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I'm not sure whether this issue is a tempest in a teapot or a mountain made out of a molehill. It's certainly not a matter of discrimination.
I'd bet money that the person who wrote the ad was just trying to describe the kind of presentation where everyone faces the speaker while graphs and charts are projected on a wall or screen behind her. These are more formal--and, for some people, more intimidating--than the kind of presentation where everyone sits around a table as each person delivers a brief status report to the other members of the team.
HR: What duties should we list in the ad?
Mgr: Well, blah blah blah...and she'll have to give presentations.
HR: You mean like stand-up presentations to the whole department?
Mgr: Yes. I can't have anybody who's too shy to do that. That
last guy was the pits. I mean it!
HR: OK, OK. We'll be sure to call it out in the ad.
Substitute the word "formal" for "stand-up" in the ad, and the issue disappears. The only problem with the ad was that (as so often is the case) no professional writers were involved in its creation--at least *that* would be an appropriate topic for Techwr-L.
We shouldn't be so quick to find offense everywhere we look, folks. There are probably no alligators under your bed, either.
--David
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David M. Brown - Brown Inc.
dmbrown -at- brown-inc -dot- com
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