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Category Archives: Jobs/Employment

White’s only Clubhouse in Sacramento?

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A white only clubhouse in racially diverse Sacramento?

 

White co-workers allegedly used cardboard boxes to build a protective fort around their desks

 

 

Teshawn Solomon said, a manager repeatedly called him Nigger AND built a clubhouse out of cardboard boxes around his and other employees desks with the words “White Only” spray painted on the boxes.

In an article in the Sacramento Bee, Solomon said he reported the harassment to a regional manager, showing him photo of the clubhouse and no action was taken.   He resigned after making the complaint because he felt there was nowhere he could turn for relief from the hostile workplace .

A second man, Jason Flick who is Caucasian, joined Teshawn Solomon lawsuit against.  Flick, alleging racial harassment by workers and managers at Vivint Solar’s Sacramento.    Vivint, is a publicly traded home automation and energy company based in Utah.

Flick said  Solomon was “consistently singled out for racial discrimination and harassment by his predominantly Caucasian co-workers and supervisors.”  He said Solomon was frequently called Nigger.     He said he was told to  scrutinize Solomon’s time cards extra carefully.

The Flick lawsuit also mentions the “White only” fort, which “disgusted and distressed” He took photos of the fort and shared them with Solomon.   Flick resigned in March because he “could no longer tolerate the toxic, hostile, racist work environment.   When he applied for unemployment benefits, Flick included the photos of the fort in his application, which he believes were shared with Vivint’s human resources office, the suit said.

Vivint CEO David Bywater in released a statement on Wednesday(before Flick’s was filed)  saying his executive team first learned of the racial harassment allegations when Solomon filed suit earlier this week. Bywater said the company conducted an internal investigation that resulted in the termination of one employee and disciplinary action for several others.

“The disturbing experience described by our former employee does not reflect the values or culture of Vivint Solar and stands in direct contradiction to our core values as a company,” Bywater said.   He believes the racial harassment allegations are an “isolated incident,” and disputed some of Solomon’s lawsuit.

 

According to a lawsuit filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, a supervisor with Vivint Solar built a "White only" clubhouse out of cardboard boxes inside the company's Natomas warehouse. An African American employee is suing for racial harassment and discrimination.

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Are you being ‘GASLIGHTED’? The subtle red flags you’re being emotionally manipulated in the office, at home or in your relationship

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GASLIGHTING, is a term to describe people who emotionally abuse others

They can distort your mind by planting seeds of self-doubt without you knowing

behavioral expert Grazina Fechner reveals the warning signs

By:Cindy Tran/Daily Mail Australia

To the outside world, they lead a seemingly happy life.But behind closed doors, they can deliberately distort your mind by planting seeds of self-doubt without you even knowing.

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Meet ‘gaslighters’ – a term to describe people who emotionally abuse others with such conviction and confidence that the victim starts to feel uncertain themselves.

So given they can manipulate people so subtly, how easy can you spot one?

Here, Sydney‘s behavioural expert Grazina Fechner reveals the warning signs to help you identify whether you’re a victim of gaslighting.
'Gaslighters is a term to describe people who emotionally abuse others with such conviction and confidence that the victim starts to feel uncertain themselves (stock image)

Gaslighters is a term to describe people who emotionally abuse others with such conviction and confidence that the victim starts to feel uncertain themselves (stock image)

‘In the whole gaslighting arena, you generally think you’re going crazy. It’s the emotional abuse, thinking you’re going crazy and lack of control,’ she told The Morning Show.

‘There’s lots of different ways to spot a gaslighter – everything from you starting to doubt yourself, so straight away, you’re on the back foot all the time.

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How to Spot A Gaslighter

Always Lying

Correcting Your Memory

Calls You Crazy

Plant seeds of self-doubt

There mistakes becomes yours

‘They’re always lying and they’re correcting your memory – so what will happen is, you’ll say “no, I didn’t do that” but they’ll say “yes, you did, that’s exactly what happened”. They’ll call you crazy, so often you’ll sit there and go “far out, maybe I am going crazy”.

And their mistakes often become yours. So when they’ve made the mistake, they’ll bring it back to you and say “you know what, that was all about you, nothing to do with me”.’

Describing their behaviour, Ms Fechner said gaslighers have a ‘fake little persona’.

