Originally Posted by
lolwut
Being a pilot is one of the professions where background, race, ethnicity, religion, etc should have absolutely NOTHING to do with selection. It shouldn't be asked, HR shouldn't be involved, and there should be an exception from all that equal opportunity stuff. It should be completely based on skill and experience as a pilot.
When I'm riding in the back of an airplane that has a serious emergency, I don't care what the pilots look like, I care that they're good pilots. I don't care if the airline's pilots are 100% white males or 100% black females, as long as they're good pilots. And neither should anyone else.
Sounds great in theory, but what measure do you use for "qualified good pilots"? Flighttime? Landings? Aircraft types flown? And evenso, we all know pilots that would do well on any of those metrics, but one would not consider them "good pilots". Should an HR consider if an applicant comes across rude, or arrogant? Should they consider if they percieve the person as a team player or selfish? Are those important things for consideration? How about if the person has unique experience in the avaition industry, should that be considered? Finally, if the airline's customers are of a varied ethnic and racial backgrounds, should the company make an effort to make sure their employees also have a similar diverse backgrounds? To consider any of the above in selection, would that be discriminatory or sound business practices?
Onfinal