Racial Discrimination: Black Employee Fired After Being Called the N-Word

Racial names do not justify slapping customer. A white customer suspected of shoplifting was escorted to a security area for questioning. The customer’s white friend then barged into the area, cursing at the store employees, one of whom was Black. She used the N-word toward the Black store employee, who reacted by slapping the verbally abusive customer in the face.

The police were called and both customers were arrested. The store then fired the employee for having slapped the customer, in violation of its no-violence policy and no-physical-contact-with-customers policy. The fired employee filed a Title VII race-discrimination case, alleging that Kmart was promoting a racially hostile environment and “ratifying hate speech” by firing the victim of harassment. The court ruled against the employee. The customer’s behavior was clearly harassing and improper. However, the store took prompt action to have the police remove the offender. The company had policies on how to deal with customers for these situations and how to raise complaints without escalating a situation. Slapping a customer was against policy and not warranted by a verbal situation. The employee’s escalation to the physical level was unwarranted and justified discharge. Lee v. Kmart Corp. (D. Minn., 2012).  For more on the discrimination and the N-word, read NBA Star John Amaechi: Hate Speech Goes Beyond N- and F-Words.

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Employment discrimination suit heard in Superior Court

A former employee of the State of Alaska Division of Finance, who claims she was discriminated against, is appealing her case in Juneau Superior Court after her complaint was dismissed.

The 60-something Filipino woman, who declined to be named and who has worked for the division in Juneau for about 25 years, filed a complaint of discrimination against the division, saying it reclassified her position downward in attempt to get her to leave and also passed her over for another job in favor of a younger and less qualified person.

Oral arguments in the case were heard Friday before Judge Philip Pallenberg in Juneau Superior Court, which has the jurisdiction to hear appeals from Alaska Administrative Agencies.

The woman’s attorney Michael P. Nash. told the judge that his client was hired as an accounting clerk in 1984 and worked her way up to an accounting technician. She was tasked with work above her pay grade, such as conducting audits, and, at the urging of her coworkers and a former supervisor, she requested to have her position reclassified to a higher position in 2008.

Nash said that when the state looked into the classification, which determines pay level, the state reclassified her position downward, and the woman was demoted and her salary frozen. She retired early two months later and left in November 2009 to work for the Department of Public Safety.

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5 Reasons to Take Five-Minute Meditation Breaks at Work

1. Meditation increases our memory. A recent study showed that meditating for eight weeks was linked to having a higher density of gray matter, a part of the brain that helps with memory and learning. With all we have to keep in mind during the typical workday, who couldn’t use a little memory boost?

2. Meditation increases our attention span. Having trouble paying concentrating? Try meditating. By practicing keeping your focus on one thing at a time, such as your breath, you improve your ability to pay attention when it really matters, such as during a boring but important meeting.

3. Meditation improves our response to stress and emotion. Studies show that meditation actually changes the way our brain processes emotion, making us more resilient. And that’s not true just during meditation — the effects stay with you long after you’re done. The next time your boss yells at you, it’ll be like water off a duck’s back … well, almost.

4. Meditation gives your brain a true rest. When you take a break from work and go on social media, your brain is reading and analyzing what you’re seeing. This means it never really gets to rest, so when you get back to work you don’t feel refreshed. Meditation allows your brain to rest up so you can perform your best.

5. Meditation improves your cognitive processing. Perhaps because we’re better able to concentrate on what we’re doing and ignore distractions when we’re accustomed to meditating, people who meditate perform better on cognitive tasks. This means you’ll write better reports, come up with better responses in meetings, and do better on just about any project that comes your way.

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Tips in Proper Etiquette When Sending Email Within the Company

Try to utilize appropriate greetings. For business emails, respectful greeting should be used to be able to send across the emotion you are purporting in the mail. A simple ‘good morning’, ‘good afternoon’ or ‘good day’ will be sufficient to show the respect you have for the other person. Even for the co-worker, these starting and ending greetings should be in place to create that positive vibe. After the letter is composed, say ‘thank you’, ‘respectfully’, ‘best regards’ or other appropriate greeting to end the mail.

