Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> budge wrote:
>
>
> It might be interesting & fruitful to have a discussion of "privacy"
> and its relation to the bourgeois individual, too. What are we trying
> to hide? Our political opinions? Sexual behaviors? Annual incomes?
> Why do we want to hide them?
>
It's probably best for most people in most job situations to think carefully whether to reveal or to conceal that they suffer from depression. Letting a prospective employer know is not advisable. Letting fellow workers know is iffy. After securing employment and establishing any kind of a good record at all it is often best to reveal it (to get under the protection of ADA). But for most it is a "private" matter which is best kept under their own control to reveal or conceal.
Probably there are many gays and lesbians also who have fairly objective reasons for remaining "in the closet."
Ex-convicts are in a real bind. If they reveal it, they won't get hired. If they don't reveal it, it's grounds for dismissal. A friend's brother ended up with a 199 year prison sentence after first having been fired from two or three jobs when they discovered his prior convictions. He got out after almost 20 years, and is presently working for a priest deep in South Chicago and hoping never to see another white person as long as he lives.
Carrol