Employees Are Losing A Big Opportunity to Change Work Forever

Hey it's Mark here and welcome to the next edition of the Employee Survival Guide, where I tell you what your employer does not want to know about and a lot more. Today's topic is called employees are losing a big opportunity to change work forever. If you listen, just to wait a moment, you'll hear it the sound of an employer tsunami racing across the country clawing back the work life improvements employees gained during the past two and a half years since the pandemic began. Can employees nationwide let this just happen? Do employees have a say in the matter? This is not a union fix issue is a quote every employee issue. It has a chance to take a stand to expand everyone's rights and possibly eliminate discriminatory behavior. Are we at a pivot point in history to make a lasting change in the workplace? Or is this just another example of the gargantuan power employers have over us all as they roll back the tide? Worse yet, no one really seems to care enough to make the following changes stick for the first time in decades, if not unprecedented. During the pandemic employees have experienced a form of positive social change in the workplace. Employees experience increased job flexibility, remote working, and work life balance brought on by the pandemic. Yes, it worked out just fine and employees were even more productive in comparison to the productivity of office work pre COVID. We all need to collectively thank the role of technology in facilitating this transformation. It was truly a remarkable achievement. Anyone want to get on a zoom call for a few hours? I thought not. According to a recent survey, more than 80% of American workers say the pandemic provided more clarity about their work life goals. And 73% of American workers say they feel they can make positive changes to the work life balance. This sounds like the groundswell of a populace worker movement. And it is and you all feel that same way right now. But employers want to crush it before it takes hold. And I'll explain. New social upheaval and racial tensions caused employers to seek diversity initiatives at every level, including the executive suite. Although I saw a few implement cases of race discrimination caused by ill informed management engaged in cow town marketing to stay on the quote, correct side of the larger social movement. We also saw and now understand that canceled culture is unlawful hate speech and discrimination under federal law, and in many cases, reverse discrimination against white Americans. Any employers and educational institutions who continue to assert or aid and abet canceled culture practices should expect to be sued by quote anyone and, quote, adversely affected by racial practices under federal statute 42 USC 1981 By the way, that's a Reconstructionist statute after the Civil War signed by federal government. We did witness history in 2020, when the Supreme Court declared sexual orientation discrimination unlawful under the title seven on the 1964 Civil Rights Act. In Bostick versus Clayton County, Georgia, the Supreme Court decided to end the bootstrapping claims many had to fight to shoehorn their way under Title Seven definition of sex. The case arose independently of the pandemic. But there may have been a warming up of the human and American spirit amongst the court's majority caused by the pandemic similar to that experience in the aftermath of 911. Employers must follow this ruling to the letter. Up next was a great resignation, where 4.5 million employees quit to obtain better paying positions who could blame these employees for wanting to make more money in the largest capitalistic economy on Earth. For many employees predominantly service workers, the low minimum wage was too small to make a meaningful economic impact on their lives. The increased wage increases caused by jumping ship to a higher hourly rate job helped to raise living standards and an added to the already increased savings rate among majority of American workers resulting from the PPP in EDL loan programs. The federal government and states passed laws for paid family medical leave during the pandemic, easing the financial pressures on employees but not on employers seeking to fill positions and having to pay for those absences. Many of these financial safety net laws remain today post pandemic. Oh wait, I forgot a small improvement. President Biden signed into law the ban on forced arbitration only in sex discrimination cases. This law reversed nearly 97 years of draconian rule under the Federal Arbitration Act. At least with respect to sex discrimination cases, this was the fallout of the me to movement and some nasty internal behavior of Fox News revealed to us by Gretchen Carlson, who was committed to the cause that led to the act. But as dramatic as that news was the darkness left in place by continued forced arbitration. In all other employment discrimination cases is just limitless. After more than two and a half years of remote work, and worker flexibility, employers are now taking back control over you and their workplaces, even if, if remotely, they do not trust you and never have, they eavesdrop on every remote zoom call and laptop via employee monitoring software that is very sophisticated and undetectable. Employers view employees as subservient to their masters in almost every regard. In the private sector, you have no freedom of speech, or freedom of religion, and your employment rights are diminished to a merely at will toss outs when undesirable by the employer. Employers do not have to give you a reason for termination. And that is exactly the rule which covers up so much discriminatory bias in the United States. It is an easy out and frankly, I am shocked BLM supporters and other progressive organizations, such as the NAACP, and ACLU, have yet to pick up this widespread discriminatory tool of choice. How long can these groups bury their heads in the sand, we must end the implement it will rule. Employers want to go back to the same old fear based at will employment of the past. They will fire you unless you come back to the office to use the office space they have rented or built out before the pandemic. For example, Mr. Musk directive at Tesla, ordering all employees to return to work or be fired. In my opinion, this was a quick cheap way to save unemployment benefits by the company and reduce office rents and expenses. And yet another example by Mr. Musk of how companies treat their employees badly. On June 17th 2022, Musk fired at least two employees at SpaceX involved in an internal letter to management. complaining of his public demeanor and behavior was tarnishing the company's image. I cannot imagine many employees of the company feeling much trust in their Savior Musk after this event. Employers continue to place you on performance improvement plans and then fire you. They want to force you into secret secret of arbitration hearings and Jianjun legal fees. They want to enforce the non compete you never negotiated and restrict your ability to earn an income. The pandemic temporarily halted employer efforts to enforce noncompetition agreements due to impossibility of enforcement. No court was going to touch a noncompete case during the pandemic presumptively because jobs and income were sacred. Now that you have been warned about the future, what are you going to do to say the new way of working before it too is cancelled. I have some thoughts I'm working on and I will share them with you soon. If you'd like more information about this podcast, please contact Carey & Associates P.C. on the web at info@capclaw.com. Have a great week. And I'll talk to you soon.