This will be a very long post, and I don’t want to write it in a single sitting, so I’ll publish it in sections. How many? Don’t know. I haven’t written it yet!
It’s a story that I have been unsure about writing for as long as I have been Prattling with WordPress. There will be no graphics, no audio, and no video. What there will be is a true story from the years when I was a boss. There’s a big reveal that, considering the subject, I won’t hide until the end. I had to fire Ted, the only Black man I ever hired.
Starting salaries where I worked were low. With a Bachelor’s degree I was hired for a base salary of only $9,000, which is equivalent to $31,500 today. The opportunity had a lot of potential, including an annual bonus and the chance to purchase the company’s privately held stock. That potential was ultimately realized, with the immediate benefit of being able to work with my friends from college.
The company’s low starting pay was a problem in another way, once I became responsible for hiring people into my small group. After being promoted from my entry-level position I did a lot of traveling. Personally I thought of the travel requirement as a benefit, and I pitched it that way to job applicants. Nonetheless, the money that came with the job limited the candidates who were willing to accept an offer.
As far as I know, Ted was the only Black person who was ever interested in joining my group. With no directly related experience required for the position, Ted was a qualified applicant. I recall one specific, unusual detail from his resume. He named himself as one of his references. When asked about it, Ted said he was his own best reference. I wasn’t going to exclude Ted from consideration simply because I thought it was an odd thing to do on a resume, but my internal “little warning bell” was ringing.
Perhaps Ted had gotten the idea from a resume guidebook? What Color Is Your Parachute? was popular at the time. Or was I, as a White guy, seeing an unfamiliar aspect of Black culture? I talked it over with my boss, and we decided we were okay with it. I offered Ted the job, at the same starting salary as everyone else, and he accepted.