Disparate impact: He who forgives is unforgivable
March 30, 2015 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Comments Off
Disparate impact: He who forgives is unforgivable
March 29, 2015 8:45 pm
Reylito A.H. Elbo
THE modern office has all the conveniences and latest technologies. There’s a switch for this and a switch for that. However, there’s still a need for someone to invent a switch that works against the wrongful hiring of people. Why not? Bad hiring creates a huge amount of losses for the company, and to the concerned worker and also to his family.
Think about the children and the worker’s when someone is preempted by his dismissal from employment. That’s why hiring managers do a lot of things to ensure that they hire only the best and the brightest on this side of the world.
One of the approaches being done by organizations is to create a “disparate impact” by listing down certain job requirements like age, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, or religion that could result in unfair discrimination of certain groups of people.
To avoid being challenged in court, employers must be able to prove business necessity such as requiring the minimum age at 21 if the job requires a worker to serve alcohol in a bar, or being female to work as a sales lady in a lingerie department.
The trouble is that the disparate impact can be a form of reverse discrimination in some ways. It benefits a lot of greedy, unscrupulous employers. They hire only people from a certain religious group known to frown against trade unionism. If not, they hire disabled people who, for obvious reasons, can’t stage a walk-out. Or hire senior citizens who have a lot of time to spare but are required to waive medical benefits.
If you’re an ordinary job applicant, you are to miss the disparate impact because many of these job requirements are not written in black and white, but only at the back of every employer’s mind. Even with a good explanation or even if the hiring managers bother to explain, there will be questions that will linger in your mind except that you don’t want to raise them anymore.
After all, many of those who fail in life often pursue the path of least persistence (not resistance). Perhaps it is something that borders on stupidity.
But why can’t organizations choose people who are known rebels, in the hope they can blossom to become responsible leaders in their own right? Why can’t they give a second chance to those who were dismissed from previous service for incompetence? Or even those who have criminal records? If voters are giving the Marcoses a second chance by electing them to office, then why can’t they give the same opportunity to ordinary wage earners?
The easy and simple answer is that – employers don’t want to take any chances. Besides, the job market is still dominated by employers who offer few opportunities to millions of job applicants.
But let’s take this seriously. Let’s push Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago’s bill of prohibiting public officials to escape liability for misdeeds during their prior terms. Santiago is right. Elected officials should be required to answer administratively (and maybe criminally) for their illegal acts committed in their preceding terms. Apparently, this is in answer to Makati Mayor Junjun Binay’s argument that he should not be held liable for alleged corruption prior to his current term of office.
Mayor Binay cited a Supreme Court ruling that a public official could not be removed administratively for misconduct committed during a prior term, as reelection is said to condone the official’s misconduct during the said term. Senator Santiago claims, however, that this would lead to a “ludicrous” situation.
If the likes of Mayor Binay, who has all the resources and power at his fingertips, can benefit from that Supreme Court ruling, then how come a lowly job applicant who is stigmatized for life cannot be given a second chance?
Now, let’s have some fun. Take a look at two of life’s unnerving activities in this country – job hunting and mud-slinging (err, election campaigning.) In some ways, we can learn from each activity that involves searching for the best candidate. If the employer or the electorate committed a mistake in choosing the best candidate, it can be costly for the organization or the country.
Job applicants can’t do much else but polish their CVs to make them attractive to employers. For electoral candidates, however, even those with criminal records and without college background are elected into office, as long as they know how to sing, dance, and kiss babies in wet markets.
And so the injustice continues . . .
Rey Elbo is a business consultant specializing in human resources and total quality management as a fused interest. Send feedback to elbonomics@gmail.com or follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter for his random management thoughts.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Share and Enjoy
Model Tiah Eckhardt: ‘Was I not blonde and tanned enough for you, Australia?’
March 30, 2015 by admin
Filed under Choosing Lingerie
Comments Off
Tiah Eckhardt, the 2015 face of the Telstra Perth Fashion Festival. Picture: Penny Lane
Source: PerthNow
FRANKLY, Tiah Eckhardt doesn’t give a damn.
The 28-year-old is not afraid to have a controversial opinion nor show off (with handcuffs if necessary) the sort of sex bomb body that has global lingerie makers jostling to sign her up.
She’s not shy about posting sizzling rants on social media about double standards for women in Australia. Actually, she’s not shy at all. Which makes the Rockingham native a bold and refreshing departure for Telstra Perth Fashion Festival, choosing a “real” ideal as its face of the festival this year.
Next month Eckhardt jets home in her first official role to shoot the annual promotional campaign ahead of the September event.
Tiah Eckhardt for Australian lingerie label Honey Birdette. Picture Penny Lane
Source: Supplied
Given the festival has favoured wide-eyed and willowy “next big things” in the past, Eckhart believes her selection is a sign that the tide is slowly turning around the world. She points to Robyn Lawley, a plus-sized model scoring a Swimsuit Illustrated cover and 83-year-old Carmen Dell’Orefice, still in demand on the catwalk, explaining it’s “the confidence and attitude a wider range of beauty can add”.
“Grown women are kind of sick of having only size eight 16-year-olds shoved down their throats as the singular ideal to aspire to. There’s space for more than just that one thing,” she says.
Eckhardt is regarded internationally for her vibrant red mane, her killer curves and her fearless nature. In her 14-year modelling career, she’s climbed volcanoes for Vanity Fair, wrestled Daisy Lowe in a hay barn in the English countryside for Agent Provocateur, and modelled on horseback for David Jones in an Irish castle owned by the Guinness family.
