Category Archives: equal rights

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then and now (Watch This)

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martin-luther-king21Huffington Post did an outstanding job yesterday on their site with the post “Martin Luther King’s Dream still not a reality” and I suggest you go check it out. As much as we blab that it has, the stats in the above post are very disturbing. But I’m not gonna go in that direction.

This past weekend I happened upon a movie I had never seen called “Hart’s War” with Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Howard and Marcel Iureş which is primarily a prisoner-of-war movie focused squarely on the human condition during wartime, examining the willingness to sacrifice for others and the issue of moral courage under pressure, or lack thereof.

(Bear with me)

The historical setting for the film is December 1944 during the Battle of the Bulge, when the Germans launched a surprisingly successful offensive against American troop positions in Belgium. As the movie begins, Lieutenant Hart is captured by the Germans and is then taken away for interrogation. Hart, a Yale law student who comes from a privileged background, tries to only give his name, rank and serial number to his Nazi interrogator. But Hart is weak and can’t hold up for long under the intense psychological pressure. He caves in and reveals the location of an American fuel dump to the fuel-starved Germans.

This is Hart’s major failing and it haunts him. When he arrives at his assigned POW camp, fellow American officers know right away that Hart cooperated with the Germans due to the brevity of time he spent in interrogation. The American officers in the camp, led by McNamara, decide to shun Hart and place him in a barracks for enlisted men.

Hart gets along OK with the enlisted men until two new American POWs arrive. They happen to be African American fighter pilots, and are immediately made to feel unwelcome by the all-white prisoners, egged on by deeply prejudiced Sgt. Bedford, played by Cole Hauser.

One thing leads to another and eventually Sgt. Bedford winds up dead. The Germans find one of the African American pilots, Lt. Lincoln Scott, played by Terrence Howard, at the murder scene. Under normal circumstances in the camp, the Germans would simply shoot him on the spot and forego any trial. But here is where the movie changes course radically from other POW flicks. Col. McNamara asks for a trial and then assigns Lt. Hart, a second year law student in civilian life, to defend Lt. Scott. So now we have an interesting courtroom drama combined with the usual tunnel-your-way-out POW tale.

Here is one of the most moving scenes from the trial titled “We Served Our Country” (click photo)

harts war

It’s sad to think that folks had to endure this kind of nonsense, and still do – to this day.

Thank you, Dr. King, for your dream and all you did to fight for your fellowman. May your dream become a reality in every facet of our lives.

The Ultimate gesture of Respect

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I know many of you watched the 20120 Summer Olympics because I saw your gazillion postings on Facebook. I’m good with that. I don’t get into them that much though I loved the opening ceremony with Rowan Atkinson aka Mr. Bean. He cracks me up.

I do, however, watch the Winter Olympics and especially love snowboarding. It’s probably due to the fact that there’s nothing else to do in Chicago in Winter except hibernate. I kid.

While the Summer Olympics shenanigans were going on I had to hear about it from everyone else and one such case was that of Olympian Oscar Pistorius, the first double amputee ever to run track in the Olympics. Here’s a guy who at 11 years of age had his legs amputated and yet has kept the dream of one day running in the Olympics.

Oscar’s dream was to compete against “able-bodied” athletes in the Olympics, and the man also known as “The Blade Runner” was able to do just that in the 2012 Olympics in London.

Not only did Oscar compete in the men’s 400 meters, he qualified for the semi-finals, which was his personal goal.

Let me first say, that before the Olympics I was somewhere, out and about, and overheard a conversation where someone said, “Yeah, but if they let this guy participate in the Olympics, the rest of them are going to feel entitled.” Ok, this burned my butt. What? And this was in America where I heard this statement. Land of the free, home of the brave, equal rights for everyone. I was appalled.

Entitled? Shouldn’t everyone, no matter their circumstance or disability, be entitled?

I love stories of folks, against all odds, fighting their way to the finish line. They inspire me to go beyond what I feel, think or am going through.

You can read more of the back-end of the story HERE and how he had to fight to be allowed to participate. Some agree that he had the right and some don’t.

