'Preferably Caucasian' Job Listing Axed By Company In Sterling

STERLING, VA—The co-CEO of a Sterling-based staffing company that says part of its mission is to "gather the best and brightest talent in the world," issued an apology Monday, April 29, after the firm posted an online job listing seeking "preferably Caucasian" applicants.

Cynet Systems chief Ashwani Mayur said the employees responsible have been fired and that "we understand why some may have been upset about seeing this listing, because we were too. It is a long-standing policy for our company to refuse any request to list jobs seeking candidates of any specific ethnicity, gender, or other inappropriate restrictions."

The company, at 21000 Atlantic Boulevard, Suite 740, had a help-wanted ad posted on LinkedIn and other sites, according to WWSB, seeking an account manager for a job in Tampa, Fla., with an unspecified pharma company. Someone took notice:

Channel 9 reported that the job posted across multiple job sites all said the same thing: "Preferably Caucasian," and that it took the company 44 hours to respond, with a tweet: "Cynet apologizes for the anger and frustration caused by our offensive job post. . . The individuals involved have been terminated."

After that, a more robust explanation was offered. Here's the full statement:

First we would like to say simply that we truly regret the fact that individuals formerly employed by Cynet Systems went outside of company policy and included an inappropriate requirement in a job listing. We understand why some may have been upset seeing this listing, because we were too. It is a long-standing policy for our company to refuse any request to list jobs only seeking candidates of any specific ethnicity, gender, or other inappropriate restrictions, and we will turn clients down if they demand requirements of this type be included. Further, Cynet Systems itself is proud to be an immensely diverse company. Both of our owners are Indian-Americans, our workforce is over 60% minority, and we are certified as a diversity supplier by the National Minority Supplier Development Council.

The individuals involved in this case were terminated immediately for a significant violation of company policy, and we have already begun a review of all currently existing and upcoming ads to ensure no similar issues exist. We are also looking at measures that could help us catch offensive or outside-of-policy ads before they ever go live to ensure this can’t happen again.