What I Learned Wednesday - You Are How Old?
Join the fun, post what you learned this week, and link up below. The code for the image is located in my sidebar. All I ask is you link back to this post. Oh, and make sure you link to your post and not your blog in general, okay?In my final week in Management Law and Employee Relations we touched on a few more forms of discrimination and the dos and don'ts of employers when dealing with unionization. Interestingly, an employer may not allow antiunion meetings in the workplace, but may send letters to employees' homes.
FMLA [Family Medical Leave Act] covers you taking time off to care for a parent, but not an in-law [mother-in-law or father-in-law]. I did not know this. To some degree I disagree, but do understand the need to draw the line somewhere. I mean, if you take care of your cousin and uncle should you be able to take time off with job protection? What about a second or third generation relation? How many people do you believe would take advantage of this? I am sure many, many people would, while others would not. You know what they say about a few bad apples...
The most interesting bit of discrimination I learned was in regards to age discrimination. Did you know that it only is considered age discrimination if the discriminated party is age 40 or older? To me that seems like a case of age discrimination in and of itself!
When I was 19 I was openly and blatantly discriminated against due to my age. I was a little slow in realizing this was happening, but my boss [then 38] pointed out that I had no case as it was my word against hers and no one would ever believe me. Well, looks like the joke is on her! I did not qualify anyway. That was 19 years ago [WOW, really?] and she probably still is a teller making barely anything in a field where no one respected her. See, she was discriminated against due to her sense of, or lack thereof, style. That and she did not have the proper "look" to work in the fancy smancy Palm Beach office.
What about you? Have you ever felt discriminated against due to your age? What about other reasons? Employers are getting smarter and know how to get around these laws, but you should know your rights and how to stand up for yourself if you feel you or someone you know is being treated unfairly. Know your company's whistleblower policy and if you can file an anonymous complaint through this type of program. But be sure you are being fair in your complaint. Take an honest look at yourself and make sure it is discrimination and not just that you are unqualified or not ready for those other functions. In other words, don't cry wolf! It hurts every legitimate claim when you do!
What have you learned this week? Grab the button from my sidebar, then add a link to your post below using MisterLinky. Not sure how to link up? Leave a comment or send me an email (or both) and I will happily walk you through it.
