Can Your Boss Fire You for Wearing a Religious Garment?
According to an article in the San Francisco Examiner, a Muslim woman was fired from her job at Hollister, a clothing retailer owned by Abercrombie and Fitch, for wearing a hijab (Muslim Woman Says She Was Fired for Wearing Hijab. San Franscisco Examiner, 2/25/2010). A hijab is a traditional religious head scarf. The article reports the woman was employed as a part-time stockroom worker at the store's San Mateo, California location and that she spent some time on the sales floor. Apparently higher-ups in the company didn't want her to wear the hijab in public. The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the woman's behalf.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the government agency charged with enforcing all laws that protect us from workplace discrimination based on our race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the law that makes it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or employee, such as the San Mateo woman wearing the hijab, based on religion. The law also prohibits discrimination based on national origin, race, color and sex (including pregnancy). Your boss can fire you for wearing a hijab, but he or she can't do so legally. Religious discrimination in the workplace is illegal and if you experience it either as an employee or as a job applicant you can file a complaint with the EEOC as 3,386 people did in fiscal year 2009 (Charge Statistics: FY 1997 through FY 2009. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).
More: Employment Law and Your Career
Can Your Boss Fire You for Wearing a Religious Garment? originally appeared on About.com Career Planning on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 09:00:04. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Bring Your Child to Work But Don't Let Him Do Your Job
I'm an advocate of exposing kids to a variety of careers as a way of letting them know about the options that will some day be available to them. This is achieved through career days, job shadowing and projects such as Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Sometimes children are even given the opportunity for hands-on experiences. For example, they may get to spend a few minutes behind the camera in a television studio or sit behind the reference desk in a library. Those are pretty innocuous tasks — if something goes wrong, no lives will be seriously affected.
I can think of a few workplaces where hands-on experiences would be totally out-of-place. A child should not have hands-on experience doing surgery, for example, or giving instructions to a pilot from an air traffic control tower. Sound far fetched? Well, the air traffic control tower thing actually happened. A New York air traffic controller brought his son to work with him and let the 10 year old give instructions to pilots departing from JFK, one of the busiest airports in the U.S. The controller and his supervisor, who allegedly allowed this to happen, have both been suspended.
Bring Your Child to Work But Don't Let Him Do Your Job originally appeared on About.com Career Planning on Friday, March 5th, 2010 at 08:45:03. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Resources to Use If Your Unemployment Benefits Run Out
What do you do when your unemployment benefits end? Unless the U.S. Senate's proposals to extend benefits come to fruition within the next few days, millions of people will need to know the answer to this question.
The About.com Guide to Job Search, Alison Doyle, has put together a list of resources to help you survive if your unemployment checks stop. These resources will also be useful to those who find that their benefits don't cover their expenses, as is often the case. Included are government assistance and non-profit and social services agencies. See What to Do When Unemployment Runs Out
More Unemployment Information:
Resources to Use If Your Unemployment Benefits Run Out originally appeared on About.com Career Planning on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 09:58:21. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Weekly Career Profile: Licensed Practical Nurse
A licensed practical nurse (LPN), working under the direction of registered nurses and doctors, cares for patients who are sick, injured, convalescing or disabled. To work as an LPN, sometimes called a licensed vocational nurse or LVN, one must complete a one-year formal training program. These programs are usually offered by vocational and technical schools or community colleges (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition).
If you are thinking about becoming a licensed practical nurse, you should learn more about it. Read Licensed Practical Nurse: Career Information to get some basic details about this occupation, including earnings, job outlook and advancement opportunities. If, after reading this, you are still interested in a future career as an LPN, you should gather even more information. Interview people who work as LPNs. Then take the Should You Become an LPN ? quiz. It can help you determine if this career choice is for you.
Weekly Career Profile: Licensed Practical Nurse originally appeared on About.com Career Planning on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010 at 12:10:35. Permalink | Comment | Email this
Weekly Career Profile: Cosmetologists, Hairdressers and Related Jobs
Hairstylists, hairdressers, shampooers and nail technicians all work in the cosmetology field. Jobs in this field are varied as is training. One may be trained to cut, color and style hair, apply makeup, give manicures and pedicures or even style wigs. If you want to work in the cosmetology field you will probably have to graduate from high school or earn an equivalency diploma first. Then you will have to attend a state-licensed barber or cosmetology school. (Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11 Edition).
If you are thinking about working in cosmetology, you should learn more about it. Read Cosmetologists, Hairdressers and Related Jobs: Career Information to get some basic details about this occupation, including earnings, job outlook and advancement opportunities. If, after reading this article, you are still interested in working as a cosmetologist or hairdresser, you should gather even more information. Interview people who work in this field. Then take the Should You Have a Career in Cosmetology? quiz. It can help you decide if this career choice is for you.
Weekly Career Profile: Cosmetologists, Hairdressers and Related Jobs originally appeared on About.com Career Planning on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 08:00:18. Permalink | Comment | Email this
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