A woman shared an online job posting she came across noting that the position is “not ideal for someone with outside responsibilities”—a requirement she concluded was highly unlikely in today’s world.
The shared posting came from TikTok creator Syd (@sydhorse_), who took to the platform on Sunday to share her disbelief. The video had drawn more than 396,300 views as of Monday morning, along with a number of comments from people who similarly registered their disbelief.
Syd took the language in the job post to mean people with kids and second jobs, and observed in the video’s on-screen caption, “I am at least 90% sure they can’t say that.”
The caption that Syd included with the video posting observed, “It was salaried and borderline entry level,” before wondering, “What is happening?”
@sydhorse_ & it was salaried and borderline entry level.. What is happening 🥲
♬ Originalton – ☆
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website, “It is illegal for an employer to publish a job advertisement that shows a preference for or discourages someone from applying for a job because of his or her race, color, religion, sex (including gender identity, sexual orientation, and pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.”
It then specifies, “For example, a help-wanted ad that seeks ‘females’ or ‘recent college graduates’ may discourage men and people over 40 from applying and may violate the law.”
One person remarked, “I saw one that said ‘female cashier needed.’ Like I’m sure that’s prohibited to say in a job posting.”
Someone else opined, “There’s a boutique near me that has job postings like that because it’s female owned, operated, and catered to, so I don’t really think that’s wrong all the time on postings depending on the job.”
But someone else rightly countered, “That’s still discrimination based on a protected category and therefore illegal.”
A commenter revealed, “During an interview I got asked if myself & my family were healthy because they didn’t want me taking time off.” That comment led the creator to register disbelief.
Another shared, “I literally saw a job posting that said ‘don’t apply if you don’t like to work’ like babe WHO DOES THO.”
One commenter suggested, “Actually, if you apply to something that has illegal requirements, go through the process anyway. Then sue them when they don’t hire you.”
The creator was inspired to make a follow-up video when one commenter remarked, “Plenty of us like to work,” extolling its virtues before observing, “Females have only been in the workforce since like the 80s, it’s not your natural place.”
@sydhorse_ Replying to @johndoe423 #greenscreen ♬ Beat Goes On – The All Seeing I
As you can imagine, that comment met with a fair degree of fact-checking and disapproval.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Syd via TikTok direct message.
