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This is interesting: Eirene says her mother is anti-greek, and Little E automatically assumes she has some kind grudge. I see this a lot. Someone makes a statement critical of greeks, and we immediately retort to the effect of “well, he must not have gotten a bid and that’s why he hates greeks” or “well, her boyfriend must have cheated with a sorority girl and that’s why she hates greeks”. Very interesting.
Eirene’s mother may well be carrying a grudge of course, but why jump so quickly to that conclusion? The word grudge implies some specific past incident. Isn’t possible that she is just a smart woman who judges greeks based on her personal experience with them when she was college age?
Think about it. The vast majority of people interviewing you for a position are between the ages of 30 and 65. 30 is sort of the typical age where one becomes a midlevel manager and is put in a position of interviewing prospective employees. 65 is obviously retirement age. That means these people were college age in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
Fraternities and sororities were not cool in the 60s and 70s because they were seen as establishment. In the 80s they were seen as elitist playgrounds for rich kids. Hell, talk to someone who was greek themselves in the 80s and they’ll tell you that college was one long beer and coke binge punctuated by a little hazing spree here and there.
Right or wrong, that’s why the odds are against you. Know your audience. And don’t automatically assume people with anti-greek views are bitter and unreasonable. Greeks haven’t always put their best foot forward. It’s hard to fault others for noticing, and for building an opinion based on what they noticed.
And finally… If in a nation that sports a 6.4% unemployment rate you can afford to be idealistic and say things like “I would never work for an anti-greek person”, then more power to you. But I have to assume that either A) you are independently wealthy, B) you don’t have a family to support, C) you have no shot at the position in the first place, D) you’re just kidding yourself, or E) you’re delusional.
wptw
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