Gold Coast cafe apologises for controversial hiring ad
The owner for a Gold Coast cafe as apologised for a hiring advertisement that sparked heated debate. Read the full story.
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A Gold Coast cafe has urged applicants of "all genders" to apply for a vacant barista role, apologising for its previous controversial hiring advertisement.
The latest job ad is the third iteration of the Mudgeeraba cafe Jekyll and Hyde Coffee Lab's call out for a role that has been vacant for almost a year.
"Need a barista. All genders invited to apply," the new ad reads. "Apologies previous ad was worded incorrectly."
"Was never meant to offend."
The apology comes after the cafe received backlash for its controversially worded ad posted last week calling for “female barista” applicants.
"Be careful advertising for a female only," one Facebook user commented under the new post.
The cafe has since taken down the old hiring ad but left a post from the cafe's owner up describing the ideal applicant as someone who “looks half way decent … has some morals” but isn’t “righteous”.
"Looking for someone who wants to stick around, does not intend to go to uni, can commit to turning up five days a week,” Georgina Rebecca Clothier said.
"Lives a fairly normal life with no dramas on the daily, can smile...doesn't sit on their phone every 10 minutes."
“And most importantly can make coffee,” she added.
“Is that alot (sic) to ask for? There doesn’t seem to be many of these rare specimens around.”
‘Rare specimen who looks halfway decent and has some morals’ - cafe job ad
A Gold Coast cafe is unapologetic for a controversial hiring advertisement posted to its social media accounts saying the ad was never meant to “offend”.
Mudgeeraba cafe Jekyll and Hyde Coffee Lab’s job ad called for “female barista” applicants - with some suggesting the wording excludes applicants who don’t identify as females.
But cafe owner Georgina Rebecca Clothier insisted the poster “never said males can’t apply”.
“That’s where you, and a few other people who commented on it, are getting it wrong,” Ms Clothier said.
“Nowhere does it say ‘only’ female baristas.”
According to the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, it is “unlawful to discriminate against a person because of their sex”. There are only limited exemptions for religious institutions and voluntary bodies.
The cafe, which opened in 2018, has been searching for a new barista since September, initially calling for an “experience barista” to apply. But on Tuesday, the cafe switched to calling for female applicants.
It comes after Ms Clothier took to Instagram in January lamenting the hardship of finding a “rare specimen” applicant who “looks half way decent … has some morals” but isn’t “righteous”.
“Looking for someone who wants to stick around, does not intend to go to uni, can commit to turning up five days a week,” Ms Clothier’s post started off.
But the post, first published on Ms Clotheir’s private account then to the cafe’s social media accounts, describes applicant attributes including “lives a fairly normal life with no dramas on the daily”, “can smile”, “looks half way decent”, “has some morals” and doesn’t “sit on their phone every 10 minutes”.
“And most importantly can make coffee,” she added.
“Is that alot (sic) to ask for? There doesn’t seem to be many of these rare specimens around.”
While Ms Clothier has had personal complaints regarding the advertisement and her January post, she maintained the cafe had successfully worked with male and female baristas and the new hiring call out did not indicate the business’ intention to hire only women.
“I am not sexist – if you and other people want to take it that way that’s a personal preference to them,” she said.
“This is not coming from a place of badness at all – I’m a person who own a business and I’m trying to employ people from my local community and now I’m going to get scathed for it.”
Ms Clothier also rejected suggestions to alter the poster wording.
“You can go on Facebook, and people take everything the wrong way. If you’re a sensitive person, that’s how you’re going to look at it,” she said.
“But it’s not sex discrimination.”
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