Though there are still naysayer’s rambling about shoulda, coulda, woulda’s, yet this story has inspired people from all over the world, including fellow runner and World Champion sprinter from Grenada, Kirani James. Watch what he does at the end of the race:

As soon as the race was over, James, who finished first in the heat and is a favorite to win the gold, walked over to Pistorius, and traded nametags with him in the ultimate sign of respect for all he has accomplished. I love that. And when James was asked about this gesture afterward, said:

He’s an inspiration for all of us. What he does takes a lot of courage, just a lot of confidence. He’s very special to our sport. He’s a great individual and it’s time we see him like that and not anything else.

For Oscar, he leaves London having fulfilled a lifelong dream and saying:

“It just felt really magical. If I could predict what it would feel like or imagine beyond my wildest dreams, this was probably 10 times that. To step out in front of a crowd this massive, it’s a mind-blowing experience. I’ve had support in the last couple of days like I have never felt before.”

This is truly a story of perseverance on the part of Oscar, and adding Kirani James’ inspirational gesture, a story of great sportsmanship. It shows great love and respect for humankind. One without barriers.

Isn’t that, not only the Olympic Games, but what life is truly about?

Now, if we could put this into practice with work, home and our everyday lives.

Photo Credit: BeaumontEnterprise

MILF’s (Mother’s I’d Like To Fire) in the Workplace

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Here is a great post from the archives – I think we’ve all dealt with these issues one way or another. Happy Mother’s Day!

I love the new show “Up All Night.” It is witty, relate-able, and down-right silly at times. This episode I watched was a humdinger and this is where the term MILF’s (Mothers I’d Like To FIRE) came from. A simple and creative play on words.

The premise of the show where Christina Applegate plays the assistant to a Talk Show host (Oprah wanna-be) and is a new mother herself who has gone back to work after maternity leave. Her attorney husband has taken leave from his job to be a stay-at-home dad.

The whole episode was about a new hire played by Molly Shannon, a single mom who was a walking disaster at everything she tried doing and who couldn’t get anything done at work because of her constant interruptions with her children. Christina Applegate’s character could not seem to find the balls to fire her, according to the talk show hosts’ wishes, because she too, was a mother dealing with these same issues.

We’ve all dealt with these kinds of employees or been in this position ourselves, where we’ve had to take time off for taking care of our children whether they were ill, taking them to Doctor appointments, the babysitter wigged out on us or whatever. It can be very disrupting to the workplace. Sometimes employees just can’t get a handle on these things and make it work. They quickly become MILF’s.

I’ve seen it and I’m sure you’ve seen it. It ultimately ends badly just as I explained in this previous post: Balancing Work and Family: Oh Pshaw! In the post I share how when I went on maternity leave I received a call from my boss on a conference call with all the other managers and even the President of the Company telling me “I could come back to work, but not in my same position.” I was being demoted. I felt penalized for taking time off to have my kid.

A new Census report shows that even in our 21st Century, some women STILL don’t even have access to paid maternity leave.

Some 51% of working women who had their first birth between 2006 and 2008 received paid leave (either maternity leave, sick leave or vacation). That’s up slightly from 49% between 2001 and 2005 and from just 42% between 1996 and 2000, the Census study found.

Okay, so about 42% of women did have access to unpaid maternity leave.

The likelihood that women will be able to take paid time off to have children varies dramatically with age, education and hours worked. Only 24% of women under age 22 took paid leave compared with 61% of women 25 and older. Full-time workers (56%) were more likely to use paid-leave benefits than part-time workers (21%), and college graduates were more likely to take maternity leave than those with less education.

So, what about the recession? Some companies are cutting back on paid family leave and many employees are losing access to paid leave altogether due to layoffs.

The Census report, which can be found here, also found that:

• About 22% of first time mothers quit their jobs – 16% while they were pregnant and another 6% by 12 weeks after their child’s birth.

• Eight out of 10 mothers who worked during their pregnancy returned to work within a year of their child’s birth to the same employer. About seven out of 10 of these women returned to a job at the same pay, skill level and hours worked per week.

