discrimination

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Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number, YOLO!!

April 25, 2013 in Business, discrimination, HR Advice, hr fundamentals, HR principles, SHRM by newresource | No comments

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with a jobseeker on her resume and some interview tips. She’s about 60 years old – but she’s sharp as a tack. She’s up on her social media networks, loves to use paypal (so do I by the way) and understands technology very well. She has an IPhone, IPad and a Kindle Fire. It was a pleasure to work with her because she is a lot more current and savvy than many who are 20 years her junior.

It’s a shame really, how fast you can get outdated. Everyone talks about 40 being the new 30, and 30 being the new 20. Everyone wants to be young and live life screaming “YOLO” – You Only Live Once. I guess YOLO equals wild and careless behavior but you have to take care of business too.

Age discrimination is real and it’s just as ugly as any other form of discrimination. Just because someone has silver hair doesn’t mean that they can’t contribute. Working with that client got me to thinking, how many employers are missing out on good people because of age discrimination? The older generation could be a robust workforce for the right company. Many are simply trying to work and contribute without all the games and office politics. It’s a fact older workers are more loyal than younger workers.

I love James Bond movies – In 2012’s “Skyfall” there’s a great scene where Bond meets his new Quartermaster or “Q” who is younger. They have an exchange that conceptualizes Reverse Mentoring very well, Bond makes a quip about Q’s age, to which Q says, “Age is no guarantee of efficiency” and Bond retorts “And youth is no guarantee of innovation.” BRILLIANT. Both are right, and both agree to learn from one another.

Maybe  recruiters and hiring authorities should stop discriminating based on age (and other non-essential qualities) and make sure the candidate meets all the qualifications needed to perform the essential job duties. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, Nepotism and Favoritism is destroying the workforce. Passing out jobs based on friendships and relationships – without being genuinely qualified is far more costly than hiring someone a little older.

Age doesn’t matter – some of the youngest clients I have had are some of the most entitled – they feel that they are owed an opportunity. And some of the older clients just want a chance to show that they still got it. They want to come to work on time, they have had their children and raised their families,  gone on big vacations, and sown their wild oats, now they just want to work quietly and take care of themselves – they don’t play games they understand YOLO and they just want to finish up with respect.

It’s also a great opportunity to explore reverse mentoring, where the younger folks can teach and educate the older folks on something and the older workers can show the younger generation a thing or two. It can work if there’s no judgment involved.

Uhm, so if you missed the point of this article – older workers are better than the younger workers that you covet.

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Words of Wisdom and Life Lessons from Jay-Z

March 27, 2013 in Business, discrimination, Diversity, HR Advice, hr fundamentals, HR principles by newresource | No comments

One day, I noticed my oldest niece was crying, so I asked what was the matter? She said “Nothing, I’m just going through a lot of stuff right now.” My first thought was, “So what, join the club kid.” Then I thought, what could she possibly be going through as a teenager that I wouldn’t understand? So I sat her down for a little talk.

I asked her, “What do you plant flowers in?”

She replied, “Dirt.”

“Right, dirt! What else can you use instead of dirt?”

“I don’t know, soil?”

“Good. And what makes good soil?”

“Hmm, manure?”

“Exactly – manure! And what is manure?”

She laughed…

I told her “In life, you’re going go through some shit. And whatever it is, it’s only going to make you stronger and better, if you learn from it.”

Then I told her, “It’s just getting started!” And she will go through a lot more dirt and manure as she continues on but if she just keeps pushing and fighting, she will learn so much about herself – her strengths – her abilities and she will come out smelling just like a rose.

Ironically, I was reminded of this conversation when I heard Jay-Z say during an interview, “There are no lessons learned from success.” I thought to myself, genius! He’s right. You learn the most from failure. When you go through trials and tribulations you are experiencing life’s greatest lessons. Just about any successful person I’ve known or read about had to go through a storm.

Watch out, here comes a sports analogy!

Michael Jordan’s Nike commercial is legendary where he talks about all the shots he’s missed in his career. We all know about the shots he’s hit and titles he’s won but did you watch him and his Bulls teammates lose to the Detroit Pistons for years? Took him 7 years to win a title, 7 failed attempts, but each time he learned a little more about what it took to be a champ.

There’s a million clichés and examples but the bottom line is this, you are going to have some tough times and difficult situations. It’s called adversity – and it can kill you – if you let it.  But that’s only if you let it. You have to learn how to deal with the issues and work through the hard times.  One thing that we all love about the human experience is a comeback. We love to see someone get knocked down and then lifted back up.

