After the fiasco with the previous HR advisor who had to be fired, the company hired a new HR advisor. To train this new HR advisor a couple of HR managers showed up and our existing HR brought the whole gang (all women by the way) around for introductions. The HR managers, who are based in Dubai (an American) and Singapore (a Singaporean) respectively, spent more than a few minutes chatting with us. The S'pore HR started of by saying, "Let us know whatever you need, we're here to help you in any way." Then out of nowhere, "In fact, we can even help you find girlfriends if you need." (What??) It didn't stop there - "In fact, our new HR advisor here is single, just letting you know." That poor girl (the new HR advisor) turned 10 shades of crimson at that.
Since there was this banter going on, one of the engineers said, "You know, we've been asking (the present HR) to hire more females engineers." which brought a lot of laughter. To that the HR responded, "Well, I'm trying. It's just that the qualifications for the post are so high that no girls are qualified for this position." Now I agree with that as a matter of fact - the number of highly qualified female engineers, particularly in India, is very small. But come on, as an HR, and in particular as a woman, you can't make statements like that! That's for sexist guys like me to make! Wow! The White chick was just squirming at this point thinking about all the lawsuits that would have been brought against the company if this conversation had been taking place in the US.
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