Sydney's behavioural expert Grazina Fechner (pictured) reveals the warning signs to help you identify whether you're a victim of gaslighting

Sydney’s behavioural expert Grazina Fechner (pictured) reveals the warning signs to help you identify whether you’re a victim of gaslighting

Behind closed doors, they can deliberately distort your mind by planting seeds of self-doubt without you even knowing (stock image)
Behind closed doors, they can deliberately distort your mind by planting seeds of self-doubt without you even knowing (stock image)

‘So to the outside world, they live this glamorous life, and they are the perfect husband, the perfect father and the perfect employer,’ she explained.

‘They feed off drama, so they love drama. They have that “perfect” image, they rationalise everything, they always think they’re right, and they stay in control.’

‘When they can manipulate and when they can emotionally abuse, that means they have control over you… It’s in various situations and they are very good at doing it.’

And it’s not just couples who are suffering emotionally. Ms Fechner said employers can also gaslight by shifting the blame onto you after they made a mistake at work.

She said mother-in-laws or family members are also good at gaslighting – but when they are with their friends, they have a different persona because they know they don’t have control over them.

Having a rough time finding work? or keeping work. Could it be da Ganja? da Weed? da marijuana?

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The US unemployment rate is currently 4.2 percent.  It a very good time for those looking for work?

Are you filling out applications, sending resumes and not getting a call after the interview?

Do you smoke? 

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You may have an Epic resume with stellar references and a Oscar winning smile.  .  An oder can undo the best resume, even with an Oscar winning smile.  That oder could be too much perfume, and over powering body spray and Hygiene.

Occasionally an  interviewer MIGHT suggest the applicant use  less or no cologne or a body spray.  However an applicant smelling of alcohol or marijuana will likely hear, “thank you for applying, we are reviewing several applicants “

Heartbreak: You got the job.  You’ve been working there for several weeks  You love every one there and seem to  get along with everyone and one day without warning or discussion, your let go.

The Nose knows.  You smoked a little weed on the way to work.   Marijuana isn’t any different then any other smoke.  It gets in your hair, your clothes, and perminates your skin.  Like a person who smokes tobacco, the smoker doesn’t smell a thing however non smokers can.  That tobacco or ganja may be front and center during your interview.  Front and center in the workplace.

If you the new guy,  and if you seem to be smiling more than normal your supervisor may walk by or start a random conversation.   If they detect  ganja or alcohol after the first meeting you may be subject to further scrutiny.  If your task include driving, customer service or working with machinery may be viewed as a liability particularly if the Oder is brought to the attention of a manager or supervisors.

 After a few passes within the your first few weeks with the company , a drug test isn’t needed . The company can simply let you go . In most states, your not eligible for unemployment insurance if you have worked less than 90 to 120 days.

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Recreational Marijuana is Legal in my State!

Lets’s dispel with some of the myths.  While it is legal in many states to smoke ganja. Employer can legally fire you for using at work or before work. Not any different from anyone  who drinks on the jobs or coming to work impaired from a Sunday of beer.   They can demand a drug test and terminate you for having it in your system.

What if? 

You were using it for Medical purposes?  

If you think the card you bought at the dispensary will do it? Slap yourself  hard three times.

In 2016, a federal district court in California reaffirmed that an employer, in this case Kohl’s department store, maintains the right to discipline employees even where the marijuana use is recommended by a physician: “It does not violate [California’s laws against workplace discrimination] to terminate an employee based on their use of marijuana, regardless of why they use it,” the ruling said.

I’m not stupid, I would never smoke at work, can they still test me?  

The simple answer is yes: An employer can fire you if weed is found in your system. Doesn’t matter if its in Colorado or Oregon

In 2010, Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic.,was fired from Dish in Colorado after a random drug test. He worked for Dish for three years and smoked at home to help control seizures. In 2015, the Colorado Supreme court says the employee was not protected under the state’s “lawful activities statute.”

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There are a few thing happening here.  Marijuana does impair people from doing many functions.   You may have had a bud an hour before work, and while you may think your in control others around you may not.  A salesman lost a million dollar account because the client said he entered his office smelling like pot and acting funny (smiling).    Yes attitudes toward weed has changed, and at one point small amounts will be legal in all 50 states.

Many professional progressives who support legal marijuana ,are against marijuana in the workplace.  No more that someone smelling of alcohol. 

Showing up smelling of marijuana at an interview with a non smoker can almost guarantee you will not get a follow up interview.

Showing up at the workplace, smelling of marijuana could lead to a random drug test and termination.

Be Smart

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I

Don’t smoke weed, ganja, marijuana, in your car.  Its get into your headliner, carpet, seats and on to your clothes.   If you have smoked in your car have it deep cleaned and from that day forward make it a non smoking car. 

Don’t smoke in the same room as your clothes.

If you normally smoke before work, smoke before taking a shower.