• Some 82% of working women worked within a month of their child’s birth, compared to 73% 20 years ago.

OH, and we haven’t even discussed breastfeeding accommodations – ugh!

So how have you handled these kinds of MILF’s in your world? Or how you turned them into MILF’s of another kind (Mothers I’d Like to Mentor). I’d love to hear.

What NOT to put on your Linked In profile

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Last week, while hanging out over at Google+ I came across this post from a recruiter who basically said, “WTH? Did this guy really post this on his Linked In Update?” Of course I had to go to the profile and check it for myself (It has since been taken down, thank God).

Here is what was posted on his status update:

After I finished yelling and screaming at my screen I of course posted this to Facebook for all my FB friends (a lot of them are in HR and Recruiting). I wanted to gather their opinions (yes, and create a little controversy). I had about 23 comments on this anywhere from “Oh S$#@” to “I wonder how he treats women in the workplace” which were all great responses.

Let me address a few of my concerns:

  1. He doesn’t have his theology correct (for more on this, see my update over at Facebook)
  2. If he is looking for work, he is sure to cut himself off from 90% of HR Managers who are women
  3. Posting your political views and or religious views on your business pages is just.not.smart. (unless, you are running for office or are trying to get a job at a religious institution, and are still iffy)
  4. It is very discriminating and makes you a hatemonger (to say the least – watch out for the hate mail sure to come your way)
  5. He’s an idiot (this is my opinion)

I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on this. Let it fly, …………………………

Building a Leading Diverse People Culture

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Yesterday I had the privilege of sitting in on the session “Building a Leading People Culture – Flexible and Inclusive Work Environments” presented by Jackie Lillie, Midwest sub-area inclusiveness and flexibility leader and Dot Proux, Ernst & Young, LLP – Chicago. These two chicks were way smarter than me and mostly spoke about things over my head but I did get in on a few things about diversity and inclusion. (look for my take on Flex – next week)

Diversity 

Here are a few things I found interesting. The first being “Diversity is strategy.” I’m sure you already knew that as smart as you are, but to me – it made one of my ears go up and I found myself sounding like Scooby-Doo saying “What’s that Scrappy?” I suppose I knew that myself but had never heard anyone use that word along-side it.

We heard so much about “engagement” this past week but I liked hearing it from the diversity end when I heard “If people feel included they will be engaged.” And that is so true.

If we could somehow do away with all our viewpoints of how we think this world or work place would be so much better if we didn’t have to deal with this particular group of people (be it women, men, blacks, whites, religious, non-religious, gays, non-gays) we could somehow have a mostly drama-free somewhat normal workplace and get rid of our dysfunctional mindset.

I think one of the great points also mentioned that made me really stop and think about the above was that one of the things Dot Proux noticed in her own behavior at work and her feelings against women being in the workforce was this:

“The things we experienced in our childhood or throughout our own life can sometimes cause us to be bias towards hidden things that we have not yet acknowledged.”

This so makes sense – It impacts our decisions even and especially in the workplace and how we engage and relate to our employees.

For instance, she told her own story of when she was 9 years old her mother had to go back into the working world after having been a stay-at-home mom. She explained how this so affected her that she then continued thinking “women shouldn’t work, especially if they have children” into her adult years and into her own practice.

After having been coached on the issues associated with a more diverse strategy at Ernst & Young she realized that she had these viewpoints because of her own experiences and that she needed to put those feelings aside and go forward.

Here are some Initiatives that get to the root of leading with a diverse and inclusive strategy:

  1. Creates Executive accountability to be mentors and champions
  2. Bias education for all levels
  3. We need to teach people to lead inclusively
  4. Increases role models and builds divers leadership teams
  5. It should be embedded in all communication and “people” processes
  6. It challenges our evaluation and development processes for equity
  7. It’s integral to our business operations and growth, which deepens our client relationship
Leverage

Diversity-inclusiveness – really go hand in hand. Diversity is about the mix and inclusivity is about leveraging that mix.

