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More Than Ever, Employees Want a Say in How Their Companies Are Run (qz.com)
Two readers share a report: While workers have traditionally looked to unions to address their grievances, a new generation is trusting in the power of petitions to force changes. At the Wall Street Journal, 160 reporters and editors, delivered a letter to their managers protesting the lack of women and minorities running the organization, Business Insider reported yesterday. "Nearly all the people at high levels at the paper deciding what we cover and how are white men," the letter read. IBM employees are circulating an online petition objecting to the tone of CEO Ginni Rometty's letter to US president Donald Trump, and calling on her affirm what they call the company's progressive values. [...] Other employee petitions call for Oracle to oppose US president Donald Trump's second travel ban, and to let men who work at US regional supermarket Publix grow beards. Employee petitions are now so popular there's a website, coworker.org, devoted to hosting them. In some cases, the campaigns work: Starbuck's relaxed its rules about visible tattoos and unnatural hair color for baristas after thousands signed petitions asking for a change. Sometimes, they fail disastrously. Interns at one (unnamed) company described in a blog about being fired en masse after signing a petition asking for a more relaxed dress code.
there are zero barriers for entry in the workforce today. this push for diversity for nothing other than the sake of diversity is pointless.
the best person for the job regardless of race or gender is how it should be, nothing else.
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
We need to build a wall and keep all the females out until they can be throughly vetted. Over 50% of the poeple living in this country are female, did you know that? That's MILLIONS. We have to put a stop to this until we cn figre out WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON.
Someone had to do it.
I'm convinced that these petitions will be at least as effective as the ones posted on whitehouse.gov.
I'd like to be on the female side of the wall please. You know, so I can help figure out what's going on.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
The workers think they have an opinion that matters.
The current American culture gives absolutely no shits what workers think, only that they show up and do what it says on the tin.
You want to have an opinion? Fight for it. Walk out. Organize. Use the tools that are available to you, not spineless open letters that only provide the status quo with targets to aim at.
And, btw, when you have that opinion, don't give it up. Remind everybody that you fought hard for the right to have a voice, as opposed to workers in the 70s, 80s, and 90s that happily gave up their ability to affect change.
That intern was taught an invaluable business lesson.
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
Why not club together with your fellow employees to collectively purchase stock in the company that you work for? That way, you can force issues at the board level when management comes up for re-election.
We're sorry, but North Carolina will have to see your birth certificate, please.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
They also promote the image the company wants to project publicly in many cases.
I hate the dress codes too, but they can be there for a reason.
I was at a place that started out having all men wear ties, women were dresses, or if in pants they had to be pretty formal looking.
After a few years there, they relaxed the dress codes to much more casual when in the work place when not meeting or being seen by customers.
But if we had to meet with customers or they were coming into our building, we had to go back to ties and formal looks those days.
And hell, for the times it is for conformity, I'd think the snowflake generation would be used to wearing the "school uniform"...don't most public and private schools today require uniforms?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I don't know where in the US you are located, but where I live, pretty much all the public schools require uniforms, it was put in to keep the poor kids from feeling bad next to the better dressed wealthier kids.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
http://dilbert.com/strip/2017-03-29
You're missing the boat. The lazy slacker is the most efficient employee you can have. He'll find a way to get the job done in a quarter of the time and a tenth of the cost- just so he can goof off the rest of the day.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
1. Dress codes (outside of safety) have little to do with working hard and more to do with enforcing unnecessary conformity.
If you're an employee who deals with customers then suck it up. Your employer has every right to demand you dress appropriately, else you could be costing them business. Don't like it?...gtfo. Our office has a business casual dress code...don't come in wearing shorts or flip flops. If you want to be a slob, go somewhere else.
I've also had occasion to ask HR to talk to a female employee about her exposing a bit too much...every day. I'm no Puritan, but sheesh, the office isn't a place to share your cleavage, or wear skirts that expose your panties.
Just another day in Paradise
It is a cultural problem. A problem you've illustrated quite well. Why does a tie imply professionalism? Why not focus on how efficient your employees are and the accomplishments of your company instead of associating it with arbitrary fashion? This applies to your customers as well. I realize you're bowing to pragmatic reality, but fashion obsession is anything but professional (unless of course you work in the fashion biz).