Now based in the Napa Valley, California, with husband Patrick Delaney and their daughter, Finley, 5, she says she is thrilled to be representing the festival.
“I’m very excited for the shoot and so incredibly flattered that TPFF have chosen me to represent the event,” she says. “Obviously when you come from Perth, the festival is where you get your first experiences of runway and events, and over the years it’s been great to see local creative talents that I started out with also evolve and be successful.”
Her seductive poses have been setting pulses racing for over a decade, fronting campaigns for some of the biggest names in lingerie including Agent Provocateur, Dita Von Teese, Berlei and Elegantly Scant.
In March 2012 Eckhardt launched her blog The Daily Knicker. Picture Jason Ierace
Source: Supplied
In 2010, she replaced bombshell Lara Stone (the world’s No. 1 model at the time) as the face of Eres. She’s posed nude for French Playboy and stripped bare for STM in 2009.
But in a first for Eckhardt, a recent campaign for Australian label Honey Birdette proved too risqué, breaching national advertising guidelines and deemed inappropriate for its placement in a public shopping centre. In the offending photo, Eckhardt posed in leather-look underwear and matching handcuffs.
Eckhardt took her outrage to Facebook.
“Oddly, Australia/my homeland is probably the most prudish, slut-shaming First World country I’ve found in my travels,” she posted.
“Sure, put topless chicks on men’s mags in every 7/11 where they are pandering to the typical, male-satisfying ideal of ‘sexy’, yet take images of a confident woman with attitude, wearing underwear that covers more than 90 per cent of swimsuits on the market, in a store that empowers women by taking sexuality out of the hands of men and into their own and it’s somehow lewd?
“Every VS (Victoria’s Secret) catalogue I’ve ever seen is raunchier and more revealing than this, but I guess that brand of sexy is all about submissive smiles and faux-innocent coquetry, so it’s OK. Or was I not blonde and tanned enough for you, Australia?
“Get over it. Women are in charge of their own sexuality and tastes these days and if it lends more towards leather (instead of the typically hypersexualised, teen/ephebophiliac encouragement that mainstream media promotes) then it’s not OK. Yeah, nice example there: Let women appear sexual, but only if it’s in a way deemed appropriate and beneficial to a conventional and patriarchal governing force.”
Eckhardt says public reaction has been largely supportive to her post.
“For Agent Provocateur, Daisy (Lowe) and I were photographed wearing (nipple) pasties; we had whips, had a food fight and a bubble bath together, and no one cared. That was in stores all over both Europe and the US.
“(With Honey Birdette) I had close to 200 supportive comments in just a few hours, all by women affirming they want to be in charge of their own sexuality, the way they want to look and how they want to live their lives and that there is often an unfair double standard.
“My issue personally was that Honey Birdette is a company created and operated by women, for women and any representation of sexiness is marketed to their female customers.
“There is far more graphic and insidious advertising of a sexual nature on the market that is completely ignored and accepted by society because it is aimed at a male audience, selling men’s products, yet it’s overlooked.
Tiah Eckhardt for Australian lingerie label Honey Birdette Picture Penny Lane
Source: Supplied
“Targeting a company that represents female sexuality for the benefit of women, yet not those who use women’s sex appeal to sell everything else, sends the message to women that it’s only acceptable to be sexy for the benefit of others and not for their own enjoyment.
“It tells women that their bodies belong to society, not themselves and I think that is a huge underlying cause of so many issues regarding body image and self-worth.
“It’s not as simple as dress sizes or whether companies Photoshop their images or not.”
Growing up in Rockingham, Eckhardt was always comfortable in her skin.
“I grew up dancing and acting so I’ve always had a healthy respect for what my body is capable of and the mind-body connection in general,” she says. “I spent my childhood in swimsuits at the beach or running around under the garden sprinklers in summer.”
And while she’s featured in countless glossies across the globe in top international labels, she’s most recognisable with her clothes off.
“I’ve always had a personal interest in lingerie, more so than outerwear, but I didn’t do my first lingerie campaign until I was 21,” says Eckhardt, who has a personal collection of more than 400 sets curated over her career.
“I started going to castings with those clients and getting the job because I’d end up chatting with them about all different aspects of their bras and knickers. I think they appreciate that I understand and enjoy their products.”
Eckhardt is the face of the 2015 Perth Fashion Festival. Picture Jason Ierace
Source: Supplied
In March 2012 Eckhardt launched her blog The Daily Knicker. “It started as a bit of a personal joke,” she says. “My friends all knew I was obsessed with lingerie, so I would do Facebook status updates on what I was wearing that day or if I bought anything new.
“Then girls, and people with girlfriends, started to be interested in buying things based on what I’d recommended and requesting pictures, so I started the blog. Initially it was just for my friends and now I have over 50,000 people reading via various platforms.
“There are a lot of fashion blogs out there but nowhere near as many dedicated to lingerie and, if they are, the products are not usually shown on actual bodies or spoken about with such frankness. There wasn’t really anyone doing what I was doing when I started it and I think that’s why it’s taken off.”
Telstra Perth Fashion Festival director Mariella Harvey-Hanrahan says that she believes Eckhardt is the perfect fit as the face of the 2015 festival.
“Tiah is super glamorous and has an amazing presence while remaining very real,” Harvey-Hanrahan says.
“In 2004 she was named Model of the Year and for her to still be working at this calibre at 28 is amazing. It’s great to have her back in such a big way.”
Telstra Perth Fashion Festival runs from September 15-20.
Originally published as ‘Was I not blonde enough for you, Australia?’