Don’t smoke on your lunch break

If your communing with a smoker, consider alternative transportation.  Your not a criminal, your simply trying not to bring undue attention to yourself by way of smell and demeanor  and keep your job.

Remember just because no one has asked you to do a random drug test, doesn’t mean it wont happen one day so be smart.

 

CityFella

 

 

 

THAT GOOGLE MANIFESTO REALLY PUT EXECUTIVES IN A BIND (Google and Women)

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By: Nitasha Tiku/Wired

A GOOGLE EMPLOYEE’S screed against workplace diversity thrust company executives into a tight spot: Discipline the author and risk criticism that Google is censoring speech, or stand by and inflame concerns that the company does not welcome women, an issue that is already the source of internal debate and a government investigation.

The 10-page missive was posted on an internal discussion board and went viral inside, and outside, the company Friday and Saturday. The document cited purported principles of evolutionary psychology to argue that women make up only 20 percent of Google’s technical staff because they are more interested in people rather than ideas, which the author considers an obstacle to being a good engineer. The author, James Damore, said Google’s liberal leanings and emphasis on training around “unconscious bias” have created an ideological echo chamber that make it difficult to discuss these issues openly inside the company.

Late Monday, Damore told Breitbart that he had been fired. (He confirmed this to WIRED, saying he was “fired for ‘perpetuating gender stereotypes.'”) Also Monday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees that the missive’s author had violated the company’s Code of Conduct, a Google spokesman confirms. In a memo first reported by Recode, Pichai said the author had crossed “the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace.”

The post sparked an internal and external uproar, with many Google employees shedding their traditional deference to the company’s confidentiality agreement to criticize the memo, and their employer, on social media.

Google’s new vice president of diversity and inclusion posted a response late Saturday that underscored the internal tension. “Like many of you, I found that (the post) advanced incorrect assumptions about gender,” wrote Danielle Brown, in a company-wide memo first reported by Gizmodo. At the same time, she added, “building an open, inclusive environment means fostering a culture in which those with alternative views, including different political views, feel safe sharing their opinions.”

Nicole Sanchez, the recently departed head of diversity at GitHub, understands the tension. “I guarantee this is the struggle they have inside the company: people who want to come out really strong against this manifesto and say there isn’t a place for this at Google,” she tells WIRED, while still maintaining “that an opinion shouldn’t jeopardize your job.”

“How do we ride that line that by law you are entitled to your opinions and write whatever you want but the culture we are trying to build does not support these ideas?” says Sanchez. “What you end up getting when something finally comes out is a such a compromise, a Frankenstein monster of a statement. Everyone got what they wanted and no one got everything they wanted.”

The controversial memo landed amid national debates over the limits of free speech and tensions within Silicon Valley over the role of women in tech companies, where most engineers, and top executives, are men. Speeches by political conservatives have been disrupted or blocked on many campuses. At the same time, several prominent venture capitalists have resigned their posts in recent months, following allegations that they harassed employees or entrepreneurs seeking funding. Google itself is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Labor, which says it has found evidence of a gender gap in pay.

The post also drew some supportive comments on discussion boards for Google employees, underscoring that executives may alienate significant numbers of employees – and users – no matter what their response.

Before the firing, activists said Google’s response to the memo would demonstrate the company’s commitment to diversity. “Google can claim they value inclusion but this is a test of whether or not their values actually have any teeth,” Erica Baker, a former Google employee and cofounder of Project Include, told WIRED. “If they choose not to take measure against someone who has gone out of their way to make a large percentage of their coworkers feel excluded, then their inaction will speak much more loudly than their words have.”

Elizabeth Ames, the senior vice president of marketing, alliances, and programs at the Anita Borg Institute, which aims to advance women in technology, said tech companies historically have been reluctant to fire bad actors. “For years whenever anybody stepped forward with sexual harassment allegations, did anybody get fired? Not so much. Now we’re seeing at least some people held to account,” says Ames. She believed the author should have been fired for creating a “very divisive issue” inside the company.

In the memo, Damore took particular aim at Google’s recent emphasis on unconscious bias training, effectively claiming that hiring women and minorities is lowering the bar and he should be free to say that.

Even some Google employees who support the company’s diversity efforts wonder whether the company’s internal documents may have emboldened the memo’s author. Tim Chevalier, a Google engineer, says one internal document for reviewing prospective hires specifies that Google is not lowering the bar by hiring more women. The comment “came off as defensive and conceding ground,” he says.

