As a verb, to hire means to give someone a job or to pay to use something for a period of time. As a noun, a hire is a person who has been newly employed.
From Old English “hyrian,” meaning “to employ, pay for service,” related to Old High German “hūren,” to hire. The idea of paying for labor or temporary use has remained steady over time.
Every hire is a bet: the employer gambles money and trust on a person’s future behavior. Language even shows this risk—companies talk about “bad hires” and “great hires” as if they were lucky or unlucky draws. The word quietly reminds you that getting a job is as much about fit and timing as pure skill.
Hiring practices have historically excluded women and gender minorities from many professions and leadership roles, often justified by biased assumptions about competence or ‘fit.’ Language around who to ‘hire’ has sometimes encoded these biases as neutral business decisions.
Use ‘hire’ with attention to fairness; avoid gendered assumptions (e.g., about leadership style or family status) and emphasize criteria-based, bias-aware selection.
["recruit","employ","bring on","appoint"]
When discussing hiring, highlight research and activism—often led by women and marginalized groups—that exposed discriminatory practices and developed fairer recruitment methods.
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