
I don’t really have to look further than my own company to justify my suspicions. Since I’ve been with my company, I’ve seen seven people either retire or quit. One was replaced from within, but the other six positions were all filled by African-Americans, with five of those being women. And there’s not an ounce of me that believes that they were the most qualified people for the job, because frankly the ones that have gotten positions that I have to personally work with, are dumb as bricks, and have demonstrated zero capability of being able to do their own fucking jobs.
They have little to no understanding of basic computer operation, and have to have their hands held to do the most trite and basic functions. Their communication skills are shit, and they clearly have no experience with dealing with graphic designers. They demonstrate to me that they don’t have the qualifications to their own jobs, so the question really becomes, how did they get them?
If not qualifications or experience, then what else could it be?
This is not how the world should operate. Experience, qualifications, and if it were up to me, and aptitude tests, are all that should matter when it comes to getting a job.