UPDATED: 6:36 pm PT, August 7. This story has been updated to include Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s memo to employees. UPDATED: 7:02 pm PT, August 7. This story has been further updated to include Damore’s statement to Breitbart that he has been fired. UPDATED: 8:04 pm PT, August 7. WIRED included Damore’s confirmation that he was fired from Google.

While you were sleeping 45 made it easier for companies to discriminate against Gays and other members of the LGBT Community

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Perhaps he was looking for Ultra Conservative Cred. On Monday, 45 reversed an Executive order put in place in 2014 by then President Obama that prohibited the federal government from contracting with firms that discriminated based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Way, way, waaaay back in January. 45 told LGBT right advocates basically not to worry, he had no plans to rescind this protection.  But that was January.

 

The White House on Monday afternoon released a copy of an executive order signed by President Trump. The order revokes all or part of three previous executive orders concerning federal contracting.

The biggest concern was,,the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces order.  That order required  companies receiving large federal contracts be able to demonstrate that they have complied for at least three years with 14 federal laws, several of which prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender stereotyping, or gender identity.

The 14 affected federal laws and regulations affected by the new Trump executive order also includes Executive Order 11246, signed in 1965 by President Johnson. Executive Order 11246 prohibited federal contractors from discriminating in employment based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Four years later, President Nixon added discrimination based on disability and age. In 1998, President Clinton added sexual orientation. And in 2014, President Obama added gender identity, plus prohibited federal contractors, too, from discriminating against their employees based on these categories.

President Obama’s signing of what was called Executive Order 13672 was hailed by many LGBT activists as protecting “millions” of LGBT workers from discrimination. It applied to companies who sought federal contracts in excess of $500,000.

Companies seeking such contracts had to demonstrate that they had not violated the federal laws listed in the previous three years. And federal agencies could not award contracts to such companies unless the companies were able to “explain mitigating factors.”

By taking away the requirement that federal contractors be able to demonstrate that they have not violated these federal laws, says Camilla Taylor, senior counsel at Lambda Legal, “this administration has made it extremely difficult to enforce these federal laws as applied to federal contractors.”

“It’s sending a message to these companies,” said Taylor, “…that the federal government simply doesn’t care whether or not they violate the law.”

Few people in the states of California, Oregon, Washington, New York and Massachusetts, know in 2017, gay people can lose their jobs for simply being gay.

Keep your eyes open, don’t fall asleep.

CityFella

Robin Hood? Portland Oregon Takes on Income Inequality

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The city council of Portland in Oregon will vote on Wednesday whether to impose a tax on companies whose CEO’s pay exceeds the median salary of their workers by a ratio of more than 100-to-one.

The measure, which was proposed by Portland city commissioner and former environmental lawyer Steve Novick, will take advantage of the fact that new Securities and Exchange Commisson (SEC) rules will require companies to disclose their executive pay ratios for the first time beginning in 2017.

If it passes, experts said the tax would be the first of its kind.

Novick said that he was inspired by a similar measure proposed by the California state senate in 2014, which failed to reach the supermajority needed to make changes to the state tax code. He was also inspired by reading French economist Thomas Piketty’s book Capital.

“To me, after global warming, income inequality is the biggest challenge we face in our society,” Novick said. “It’s been absolutely frightful to see the divide between regular folks and the richest-of-the-rich. It’s economically destabilizing, it’s politically destabilizing, it’s unhealthy.”

The measure could gain support from both sides of the political spectrum. As candidates, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders – diametrically opposed on many issues – both pointed to the “rigged system” that supported the wealthiest one percent as a problem, Novick said.

The disparity between workers’ and CEOs’ pay has been rising sharply since the 1960s, when the average ratio was around 20-1. It now stands at above 200-1.

Novick’s proposal would increase current corporate income taxes by 10% if a company CEO had a salary ratio of above 100-1, and by 25% for CEOs with a ratio of 250-1 or higher.

He said that he was “95% confident” that he had the three votes needed to pass the measure through the five-person council.

“What I find quite interesting is that it seems [to be] the first tax that targets inequality as such,” said Branko Milanović, a former lead economist at the World Bank and a professor at New York University who specializes in income inequality.

For Milanović, the idea was novel because “it treats inequality as having a negative externality like taxing carbon emissions”.

Steve Seelig, a senior regulatory advisor for the corporate risk management advisory firm Willis Towers Watson, said that “this isn’t the first place and won’t be the last place” to try to impose such a scheme.

“Unlike current CEO pay disclosures that don’t really get a lot of attention from the rank-and-file, this one will,” Seelig said, referring to the new SEC disclosure rule. “It’ll be in the local newspapers, talked about at the water cooler, and companies need to be poised to deal with their workforce.”

