An Aussie company has defended its call out for applicants who have a “a sense of humour” and other specific attributes after one of its job ads sparked fury online.
The ad encourages people over 40 to apply for the position with National Rental Inspections. But it’s the list of requirements that has raised eyebrows.
They include having a car that works “96 per cent of the time”, being able to pay to put fuel in it, having a licence to drive it, owning an iPad that works, and having internet that works faster than dial-up speed.
The company also wants candidates to be good listeners. “While you are talking, you are not listening,” the ad reads. “I know this but it’s my business, so you must be willing to listen to me and learn. I know everything already.”
While the job requires no prior experience, potential employees are also expected to be good with people and must “be able to alphabet, sentance [sic], punctuate and grammar way better than me, I don’t need to, I have staff.”
The post goes on to explain that the role is suitable for parents and people without children, but successful candidates “cannot have three months off over Christmas and two weeks off every other month for school holidays”.
‘Awesome to work for’
The company rounds out the ad by saying “we are actually very awesome to work with/for and have an amazing team”, and called on people to submit their CV with a cover letter explaining why their work and life experience would make them a “good fit” for the role.
“Ultimately, we’re looking for a particular person,” the director of the company, Michael Uspensky, told Yahoo News Australia. “I want someone with a sense of humour because in our business, we’re doing inspections in tenants’ places so we want to get in there, be happy and just treat the tenants with respect and have a bit of a smile and keep it casual.”
“All ads look the same, you’ve got to look different, and people are sick of being treated like a number. And I’ve had so many people say ‘we applied for this job because of your ad’.”
Aussies split over job ad
After being shared on Reddit, the job ad has racked up hundreds of comments from a divided public. “WTF, is this a joke?” the original poster wrote, while someone else added that the employer “sounds like a nightmare to work for”. “I would definitely not apply, what a huge red flag,” another commented.
But the majority praised the company for its honesty and “upfront casualness”. “He/she is fed up with idiots in the past, I love this advert,” one person wrote. “It’s funny, the employer obviously has a sense of humour,” another said, while a third added that “at least they are making any expectations obvious from the start”.
Is the job ad legal?
It’s murky waters when it comes to the legality of job ads like these, according to Dr Sandra Martain, a lecturer in industrial relations at Curtin University. “Ordinarily for an employee, there’s a common law obligation for the employer to provide what you need to perform your job,” she told Yahoo. “Even if you’re getting reimbursed, the idea that you must provide the vehicle and your iPad and put petrol in the car is unusual for an employee.
“They could be looking for someone who’s an independent contractor, not an employee, which means that the person would not be covered by any protections that you would normally expect as an employee under industrial relations legislation.”
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Mr Uspensky refused to be drawn on whether employees would be reimbursed for these costs.
Questions over applicant age bracket
Then there’s what critics argue is the discrimination in the ad. “The Equal Opportunity Act in Victoria says you can’t discriminate against someone on the basis of their age or on the basis of caring responsibilities,” Dr Martain explained. “And they appear to be saying they only want you if you’re over 40 and that if you’ve got kids this is not suitable for you.”
“Our national industrial relations legislation even covers people applying for jobs,” she said. “If you are discriminated against in that process, you could have a claim against that employer.”
Responding to suggestions that the job ad could be discriminatory, Mr Uspensky said he prefers people over 40 because they have “more life skills for the job” and any comments around childcare were “just a bit of fun”. “If people want to think I’m discriminating, the job is not for them, not because they’ve got children, because they don’t have a sense of humour,” he said.
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