Leveraging diversity through inclusive leadership – is a journey!

I’ll end with these closing high-lights:

*Learn to appreciate differences and attitudes and biases towards (self, others)

*Identify and transform exclusive patterns and behaviors (that you’re not being exclusive)

*Embed and model inclusive practices into the culture (D&I should be looked at in everything you do)

Balls of Steel; Women in a Man’s World

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Several years ago after my divorce I took a position as assistant to the HR/Office Manager with a security company. This was an industry I knew nothing about, but having the executive assistant experience I knew I could perform the tasks with no problem. Here is a post on some craziness I experienced with that position.

This was and is an industry made up mainly of men. After all, working with crazy women is one thing – I thought what the heck. How hard could it be working with men.

After a year or so in the above position I felt I wanted to do something different. The industry certainly was appealing to me and there was an outside sales position available so I thought I would go for it. I wound up getting the promotion with a raise in pay, extra dough in commissions and a chance to get out of that crazy office.

I spent a few weeks in training with the owner of the company and then was sent out on my own to make things happen. I did all the right things from joining the local Chamber of Commerce, to the Real Estate Associations, and even taking in a few after hours networking events and a few Rotary meetings trying to network and get my name out there.

One thing led to another and after a lot of hard work and determination to prove that I could make this thing work, it started paying off. I was making a pretty decent living. I loved having a salary and commission and had always been told I would be a superb sales rep with my outstanding personality (HA). I felt I had found my niche (gosh I hate that word, but it works).

Being the only sales WOMAN at the time, I was extremely competitive with the other salesmen. But what I wasn’t prepared for were the group of guys in the office that were constantly trying to figure out how to steal my leads and keep me from getting the commissions I had worked so hard for.

I remember walking into the office one day, stopping by the water cooler for a cool drink and overhearing a meeting going on in the controllers office. I recognized the voices inside the room to be several of the gentlemen including the controller all dogging me and scheming to thwart my progress and paychecks. I simply knocked on the door, entered in and said, “Excuse me fellas, but if you’re going to be talking about me – shouldn’t I be here to defend myself?” Then I simply sat down and said “proceed.” The look on their faces was priceless. The old “deer in the headlights” look. They didn’t know how to handle that. You know why? Cause I had more balls than they had. I was not about to let them get away with this nonsense. I had just about had enough.

(A little insight about me, I’ve always been one to love confrontation).

It wasn’t but a few months later that I received a call from another local security company who was a major competitor who had been shopping me, studying my sales techniques and made me an offer to jump ship. So I turned in my notice and took my last two weeks of paid vacation. I just simply said I wanted some time to get my life in order after my divorce. After staying home for a month and having some needed surgery I went to work for the other team. Man, they could hardly believe it. I was now their competition – and I loved every minute of it. I also wound up taking them to court for the commissions they tried keeping from me, and we settled out of court.

Moving on: same story, different company. They started me out in commercial sales. The one thing we discussed was that I would get NO call in leads and would have to go out and find my own business. I was cool with that and quite confident I could make it work. And I did. The other salesMEN had every call in lead and I still sold the same if not more, than they did. I pulled my own weight. I figured out a way to form my way in this man’s world of electronics and even paid my own way to CCTV/Fire Alarm training so I could learn more about my trade. I made some really good money over the next several years and was able to do this on my own time, while working out of my home office. I did travel quite a bit, and I loved it.

Sometimes, all good things must end and they wound up phasing out my position and came to me with an offer to continue servicing my current client base but I would have to start coming into the office and working with the women doing paperwork. WHAT? Why were none of the guys asked to do that BS? So I said, let me think about it, took my week of vacation and came back with a resignation. I was forced out. I walked away leaving a sale of 150,000 – 250,000 on the table.

All in all, it was great experience for me and I made some fabulous mulah along the way, which was totally cool being a single mother. It helped. I wouldn’t trade those years for anything. Even the bull-shit I had to put up.

Sometimes we have to play the game, that’s a given. But sometimes, standing up for yourself is worth more than all the money in the world.

Here’s a picture of me on a job site.