a feeling defined as: doubt or apprehension about the outcome or consequences of something.

This week, we find ourselves grappling with a Thanksgiving holiday that has become almost unrecognizable...and the fact that much of what we are losing with the 'old' version of that holiday will not be missed - the shift toward truth in American history is as necessary as our desire to care for others by limiting our travel and the size of our gatherings. 

Our misgivings remind us that it is so easy to get wrapped up in 'the way things are supposed to be', we don't often get the opportunity to wholly re-imagine the way that they could be. 

As we wrap up a three-week deep dive into Job Requirements, and how they can be used to make your job post more equitable, we offer a variety of ways that a job post can be re-imagined - turned inside out and upside down, shaken out and shaken up, and looked at in different ways. In fact, there is one more perspective on Job Requirements that has become obvious to us over the last ten years, but we have not yet voiced...

The Job Requirements section of a job post tends to expand and take up more than its fair share of space. On the one hand, this seems reasonable, if you consider that any job post is an attempt to communicate with potential candidates by clarifying who can qualify to take this job and who cannot. But this common sense definition of a job happens to also be the fundamental aspect of a job post that we have been trying for years to overturn. 

As we look at our work at GFJ over time, we can see that it's the Job Requirements that we've always been working to diminish. Any good job post - like any good job - requires balance. When the list of requirements grows long, we wonder about the space it is taking up - what else might be struggling for breathing room.

For years, we have touted the Company Description as an under-utilized space to shine the spotlight. Why? Because it focuses on the employer - who are they? What do they stand for? What are their values? What kind of work do they do, and how do they engage people with that work? How do they invest in their team members? How do they view their work in relation to the world? What inspires them?

All of these questions get around to the biggest and most important one: why should someone want to be a part of their team? When people ask us why we don't post any advertisements on GFJ, as a source of revenue, we remind them that the job posts are advertisements - they are advertisements for the company to attract the team members they are looking for. 

We founded GFJ with an editorial policy in place, knowing that the jobs we posted would always be reviewed and thoughtfully considered by a person who understands what GFJ is all about. The point of that editorial policy was not to be exclusive or hierarchical, it was to build trust with those who came seeking the same thing that we wanted: to spend their days working with food in a way that contributes to sustainability and social justice. But the requirements keep elbowing their way back, saying 'It's me that matters most!' The habits of relying on meritocracy, hierarchy, and exclusivity are  - like a traditional Thanksgiving holiday - deeply rooted, and difficult to leave behind.

But just as the Job Requirements continue to expand, so do the ways in which we can think critically about them. In doing so, you can eliminate some (or all) and focus more time and attention on sharing who you are as an employer, in order to seek out a team member with whom you can create mutual support toward your mission.

In the words of writer and civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander: "Work is deemed so fundamental to human existence in many countries around the world that it is regarded as a basic human right." Making your job post more equitable means making it more human.

We are here to help. Questions? Roadblocks? Pain points? Please reach out.

. . .

In our ongoing work to provide resources for Writing an Equitable Job Post, we invite you to get in touch if you have thoughts on any areas of a job post you'd like us to delve into. In the coming weeks, we look forward to covering Compensation and Application details. 

In food, justice, and food justice, 

Dor + Tay

photo by Clay Williams for GFJ Stories