To think Asian name may put off customers

[Stcatherine]

I'm prepared to be flamed for posting this. My dp is Asian and is trying to get jobs as a handyman but nobody is responding to him. Do you think that when people see a Asian name in his profile that it puts them off. He is very experienced and skilled. By the way I'm not trying to say that everybody is racist but have been aware from past experience that some people think along these lines.

It wouldn’t bother me. It’s really sad that it would bother anyone. As long as he turned up and did the job well, I couldn’t care where he came from. I asked two local tilers to quote me for a job, they never bothered to get back to me. Asked two local joiners, one just said it was 500 quid, over the phone. The other took a month to say sorry he was too busy after all.

@DameIfYouDo why on earth would you think the colour of someone's skin has anything to do with the price they quote for a job? That's the definition of racism.

People say they would still hire with a foreign name but we are not always aware of our biases/unconscious biases.

I've had an Asian guy come around to quote a job. He quoted 2k.

I've had a guy from my country quote the job. He quoted 1k.

I hope you haven't hired a Cowboy native to your country when you should have hired the Asian Indian!

I'm more interested in the credentials and reputation of any tradesmen I hire than there nationality. Sadly, a lot of people feel the reverse.

Watch out for online review sites. We had one ‘handyman’ who came to do some jobs at work. He was appalling- no idea what he was doing and what he did so was just wrong (door of a cupboard on the wrong way, nothing straight, bits missing). That’s when he bothered to turn up. We think his wife wrote the glowing references.

White British man. The women who did the decorating were very good though (British, various races).

To be clear and I didn’t mean to upset anyone, the Bob’s and Ali’s I refer to are not using their given name.

Yep, people will be put off sadly. When I hired removal men when I moved from my flat it was an african man and my ex said “I cant believe you hired a black person” he is black himself 😐

What I can conclude from this, and what I concluded is that the Asian man thought I was thick and were willing to exploit me. Do I think all Asian men are like that? No. Will it make me wary of other Asian tradesmen? Hell yes!

Why wouldn't it just make you wary of trademen in general, regardless of race?

If you are more wary specifically of Asian tradesmen because of one bad experience with an Asian tradesman, that makes you racist in my book.

My first name is ambiguous, and my surname is the same as a Welsh town. On paper people don't realise that I'm Asian, and are sometimes surprised when the meet me after reading my CV.
But I think it is different being an Asian female, people seem to trust me to do a decent level of work

It can work both ways. My married name is very obviously 'not British' courtesy of my DH, and some people have made assumptions before meeting him because of his surname, BUT, interestingly enough, he's very popular with clients who aren't British or who are 2nd, 3rd generation immigrants.

I think there's a certain 'you're foreign, I'm foreign, so let's do business together' train of thought, even when my DH is a completely different ethnicity to them.

But yes, OP, whilst there can be a silver lining, unfortunately some people will automatically judge or make assumptions based purely on a name. It's not right, but it happens. I hope your DHs work picks up xx

It works both ways-my driving instructor used to get Asian pupils/parents of pupils asking for an ‘Asian instructor’ for one example .
I would probably prefer a handy man to use his name rather than a company name unless it was something like ‘Xxxxx handyman services’

Unfortunately I think he will need to anglicise his name

Also do like faux company names for what are clearly one man bands - unless say Aridane Handyman Services

Agree motherofkitties. My DH is self employed in construction, and was speaking to an Asian guy who is a professional (accountant), who said that the Asian community would never use a white British guy to do jobs as they only use Asian local trades people. Neither race trusts each other it seems, sadly.

dislike faux company names, not like them!

Sadly, yes. I work next to a bloke with a beautiful African name who changes it to a really shit English name because people feel more comfortable with it. He does it so he doesn't have to go through people trying to pronounce his name and because people are racist (sometimes without realising it). I'd be tempted to Anglicise it, as annoying as I'm sure that is! If you get an increase in calls then you've got your answer.

Or Dame's 'Asian tradesman' might have doubled the price so that she didn't pick him. Probably for the best, either way.

Once he gets a few clients who recommend him and start passing his name and number around, he'll be inundated with work, whatever his name is. (Assuming he's as good as you say, of course! Good handy men are soooo hard to find around where I live. ) However, sadly, until he gets to that stage, a generic business name like [Your Town] Handyman Services and an anglicised nickname won't hurt.

yes.sadly.
this is why they change it in call centres.allthough its rather obvious.so that we will trust them more with a English name.
its awful but if he needed to shorten it or change it a little then he should.end of the line he gets work.and he can be in the knowledge of how judgmental they were whilst taking their money.
does he perhaps have tradename he could use.
would he be happy to change it?

I took my husband's African surname and after moving to a new area I found I couldn't get a job - not even an interview. I was being turned down from jobs that I would've walked into in my previous town.

An old colleague sheepishly suggested I use my maiden name for future applications and lo and behold..... got the first one I went for.

It's fucking disgusting.

@Oneweekleft Maybe because they feel there will be no trouble communicating with them, whereas with a foreign sounding name there is a chance that person's English might not be good. I don't think it's necessarily like a racist thing in most cases.

Im sorry but yes this is still quietly racist. Making assumptions about a group of people baaed on their culture is at best ignorant and at worst racist. IMO both are wrong and in 2019 white British people shouldnt still be making judgments based on somebody's names.

I think it's something that applies on both sides. My sister is married to an Asian. All their friends will only get Asian tradesmen for any work they want doing.

I have a friend who has a very British name. She has experienced the inverse to the OP here. She books a tradesperson only for them to turn up, take one look at her being black and refuse to do her work or quote for it.

I used to have a very unusual surname and experienced the dissonance of going for interviews, only for the organisation to say they were expecting someone non-white (or words to that effect).

Surely according to MN as long as she doesn't shit in their bog he'll be ok?

My sister is married to an Asian.

Wtf is AN asian?