Somewhere between 9,000 and 6,000 years ago, humans began domesticating cattle and cultivating crops, representing the birth of agriculture and by most scholars’ accounts, the beginning of the concept of money. That concept is essentially that we all agree to exchange a symbol of the thing valued, rather than the thing itself.
We’ve all observed it. Most of us have experienced it personally. The deal gone way sour, or the wrong person hired. The wrong product chosen to develop. The wrong partner invited. Many examples. And when we look back over the history, there they were, the warning signs that should have screamed at us to turn back. These are the kinds of mistakes that were preventable, not the failures that were caused by factors out of our control or because we couldn’t have known what we know now.
The goal of equal employment opportunity statutes is to enforce the Constitutional notion of equality. The legislation has been necessary because the definition of equality, and to whom it applies, has needed to address changing public opinion of what those definitions mean in daily life. Over the decades, women fought for and gradually received the legal right to that equality, from suffrage to employment to the military to executive suites.
Having the legal right is one step. Ensuring that the rights afforded by our Constitution are received is quite another.
So here’s the scene. It’s eleven-thirty a.m. on a work day. I’m meeting with Andrew, the president of a local company to talk about organizational changes anticipated for the coming year and how to raise the leadership contributions of senior management in harder times for the construction industry. We are the first patrons of the day. We approach the hostess, who appears distracted. Since the place is empty, it’s not immediately clear what might be commanding her attention. She walks away saying something unintelligible. We look around for a moment. A waiter, whom I’ve seen many times as a local patron, comes up to us and smiles. “Good morning gentlemen! What can we do for you?” “Do you mind if we sit over here?” I say, pointing to a four-seat table by the wall. “Go right ahead!” he replies. We needed the extra room to spread out some documents.
A few minutes later, the hostess comes over, looking a little distressed. “Um…I’m afraid you can’t sit here” she says. We look around at the completely empty dining room and ask innocently, “Why not?”
“This table is for three or more” she responds.