Watch out, here comes more sports analogies!

Think Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and most notably and recently Tiger Woods. he’s number 1 in golf again.

Jay-Z went on to say “that excellence is sustainability” which means the ability to maintain success and relevancy. All of these sports figures worked hard through adversity and even harder once they gained a small amount of success. They never stopped. As hard as it is to be successful, that’s the easy part – staying successful is the hard part. You can get a job, but can you keep it? You can get a house, but … well you get it.

Going through the storms of life, learning tough lessons and working just as hard (if not harder) to maintain your success – who knew Jay-Z was so insightful –sounds like he’s learned a lot from life lessons.

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Eliminating True Intolerance and Sad Sacks (Social Integrity)

November 12, 2012 in Business, discrimination, Diversity, HR Advice, hr fundamentals, HR principles by newresource | No comments

In the summer of 2012 millions of people were outraged by comments from the CEO of the fast food restaurant chain Chick –fil-a. He condemned gay marriage but in the headlines he was labeled as intolerant and hateful. There were demonstrations outside of the restaurants nationwide. I remember reading someone’s article claiming the food tasted better before it was covered in hate. If you thought that was something … well, now there’s this, Diane Helms.

Have you heard of Diane Helms? She is a 22 year old resident of Turlock, CA. After the re-election of President Obama, November 6th 2012, Diane took to social media; Facebook specifically, to voice her displeasure. Diane posted “And another 4 years of this n*gger.  Maybe he will get assassinated this term ..!!”  Diane’s post has since been removed and she is now the focus of an investigation by the Secret Service.

Before you chalk this up to a young person not understanding power and seriousness of social media, let me add that Diane was interviewed by local journalist where she was either defiant or oblivious, I choose believe she is defiant. She said “I didn’t think it was that big of a deal…” “…If it (the president being assassinated) was to happen, I don’t think I’d care a bit” , “…Uhm okay but what did I do wrong…what are they gonna do?” Check the video.

I try to stick to the facts and refrain from any disparate treatment feelings because thanks to that effing O.J. Trial, any time a Black person points out racism, they are labeled as playing the race card, which insinuates race is unfairly being introduced and manipulated into a situation without merit or cause. Sometimes folks it’s NOT a matter of race, but this IS a matter of race.

Diane Helms is racist. Diane Helms is intolerant. Diane Helms is the living definition and personification of a dogmatist bigot. And that’s as simple, pure, plain and NICE as I can say it. She is one sad sack of hate.  (…have I belabored it? GOOD!)

The HR Play

I’m very proud of the way ColdStone Creamery handled the situation. As soon as they were made aware of comments, they fired her. They also released a tweet, “This employer is no longer w/the company & her disgraceful and completely unacceptable comments do not reflect our views.” Kudos to ColdStone, it seems your ice cream maybe covered in a bunch of stuff, but hate isn’t one of them.

There are lessons to be learned here, Leaders (notice I said Leaders, and not bosses) Leaders, talk to your employees about social integrity. Explain to them that they are representatives of your organization within their communities and beyond. Let them know that the things that they do and say can reflect and impact your company both positively and negatively.

You cannot stop social interaction. You can only encourage and promote responsible behavior. By incorporating responsible social interaction through the company’s communication; press releases, tweets and Facebook posting, you are training your employees. Now you can’t stop everyone from behaving badly, no matter how many policies you create however you can take swift corrective action just like Cold Stone Creamery.  In order to take action, you have to be aware, which means you need a corporate social identity.

Make no mistake ladies and gentlemen; you have a Diane Helms in your organization. Your Diane Helms may be racist or maybe they don’t like gays, or whites, or Hispanics or women, or men, or HR. Whatever the case, you have small minded people in every organization which is why as corny and lame as YOU may think it is, you still need sensitivity training. Yes, sensitivity training.  They used to do that  but now it’s seems that after job training the only training employers provide is sexual harassment training which tends to be more of “How to…” than a “How NOT to..” guide.

We need to add some social media questions to the interview process and measure the responses to ensure that the interviewee is at least aware of how important it is to have some sort of decency in their social interactions. Especially in jobs which are in retail, consumer goods and services.  Maybe you should hire a social media team and there is no such thing as an expert in social media because it’s too new, still evolving and changing – so don’t put that (social media expert) on your job description, but hire some social savvy employees to help you learn how to use and engage social technologies. Positively! Responsibly!

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Wells Fargo: A Personal Look

July 16, 2012 in Business, discrimination, Diversity, hr fundamentals, HR principles, Leadership, Performance, SHRM by newresource | No comments

We keep it real here on CostofWork. Like it or not. If that makes you uncomfortable…good!