Use the right level of formality. As what you are making are business emails, uphold the level of formality that is called for. Address the person you are sending the email with ‘Sir’ or ‘Madam’ for those with higher positions. Some companies accept being addressed with a simple ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms.’ before their names. Better ask before sending any electronic mail the right one to use. And do not forget to spell the names correctly as this can be viewed as carelessness on the recipient’s part when names are misspelled. If putting the position of the person, be sure it is the right one.

Check the spelling of all the words. Make sure that all words in the emails are spelled correctly as well. Typos that appear will already come across as emails not to be taken seriously. It may even be something that can turn off the employer for not practicing diligence before sending any email. If you are not sure how a word is spelled ask around from the co-workers or simply search the internet. There are many sources around you to ensure that all the words utilized are exact and accurate.

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Workplace Discrimination: Not Just About Race Anymore

In the last year alone, a court awarded a victim of sexual harassment a record payout ($95 million), the Supreme Court dismissed the biggest civil rights class action suit in U.S. history, and people called discrimination on everything from HIV status to a peanut allergy. The number of workplace discrimination claims concerning race and ethnicity has been increasing along a straight line for the last decade, and total claims grazed a record 100,000 in 2010, the last year for which data is available.

As we observe Martin Luther King Jr. Day, that’s sobering to consider.

“We haven’t achieved anything like the racially just and equal society that MLK envisioned,” says Ralph Richard Banks, a professor at Stanford Law School who specializes in African American issues. But that increase might also be due to more willingness to report incidents, as opposed to shrugging off bigotry, as well more awareness of what amounts to discrimination.

“But at a minimum,” says Derek Avery, a leading scholar in workplace discrimination at the Fox School of Business at Temple University, “those numbers suggest that we’re not heading in the direction that one would anticipate, as we approach 50 years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

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DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION CAUSED BY MENTAL DISORDERS IN THE WORKPLACE

In March 2012 a federal district court held an employer liable fordisability discrimination after it terminated an employee shortly after he had requested a leave of absence to adjust to new medication for bipolar disorder. The court awarded $315,000 to the employee. This case serves as a reminder that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)applies to both mental and physical disabilities.

Under the ADA, an individual has a disability if he/she has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual. A “mental impairment” is defined as “[a]ny mental or psychological disorder, such as . . . emotional or mental illness.” Examples of “emotional or mental illness” include major depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders (which include panic disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders and post-traumatic stress disorders), schizophrenia and personality disorders.

Similar to employees with physical disabilities, employees with mental impairments are entitled to a reasonable accommodation, which may include changes to workplace policies, procedures or practices; leaves of absence; or physical changes to the workplace. In addition, a supervisor may be required to adjust the way he/she interacts with an employee as a reasonable accommodation. Determining whether an accommodation is reasonable is fact specific. Therefore, it is critical that an employer engage in an interactive process to determine if a reasonable accommodation exists.

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Disabled Discrimination in the Workplace

Employees and job applicants with disabilities are legally entitled to the same rights and consideration that workers without disabilities enjoy. Under federal law, an employer cannot consider a person’s disability when making hiring decisions and cannot treat him differently in the workplace because of it. If the employer does, the employee can take legal action.

Legal Definition of Disabled

The Americans With Disabilities Act, passed in 1990, protects job applicants and employees from workplace discrimination based on disability. The law defines a disability as a permanent or chronic injury or medical condition, such as blindness, hearing impairment or mobility issues such as those requiring the use of a wheelchair. Temporary ailments, such as a broken bone or a short-term illness, aren’t covered by these federal anti-discrimination laws. However, a history of illness, such as cancer now in remission, is covered. The law applies not only to obvious disabilities such as physical impairment, but also to less noticeable conditions such as emotional or mental disabilities, including learning disabilities.

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