Recently in Careers Category

I am glad Dollar Tree stores finally did the right thing. It was a good PR move, but I wonder if customers stopped patronizing their stores in the area, due to their initial decision not to issue death benefits to the family? I had read about this story on a news site just before taking my holiday break. To summarize the story, 26-year old Taneka Talley of Fairfield, California was a Dollar Tree cashier and was attacked and stabbed to death while she was on the job two years ago.

The attacker was white and as you can see she is black, so Dollar Tree refused to pay death benefits to her surviving child...hhhmm, I thought there was more than one child involved, but anyway they labeled it a hate crime and claimed they were not responsible for any compensation.

My recent search revealed they have settled with the family which will help her mother raise her 11 year old son and fund his college education.

SFGate.com:

"In a statement Monday, Dollar Tree said it was acting voluntarily because "we feel this is the right thing to do." But a lawyer for Talley's mother and guardian of her 11-year-old son said the company was clearly responding to the public anger that followed news coverage of the case." READ MORE...

Of the 16,200 U.S. Border Patrol agents only 1 percent are black (150 men, 8 women). We didn't know these jobs existed before? So if you know Spanish or don’t mind learning Spanish (I think this is required for southern border positions. I could be incorrect.), and relocation if required this sounds like a good opportunity for someone looking for a change and stable employment with good benefits.

In addition, after a few years an agent can make about $70,000 a year and a high school diploma is required. If I wasn’t looking for a job, I would seriously consider jumping on this opportunity and look for work in New Hampshire, Vermont, or New York state.

Please pass their website information around to people you know or print out the contact information and spread the word about these U.S. Department of Homeland Security positions. U.S. Border Patrol Careers Info

According to The New York Times:

“The Border Patrol says it has no quota for recruiting blacks, but it says it wants their ranks to be more reflective of the civilian workforce, where they number 11 percent. Hispanics make up the bulk of the agents, 52 percent, a reflection of the agency’s concentration on the heavily Latino Southwestern border. All agents must serve in the Southwest before seeking posts elsewhere, like on the Canadian border.” READ MORE...

The Fort Wayne, Indiana company settled an U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) age, race, and retaliation lawsuit. The company will have to pay total of $580,000 and up to $5,000 in settlement administrative expenses. It doesn’t pay to discriminate, IF you get caught.

According to the EEOC: “Renhill Services, Inc. violated federal law by failing to refer African American applicants and applicants age 40 for work assignments. Further, the EEOC said, Renhill unlawfully retaliated against employees who objected to these referral practices.” READ MORE...

HOW IRONIC? As soon as you click on Renhill's website there is a large image of a BLACK woman on the homepage, then photos of others flash. She's the first face you see.

Jazz musician Wynton Marsalis is featured in two EEOC Anti-Discrimination PSA. Follow the jump to see the video.

I saw this poll in the Sunday Boston Globe which had me thinking. The question:
What, besides salary, do you value most when looking of a job?

Choices:

• Commute
• Workplace/atmosphere
• Employer flexibility
• Good medical and retirement benefits
• Educational and advancement opportunities

I had to juggle retirement benefits with workplace atmosphere, but I could only select one, so I chose good medical and retirement benefits as 2nd choice behind salary.

Follow the jump for poll results.

A group of Boston firefighters is alleged to have cheated on a promotional civil service exam last year. There are reports of test takers going to the bathroom with their cell phones and text messaging answers to other test takers.

People who cheat on these exams are the same types who shoot down affirmative action, and cry that it is a reverse discriminatory practice. On the other hand, this is another example of why affirmative action is necessary-to balance problems like this.

This group may have been caught, but how many others have obtained their promotions, through cheating and other forms of dishonesty? What's sad is, if they are found guilty, it would not be surprising to see them walk away with their pensions intact.

Related Article Officials investigating possible cheating on firefighters exam

I am glad I took the typing class in high school, because if I did not, it would have been a horrendous struggle trying to type assignments for college. I would still be pecking away in frustration or paying people to type my papers. Back then I was never a speed typist. My focus was on accuracy with less emphasis on speed. A 75 wpm typist, I did not aspire to be, so when we had typing tests in the class, I always scored well in the accuracy category. My best effort was about 25-30 wpm error free.

This is one underrated skill, which holds teens and adults back from entry level jobs in customer service call centers, clerical, other positions, and growing a business. It is a skill I would put in the must have category for job preparedness. Take this typing test to see if you have improved since that high school course or have regressed. Typing should be a requirement for high school graduates. Correction, typing can start in kindergarten.

Here are excerpts from a piece Vanessa E. Jones wrote for the Boston Globe on how many black men have to modify the way they act and appear in a mostly white workplace. So much for blending in. Jones writes some of the best articles on black and urban culture. When you get a chance look up some of her work. Her feature stories are of substance, thought provoking, and just simply awesome.

In her Oct 9th Boston Globe article she writes:

"On Fridays, employees at the Boston Architectural College have the option to dress casually. But when Michael James, a director of human resources and diversity at the school, donned denim shorts one recent Friday, his clothing elicited a few comments. One person wasn't used to seeing James dressed so informally, someone else asked him, "What happened?" and another supportively told him to "fight the fight."

The interest in James's attire wasn't based on a pitched battle about what comprises casual dress. James believes the comments reflected the fact that he was a black man who decided to dress down at the office. "Even when we have casual Fridays," says James, 36, "I'm expected to wear a suit and tie."

Like many other black men, James says unspoken rules limit how they interact in predominantly white workplaces. In some cases, they must dress more formally than their co-workers, speak softly, or generally comport themselves in unaggressive ways to counteract stereotypes that paint black men as unintelligent, violent, and dangerous. These biases are based on long-held beliefs about black masculinity and sexuality that grew out of this country's history of slavery and segregation.

In the past, black men had no choice but to succumb to white society's fears and present themselves deferentially. But today a new generation of black men are bringing attention to and trying to change these implied rules of conduct.

As an allocation analyst at TJX Companies Inc. in Framingham for three years, starting in 2000, Wynndell Bishop says he made a conscious decision to speak with a softer voice and present himself in an unaggressive manner. "I would say 60 percent of the division I was in was young white women between the ages of 21 and 28," says Bishop, 28, who received his MBA from Boston College in May. "A lot of those women, to my knowledge, didn't have a lot of interaction with black folks other than what they saw on TV."

James makes accommodations because of his 6-foot-2 height, which, he says, has made people view him as "threatening and menacing even though I'm the most peaceful person out there." He shies away from making declarative statements at work, to prevent himself from appearing too aggressive. "I say, 'What are your thoughts about it?' rather than demanding they do certain things," James says. "I put it out there in a fashion that they feel they have a choice."" READ MORE...