In a few weeks, the National Football League owners are going to consider a proposed rule governing the use of the “N”-word during a football game. If the rule goes into effect, any team with a player who uses the “N”-word during a game, will be assessed a 15-yard penalty.…
Just a reminder that some managers still engage in really stupid behavior. I was reading this case about an HR Manager of a dentistry practice. Following an interview between a dentist in her practice and an African-American woman, the dentist allegedly commented to the HR Manager that the person would…
“My ears are burning…” No, not you, Bill Clinton. And not you either, Homer Simpson. I’m talking about this dude who worked as an EMT up in Pittsburgh. He was accused of grabbing his co-worker by the buttocks and placing his fingers very close to her private area. (I’d be…
On MLK Day, with a few of my co-workers and my four-year-old son, I performed community service. We went to a local center and spent a few hours making peanut butter sandwiches to feed the homeless. Actually, we spent a half-hour or so making sandwiches. Most of us spent the…
That may be sugar coating it a bit. A county employee, who applied for a lateral transfer, and ultimately received that transfer, was able to convince two judges on a federal appellate court that the transfer was discriminatory. That’s right. An employee may have a discrimination claim for receiving the…
According to a recent study soon to appear in the Journal of Management, not only is Facebook a horrible predictor of how younger recruits will perform for your business — there is absolutely zero correlation between Facebook activity and job performance — but those who rely upon Facebook to help…
Back in September, 2013, I blogged here about a NY jury finding that a black plaintiff called the n-word — by her black boss — had been subjected to race discrimination. Actually, her boss called her the n-word eight times! “Well, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, that’s 103 fewer…
Yeah, I know. Shocker, right? A prison guard for the Arkansas Department of Corrections drove 27 work-release inmates in a van to a parking lot next to a fried chicken joint. Rather than hit the drive thru, the prison guard left the 27 criminals in the van and went inside…
It’s a story that first made news over the weekend and is quickly picking up steam, ironically, because of social media. A customer at a Tennessee Red Lobster restaurant allegedly left a racist message on a receipt. An African American waitress subsequently posted the receipt to Facebook with the message: “This…
A black employee who claimed that her boss, also black, called her the n-word eight times, had her day in court recently, as she put her race discrimination claims to a federal jury. The defense argued that the use of the n-word here was culturally acceptable because both the “victim”…