Wednesday, October 2, 2024

Why?

"Jon, why do you post all this stuff about awful things employers do? Aren't you a management-side lawyer and advocate?"

Here's why:

A business refuses to hire Black employees after its CEO writes a note instructing staff not to hire beyond a certain number, claiming they are "lazy."

The owner of a gymnastics training facility makes sexual advances toward female employees and students, some as young as 19, offering money for sex, asking them to recruit other female employees for group sex, and sending sexually explicit text messages.

An auction house manager allows employees to call a Black co-worker the "n-word" as many as 15 times a day.

A hospital rescinds a job offer to an RN after discovering she is deaf.

A fast-food restaurant supervisor harasses transgender employees by asking invasive questions about their genitalia, forbidding them from using restrooms that align with their gender identity, and referring to them as "it."

A property management company fires an employee recovering in the hospital after a C-section due to pregnancy-related complications.

These are just a few examples of the dozens of lawsuits the EEOC has filed in the past few days. These may seem like easy home runs for the agency—like Kyle Schwarber staring down an 85-mile-an-hour meatball right over the heart of the plate. But these are real allegations that the EEOC investigated and found credible enough to pursue.

I write what I write because too many employers still have too much to learn. And I'll keep writing until these lawsuits no longer need to be filed to remind employers of the laws they must follow to ensure their employees are not discriminated against or mistreated. There's still work to do, and I'm going to keep doing it.