protecting the job prospects of Bermudians and ensuring that businesses have sufficient staff to operate efficiently has never been easy.

But there is evidence that the task is getting harder.

A story in today's newspaper reports on the problems that one small restaurant is having getting a dishwasher who will stay on the job and the trouble it got into when it used a non-Bermudian brought into the Island as a commercial cleaner.

There have been other reports as well of problems between non-Bermudians and Bermudians -- notably on construction sites, where the Bermuda Industrial Union alleges that foreign construction workers are being hired in accordance with their home union rules while Bermudians are denied union recognition.

These specific allegations go beyond the anecdotes one hears constantly which either claim that Bermudian employees are unreliable and have a "nine to five-that's not my job description'' mentality, or that non-Bermudians who are less qualified than Bermudians either keep jobs or are brought in to work when a qualified Bermudian applicant is turned down for the same job.

Part of the problem is caused by the fact that the economy is thriving. This means that those Bermudians who want to work can work, leaving gaps in areas where local employment was traditionally easy to secure -- there are no special requirements for dishwashing.

At the same time, there does seem to be some evidence that non-Bermudians are being preferred for some positions, sometimes for good reason but in some cases, to allow a higher-up in a company to preserve their position, safe in the knowledge that their subordinate will be gone in a few years.

But there is also evidence that some Bermudians have a strong sense of entitlement and believe that merely fulfilling the basic requirements of a job entitles them to promotion and preferment.

Even though this does not apply to all Bermudians, all Bermudians can end up being tarred with the same brush, in the same way that the insensitive and unqualified non-Bermudian's reputation damages the image of all non-Bermudians in the workforce.

Bermuda, as long as it has a strong economy, will always need non-Bermudian workers. There are, quite simply, more jobs than there are Bermudians to fill them.

But the damaging anecdotes and groundless claims which circulate among Bermudians and non-Bermudians need to be stopped.

Bermuda, with notable exceptions, still tends to work as one from nine to five and then people go their separate ways -- black Bermudians congregating with black Bermudians, white Bermudians with white Bermudians and expatriates with expatriates.

Making a greater effort on all sides to get to know each other as people -- not superiors or subordinates -- would go a long way to destroying the stereotypes which do so much to separate us.

To be sure, Bermuda is made up of many different cultures and not everyone feels comfortable moving from one to another. But Bermuda should celebrate its diversity take the best that all its cultures have to offer, instead of dwelling on the worst.