Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: President's Own Euphonium Audition


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Posted by Rick Denney on January 16, 2004 at 15:46:36:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: President's Own Euphonium Audition posted by Wade on January 15, 2004 at 21:38:26:

My holidays were fine, thanks for asking. We had a week of relatively warm weather, and I celebrated not having to travel anywhere by spending the week working on my muscle-car (er... muscle-RV).

I have to say that I'm not much of a supporter of all this secrecy. When people complain of discrimination, they should have the burden of proof that discrimination occurred (by whatever means are legally acceptable to establish that proof). The notion that discrimination took place because the committee could recognize the sound of high heels is tacet agreement with the false notion that the audition committee should make the selection solely on what they hear in those few minutes. Again, I know of no other profession where people are hired on the basis of so small a sample of their work product.

They should get rid of their rules and make the choice using whatever criteria they think are important, as long as they are legal. It is against the law to make hiring decisions based on sex, race, color, age (until age 45, that is), religion, or ethnicity. And there are exceptions (not even the government requires protestant churches to hire, say, Jewish rabbis to be their pastors, for example). But it is not against the law to reject an applicant who has a troubled job history, who changes jobs frequently, who has inadequate experience (in the opinion of the employer), or who does not present themselves professionally. These requirements have been added to union contracts in return for things that the musicians who are already there are giving up, which seems to me nuts and not in the musicians' best interests.

Are there cases of abuse? Of course. But other industries manage to hire people without burdening themselves with rules that will be used to beat them up every time there is a controversy.

And there will always be controversy. There is an old saying among those who write proposals and bids for their products and services (especially when selling to government, which is easy to manipulate politically): If you can't win the bid, muddy the waters.

Rick "who sees nothing wrong with hiring one's friends if it is consistent with the organizational goals" Denney




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