That picture, according to the district office in Miesbach, was only intended to “convey the positive, friendly atmosphere” that prevailed in the house. And that would be all well and good for the five people photographed. Even District Administrator Olaf von Löwis is smiling with perseverance, even though one assistant is holding out a telephone receiver, another a stack of files, a third a tablet and the fourth something else – apparently also a “boss thing”, as it says in the picture , along with a clear instruction: “Become the district administrator’s assistant!”
In the formal job advertisement, we are of course looking for an “assistant (m/f/d)”, either full-time or part-time. The photo in the accompanying posts on all district social media channels should suggest that you are happy to enjoy the working atmosphere full-time. However, the working atmosphere on the Internet is not quite so sociable. This has now prompted the authorities to switch off the comment function.
The Miesbach district office already admits that the photo that the man in the middle and his four assistants take may not meet the current requirements for gender-appropriate images. But it just corresponds to reality, because not only is the district administrator real in the photo, but also the assistants, one of whom will soon need a replacement. In addition, these women also assisted the five department heads, four of which, according to the organizational chart, are currently staffed by women, and ten of the 22 managers in office are female.
And while the picture received more than 70 likes over the weekend, the shitstorm suddenly broke out on Monday – with many comments that far exceeded the criticized sexism of the job advertisement post. Among other things, the four employees have to be protected from this. They still insist that the image stays online.
The office’s IT and legal departments are currently busy filtering out the worst messages from hundreds of messages that they want to take legal action against. But the human resources department also has work to do. There were also three applications. Two by women and one by a man.