Hair discrimination; not a thing

Give me a head with hair, long beautiful hair
Shining, gleaming, steaming, flaxen, waxen
Give me down to there hair, shoulder length or longer
Here, baby, there, momma, everywhere, daddy, daddy
Hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair, hair
Flow it, show it, long as God can grow it, my hair

– “Hair”

Friday’s tongue in check post about the beauty of baldness got me thinking about hair and employment law.

Or, more to the point, can an employer run afoul of discrimination laws by making an employment decision based on one’s hairstyle?

WIRTW #503 (the “bald is beautiful” edition)

I need to get something off my chest. An albatross I’ve carried since my teenage years. I’ve been crushed by the weight of success, intelligence, and sheer masculinity.

And now science has finally, and thankfully, provided a rational explanation for my years of pain.

Bald men look more successful, intelligent and masculine — science says 

The 7th nominee for the “worst employer of 2018” is … the pregnancy provoker

Kayla Edwards worked as a cashier for Aramark at its location in Gettysburg National Park.

In February 2017, Edwards became pregnant with her third child.

That’s when her troubles at work began, at least according to Edwards’ lawsuit [pdf] (filed earlier this week in federal court in Pennsylvania).

Nearly half of American workers admit to engaging in workplace revenge

Photo by Avalon_Mists on Pixabay

And every time I scratch my nails
Down someone else’s back I hope you feel it

Alanis Morisette 

Revenge. So natural, and yet so wrong. “Turn the other cheek” is always the preferred practice, and, yet, often life is more “smack you in the cheek” as you turn away.

Even at work.

According to a recent study, 44 percent of workers admit to partaking in some type of workplace revenge.

Maternity leave does not guarantee continued employment

By Grand Parc CC BY 2.0 via Wiki Commons

Michelle Bailey worked in the human resources department of Oakwood Healthcare. During her maternity leave, her immediate supervisor and others assumed her responsibilities, and discovered certain deficiencies in how she performed her job.

Discovery of those deficiencies led the supervisor to review Bailey’s qualifications as set forth in her employment application. That review, in turn, uncovered an application Bailey had submitted for a different position at Oakwood two years earlier. A comparison of Bailey’s two resumés on file lead to the conclusion that Bailey had falsified her later application by exaggerating her prior experience and qualifications.

That discovery, coupled with the performance deficiencies, caused Oakwood to terminate Bailey’s employment upon her return from maternity leave.

DO NOT sacrifice employee safety for productivity

Photo by Milo McDowell on Unsplash

The Verge reports that workers at an Amazon distribution facility are “forced to pee in bottles or forego their bathroom breaks entirely because fulfillment demands are too high.”

While this is horrible, and demeaning, it’s still just employees peeing in bottles. It’s not THAT big of deal? Right?

Wrong.

WIRTW #502 (the “AirTalk” edition)

Earlier this week, the U.S. Senate made history by unanimously changing its rules to permit Senator (and new mom) Tammy Duckworth to bring her newborn onto the Senate floor while she cast votes.

Yesterday, I guested on Los Angles public radio station KPCC’s AirTalk and spoke with Libby Denkmann about what this means for the future of parental leave laws in America, and why we should be ashamed that countries like Iran and Afghanistan do more for their working moms than we do.

Thanks to Libby for the great conversation, and to my friend, Kate Bischoff, for the connection.

You can listen here. The segment starts at 29:50, and my interview starts at 41:30.



Here’s what I read this week: