Job Ad: 'Preferably Caucasian'

Cynet Systems is in hot water, apologizing profusely over employment ad posted online
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 30, 2019 8:51 AM CDT
Apology, Firing Follow Whites-Preferred Job Ad
Cynet Systems says a new employee has since been fired.   (Getty Images/Milkos)

A tech company counting "inclusivity & equality" among its core values is apologizing after one of its job listings requested a "preferably Caucasian" candidate. "How could you POSSIBLY think that's okay?" Florida coder Helena McCabe tweeted to Virginia-based tech recruiting firm Cynet Systems on Saturday, though there were "hundreds" of critical posts by the time Cynet responded almost two days later, per WUSA. A tweeted apology for the "anger & frustration" surrounding the listing for a job with an unspecified pharmaceutical company in Tampa, Fla.—posted on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and other sites—then accompanied the news that "individuals involved" had been fired. "We understand why some may have been upset … because we were, too," co-CEO Ashwani Mayur said in a Monday statement, per the Guardian.

Noting Cynet has long refused clients who request candidates of a particular race or gender, Mayur added the company was "looking at measures that could help us catch offensive or outside-of-policy ads before they ever go live to ensure this can't happen again." He made no mention of a second Cynet posting visible over the weekend, which asked for a "female candidate only" to fill an account manager position at a Virginia firm. However, a spokesperson tells Inc. that a single fired employee, new on the job, had posted both ads. In a tweet, a recruiter describes specific requests regarding a candidate's race or gender as commonplace despite the fact that employment discrimination on those bases is generally illegal. "I can tell you you'll receive a 'profile' request like this all the time," she writes, per the BBC. (More discrimination stories.)

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