Freedom

During these unprecedented times, what does freedom mean to each of us individually and collectively? It’s a question worth contemplating this week as we celebrate July 4^th in ways that will be different from prior year celebrations.

I started thinking about this blog over a month ago. In that time, so much has changed. This may be a good time to reflect on recent events and freedom.

COVID-19. Starting in March 2020 and into early May, much of the country was confined because of the virus.  Businesses closed. Stay at home and wear masks in public orders were issued. Some of these directives were met with verbal protests about restrictions of freedom and civil rights. 

One letter I read proclaimed that freedom is freedom no matter what we are facing and criticized the directives to wear masks declaring that somehow her freedom was being withdrawn.  Her letter was more a rant than a compelling, persuasive argument. Did the writer consider that along with freedom comes responsibility? One person’s freedom ends when it impinges on another’s right. The commentator’s choice not to wear a mask encroaches on other people’s right to be safe from a public health risk—one like we’ve never seen before. 

Black Lives Matter. How silly all of this rhetoric about restrictions of freedom and civil rights over wearing masks sounded a few short weeks later when George Floyd was killed on May 25, and the country erupted in protest over systemic discrimination against African American citizens.  The protesters represented a wide diversity of American citizens: diversity in age, race, ethnicity, socio-economic status, occupation, and the list goes on.  

Juneteenth, celebrated on June 19, commemorates the proclamation on June 19, 1865, that slaves in Texas were free. President Lincoln had officially outlawed slavery in Texas and the other states in rebellion against the Union almost two and a half years earlier. A little-known holiday likely until this year, it enjoyed nation-wide attention and celebration. A quote in one article I read said that for African Americans, Juneteenth was their independence day—they weren’t free on July 4, 1776. Now there is a call to make Juneteenth a national holiday.

LGBTQ+. Five days before Juneteenth, on June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, stating that: “An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex.” Employment discrimination against someone because of their sexual orientation or transgender status is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Law’s prohibition against discrimination because of sex.   

Will protests, demonstrations, national holidays, and Supreme Court decisions eliminate bias and discrimination?  No.  Have these events raised our collective awareness? I would like to think that we are finally realizing that the freedoms some of us enjoy are not, and have not been, equally enjoyed by all. This is a good week to reflect on that. Consider what you can do and what you will do.

#KuToo

You may have read recently about the protest in Japan. Women are protesting, no revolting, against the requirement that they wear high heels to work, claiming it’s gender discrimination. Japan’s Health, Labour and Welfare Minister, Takumi Nemoto, a man, claims, “It is socially accepted as something that falls within the realm of being occupationally necessary and appropriate.”  Well, I respectfully disagree.

When I heard a news clip on the radio about the #KuToo movement, a play on the words for shoes and agony, I thought of something I read in a career advice column earlier in the year.

The advice seeker wrote that her company requires professional office attire and for women that means high heels. She’d been diagnosed with back pain and told by her doctor to wear flats.  Her boss called her out for wearing casual shoes. She wanted to know if the boss could dictate what she wore.

Well, both columnists who responded totally missed the mark. She talked about employment-at-will, securing doctors notes and eliciting advice from the boss. He did an on-line search of women’s shoes where he found 25 types of women’s heels, and talked about a shopping trip with his wife for women’s shoes.

While Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 doesn’t specify manner of dress as a protection, there are state and local non-discrimination laws that do. And without checking with an employment attorney, I’d venture an opinion that requiring women to where a certain style of shoes, while not making the same demands on men, is likely sex discrimination under Title VII – or close to it.

The advice seeker didn’t elaborate on the nature of her back pain, but its root cause could be covered by the Americans with Disability Act.  Her employer could be flirting with yet another claim of discrimination.

Dress codes are tricky. Indeed, we struggled with how to talk about “questionable” workplace dress in our next book about the dynamics of workplace behavior.  Yes, employers should have the expectation their team members – male and female – will dress in a manner that’s professional, acceptable and appropriate for the organization’s business. In certain occupations, those that are safety related for example, requirements for certain manner of dress, including shoes, is certainly reasonable.  But mandating that high heels is the only acceptable foot ware for women, is not.

In The Manager’s Answer Book, we talk about recognizing other legal pitfalls in Section 7. We’d be delighted if you’d purchase a copy and check it out. https://tinyurl.com/y8umaqpz