Seelig said that workers were in some cases likely to go through “the stages of grief” upon finding out how much their CEOs are being paid. “Shock; then when they wake up the next day they’ll be angry, they’ll say how does this affect how much I am paid?”

“That’s going to present a lot of challenges to companies that don’t do a great job of explaining that proposition,” he added. Of Portland’s move, Seelig said that it probably wouldn’t meaningfully affect companies’ bottom lines, but that it was “a matter of raising awareness”.

A Window into the Future? Record number of car buyers ‘upside down’ on trade-ins

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Record number of car buyers ‘upside down’ on trade-ins

BY:Greg Gardiner/Detroit Free Press

The wave of easy credit and longer auto loans has left a record percentage of consumers trading in vehicles that are worth less than what they owe on their loans.

In auto finance parlance, these folks are underwater, or upside down. They already are affecting the market as automakers boost incentives and subprime lenders monitor their delinquency rates more closely.

So far this year, a record 32%, or nearly one-third, of all vehicles offered for trade-ins at U.S. dealerships are in this category, according to research by Edmunds.com. When these people go to buy a new vehicle they must add the difference between their loan balance and the vehicle’s value to the price of the one they want to buy.

For perspective, the lowest the underwater percentage has been was 13.9% in 2009, the depths of the Great Recession when credit was tight. The previous high was 29.2% in 2006, about when the housing market was near its frothiest point.

“There’s been a lot of water building behind this dam for some time because of higher transaction prices, lower down payments and long-term loans,” said Greg McBride, chief analyst with Bankrate.com, a consumer finance information service.

The average new car loan is for 68 months, according to Experian Automotive, which tracks the auto finance market. But subprime borrowers, generally those with FICO credit scores in the low 600s or lower, are borrowing over an average of 72 months, or six years.

While those loans reduce monthly payments, they also mean that the buyer’s equity, or the portion of the loan principal paid off,grows more slowly than the vehicle depreciates.

“It’s problematic for the consumer because there’s no foolproof way to eliminate his financial exposure,” McBride said. “If the car gets stolen, is totaled or you get new car envy while you’re upside down then it’s a big problem.”

This is happening as the average selling price of a new vehicle is near a historic high of about $34,000. Some of that increase is driven by consumers’ preference for larger, fully equipped pickups, SUVs and crossovers.

The result is consumers borrow more to get the vehicle they want. The average new auto loan was $29,880 in the second quarter of this year, according to Experian Automotive. That’s 4.8% higher than a year earlier.

Moreover, leasing, which has reached record levels of more than 30% of all vehicle sales, has grown more popular for several years.

Already, especially in segments such as subcompact, compact and midsize cars, used car values are falling as a wave of 3-year-old models are returned by lessees. This increased supply is pushing down the price dealers are willing to pay for them at auctions.

Just last week, Ford Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks told analysts that the company’s finance arm, Ford Credit, cut its forecast for 2017 pretax profits because of declining auction values for used cars.

Credit agencies, such as Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, so far, have expressed mild concern about the trend. Their focus is on the $38-billion market for securities backed by auto loans. These are bundles of auto loans, similar to the tranches of mortgages that collapsed in the 2008 crash of the housing bubble.

But they are also different. History shows borrowers are more likely to stay current on their car loans than on their house payments if the economy weakens. Lenders can

repossess automobiles more quickly than it takes for mortgage holders to foreclose on a house.

Fitch reported that 60-days-plus delinquencies on subprime auto loans rose to 5.05% in September, the second highest level since 2001, and 13.2% higher than a year earlier.

“When you look at recessionary levels where unemployment was near 10% in 2009 and late 2008, we touched 5.04%,” said Hylton Heard, senior director at Fitch Ratings. “Today you’re pretty much at that peak.”

Fortunately, unemployment is down to 4.9% nationally. Prime borrowers have a 60-day delinquency rate of only 0.44%. Those factors tend to offset the higher risk in the subprime market.

New vehicle sales are expected to continue slightly below their record year-ago levels in November, according to J.D. Power and LMC Automotive.

Yet even their forecast flags some warning signs.

Incentive spending in early November rose to $3,886 per vehicle, up 15% from $3,374 from November 2015 and the second-highest level ever behind the record $3,939 set in September.

“People’s monthly payments are being kept very low by low interest rates that most manufacturers are willing to subsidize,” said Ivan Drury, senior analyst at Edmunds.com. “But if we see those rates go up a bit, some of these people won’t be able to afford their cars.”

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