Business Clinic


HR & RECRUITMENT Yes, I am cross (bred)


which exclude others who do not have the same interest. My mum says this is sometimes how we develop unconscious biases which create situations that prevent people (and dogs) who are not like us from joining in.


If we don’t challenge or call out these ridiculous biases they will continue to be


perpetuated."


I WAS out for a walk yesterday and met a very friendly human being who told me she is part of a Beagle-only dog walking group. As a mongrel I found it very annoying that I am prohibited from joining a Beagle-only dog walking group; worse still, despite the general election, I am unable to vote or request my MP takes up the matter in Parliament because I am a dog. It feels like blatant discrimination to me.


I asked my mum about this; she has worked in HR and the legal industry for years. She explained to me that whilst there is no protection for me in law regarding specific breed-only walking groups it can lead to legal issues when people with shared interests form groups


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I wondered if people have to be asleep, drunk or unconscious for some other reason in order to have these biases but apparently not; they simply have to hold a belief or view to which they are oblivious or unwilling to recognise. Of course, if they happen to be drunk, their biases can be more obvious and they are unlikely to appreciate anyone pointing them out.


The law around equality and diversity currently only deals with what are deemed to be ‘protected characteristics’: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. However, we can face all sorts of biases which aren’t legally protected but can still prevent us from living life to our fullest potential. I don’t just get treated differently because I’m a mongrel, I’m also part Staffordshire Bull Terrier which means some people think I’m a bit tasty and get into fights, which is simply not true (apart from one incident in the park when my ball got stolen, but the other dog started it). It also means that apparently some people, according to a 2015 BBC story, think I belong to a so-called ‘chav’. This couldn’t be further from the truth.


If we don’t challenge or call out these ridiculous biases they will continue to be perpetuated.


Whilst I’m on the subject of elections and voting let’s not forget that women, eventually known as suffragettes, had to campaign for decades in order to get the vote. In the 1860s, which is when the movement can trace its roots back to, lots of people - men and women - thought the idea ridiculous! It took until 1975 for sex discrimination to eventually be deemed unlawful. That’s 100 years (or 700 dog years)!


Exclusion still exists today in many ways and whilst we do not always realise it, we can be encouraged to hold unconscious biases by media and other experiences we are exposed to daily. Some people can be snobbish about which supermarket they shop at, which schools their children attend or the area they live in. When people start to act, make decisions or attitudes it can be very upsetting or undermining for those on the receiving end.


DOROTHY BARKER knows all about leading people. Determined to pull, she is a dog with her paw on the pulse of Westminster and she knows where all the bones are buried! This week she takes a look at how Boris fares as ‘Leader of the Pack’. Is he up to it?


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