Equal Opportunity

In this paper, I’m going to be discussing the situation and problems between Alex and Melinda. What started off as a normal issue companies face, that of quarterly sales being down, quickly spirals out of control into a sea of personal problems, miscommunication, playing the blame game, lack of professionalism, and the failure to execute one’s job responsibilities. I have decided to pick apart this debacle as it played out and offer my suggestions and then decide in the end whether I would keep either employee.

The story begins with Alex the manager calling in Melinda to discuss why her quarterly sales are down 40%. The district Melinda is in charge of is in Mexico and she was assigned to it because she has a Latino background. Right away I disagree with this line of thinking. I believe that any person could do a phenomenal job working in sales in a Latino country if the person is an excellent communicator, can be speak the language and acts in a professional manner that reflects the company. To just be assigned a position because you’re ethnicity doesn’t mean you have all the needed skills to get the job done. Unfortunately, I think this is becoming all too common in the U.S. because there is a big push for equal amounts of everything from pay to the percentage of ethnic workers in all positions. A lot of good workers are getting passed up just because of their skin resulting in reverse discrimination. I have personally witnessed this in the military with the recruiting process. My friend is a recruiter and he has a list of what kind of people to recruit first. The most sought after candidate is a female minority, then minority, then female and lastly Caucasian. I know a capable white guy that has been waiting 2 and half years to join but if he was a female he would be in within a few months. This subject gets me so heated because I have seen so many good people get passed over because they wanted a minority in the position instead of the best qualified....