Recently I wrote an article about unethical treatment and workplace integrity. You can read it <<here>>. Of course unethical treatment continues to be a problem within the workplace. It grabs our attention because we all relate to it; it resonates. For instance, the never ending Penn State child abuse saga, surely, you are aware of that epic ethical failure. But let’s talk about Wells Fargo.

Well Fargo lost a discrimination case levied against them by the Department of Justice for $175 million. It was determined that Wells Fargo financed minority borrowers for higher interest rates and longer terms on their home loans than majority borrowers. That means Wells Fargo effed over blacks and Hispanics. Even if those minorities had good credit and had earned the right and privilege of better terms and financing rates. I hate discrimination, in all its forms.

I wonder if Wells Fargo actually performed an economic analysis and weighed the risk of screwing these folk versus not screwing them and how much they would probably have to pay if they ever got caught. Or if they just decided that predatory lending practices were cool and fit into their organizational integrity. Silly rabbits.

We see the headlines about corporate greed, unethical practices and instances of leadership failure and it becomes entertainment, blog fodder or cautionary tales at best. That’s okay I suppose but sometimes these things really hit home. I have a dear personal friend that works for Wells Fargo or should I say worked for Wells Fargo because as soon as the verdict came down from the DOJ, Wells Fargo announced downsizing. My friend was not a banker or loan officer, she handled administrative duties, but now she’s about to be unemployed by no fault of her own.

When a company gets caught practicing and facilitating unethical behavior, discrimination and unfair business practices, innocent people end up paying the price.

The Crime: Wells Fargo made it a practice (in a recession) to treat minorities unfairly. That cancer spread through-out the organization. They made a lot of money. They probably foreclosed on some of those high interest loans and resold them to other minorities, thus making even more money.

The Punishment: They have to pay $175M to the victims, along with fines and penalties.

The OTHER Victims: In addition to the blacks and Hispanics that got hosed, to cover their loses (cost containment) Wells Fargo has decided to lay off hundreds of employees. I’m guessing that many of them are on the low end of the totem pole.

I was going to add “no one wins” but that’s not true, someone made a fortune and they are in a nice big house chillin’.

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Let’s Get Dirty

June 13, 2012 in Business, discrimination, Diversity, HR Advice, hr fundamentals, HR principles, SHRM by newresource | 3 comments

I like to offer practical advice from time to time. Sure, there are folks with more experience but I have been through a few things myself and sometimes I wished someone had prepared me for the real deal. I often times remember something one of my professors said back in graduate school, like “You will see a difference between what is practiced and what is procedural (In HR)…”  Man was he ever correct.  It takes guts to be in HR. It ain’t no easy “win” for sure. There are going to be times when you’re going to have to get dirty.

Good n’Dirty

We probably need to be featured on “Dirty Jobs” with Mike Rowe because you can get filthy. There are different types of dirt in HR; good dirt and bad dirt. Good dirt falls under the category of analytics and statistics. We need to maintain accurate numbers on things like cost per hire, costs of job posting, EEOC and affirmative action metrics, you know the compliance stuff.  You should also keep a record of salary, sex, race and age figures just to ensure you are not unintentionally violating federal laws. Getting to the bottom of those figures takes time and usually the person in charge neglects them and it gets get to be too much to manage. And if you can’t prove otherwise you leave yourself open to law suit.

Bad Dirt

Then there is bad dirt, we have talked at length about sexual relationships, in appropriate hiring decisions and special favors. The organization and HR is implicit in these acts and unfortunately it takes a major embarrassment like with the former CEO of BEST BUY or former Head Football Coach of the University of Arkansas to get people to do the right thing. These guys didn’t carry on these affairs by themselves, many people enabled in their libidinous behavior. There’s also drug use. Workers are bringing their dirty habits into the office; smoking weed, using pills and even crack…sadly it happens. It’s scary I know, but you will encounter this type of dirt, and my best advice is to remember “The job of HR is to protect the company” and that means you must protect it from itself.

Clean Up

There are tough decisions to be made; people to terminate, layoffs or restructuring.  There are some aspects that we wish we didn’t have to worry about but that’s with any career. I love the fact that by and large we do our jobs (HR) so well that everyone thinks they can do it too. They rely on instinct but we know instincts alone will not make a successful HR practitioner.  You have to know the laws, weigh the pros and cons and get a little dirty sometimes; just don’t wallow in the muck like a slob.

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