The e-commerce behemoth Amazon is so keen to fill 50,000 open jobs that it’s holding a series of job fairs across the country. Most of those jobs are in its warehouses and sortation centers, and the problem Amazon is encountering is that the labor market for people who work in warehouses is becoming very competitive. [More]
employment
The Retailer I Work For Just Went Bankrupt. What Are My Rights?
By 5.2.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
The outlook is really, really bad for retailers this year. As many large stores filed for bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2017 alone as in all of 2016, and analysts are concerned that we could see a record number of chains shutter this year. And while it’s bad for consumers to lose a place to shop, it’s worse for workers, who are out of a job — but maybe not entirely out of luck. [More]
Wells Fargo CEO Claims Employees Can Call Ethics Line Without Fear Of Losing Jobs
By 4.19.17
In the six months since Wells Fargo’s fake account fiasco came to light dozens of employees have come forward claiming that their attempts to shed light on other employees’ bad behavior by calling the company’s ethics hotline ended in their termination. But the banking institution’s new executive says that’s no longer a worry. [More]
The Retail Sector Lost 30,000 Jobs Last Month
By 4.7.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
We’ve focused a lot in recent months on the worrisome trend of retail bankruptcies and all the stores and malls being left vacant in their wake. But a new federal jobs report gives an idea of the impact these tough times have had on workers, with nearly 30,000 retail jobs vanishing in March. [More]
Judge: Uber Drivers Aren’t Employees, But Passengers Can Still Sue In Sexual Assault Case
By 5.6.16
Two passengers in different states who were sexually assaulted by Uber drivers are suing the company, and the judge in this case just made an important ruling: drivers’ status as independent contractors rather than employees doesn’t mean that the company can’t be sued for sexual assaults that drivers commit against their passengers. [More]
Target Must Pay $2.8M To Settle Claims Of Unfair Hiring Practices
By 8.24.15
Target Corp. must pay $2.8 million to settle allegations that thousands of people lost out on a chance to be employed by the company because of certain discriminatory pre-employment assessments. [More]
Bill Aims To Stop Employers From Incorrectly Classifying Employees As Independent Contractors
By 7.29.15
In general, an independent contractor or freelancer is a worker who runs their own business but is hired by others for specific purposes and projects. But a growing number of employers have been using the independent contractor label on what had long been considered employees, often with the goal of shedding the cost of contributing to insurance and retirement benefits. A new piece of legislation seeks to make sure that businesses aren’t mislabeling employees as contractors. [More]
Boy Scouts Of America Moves To Lift Nationwide Ban On Gay Adults
By 7.13.15
The Boy Scouts of America Executive Committee announced today that it has adopted a resolution that, if ratified later this month, would lift the organization’s nationwide ban on gay adults working and volunteering with troops. [More]
New Website Seeks To Put Job-Seeking Veterans And Employers Together
By 4.23.14
In an effort to ease the transition from military service to the private sector — and help former servicemembers find jobs that match their skills — the Dept. of Veterans Affairs has launched a new service on its website that it hopes will allow employers to connect directly with veterans looking for work. [More]
How Bad Credit Keeps People Unemployable, And Why It Shouldn’t
By 5.15.13
Here’s the thing with credit histories: it’s easy to fall behind on your bills when you don’t have a job. The reduced income (or total lack of income) really works against you. While half of all companies report that they check the credit reports of at least some prospective employees, there isn’t really any solid evidence that correlates bad credit with being a bad employee. [More]
Amazon Payments Locks Me Out Of Account, Won’t Answer My Calls
By 2.28.13
Ray was looking for a job, but jobs are elusive things and hard to find where he lives. So he turned to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, a service where users can perform small tasks that can’t be automated in return for small amounts of money that eventually add up. [More]
Would You Buy Or Sell Your Vacation Days?
By 2.26.13
In many of my former workplaces, colleagues could donate their vacation, sick, and personal time to others in the office who were themselves ill or who had a serious illness in the family. It’s a program filled of cooperation and kindness. What if you could have more flexibility in your time off, but in a more cravenly capitalist way? This is already the case in 14% of American workplaces, where employees can “buy” additional vacation time if they want it or sell unwanted time back to the company. [More]
Man Quits His Job, Won’t Pay Taxes After Receiving W-2 Number 666
By 2.7.13
If there’s any number that freaks people out in Western culture, it’s 666, the supposed “number of the Beast” in the Bible’s book of Revelations. A Tennessee man who says that he’s been a born-again Christian for a decade was pretty spooked when he received the 666th W-2 earnings statement that his employer had printed. Now he’s quit his job and refuses to pay his taxes until he gets new, Beast-free paperwork. [More]
Study: Almost Half Of College-Educated Workers Overqualified For Their Jobs
By 1.28.13
Do you have a college degree? Do you have a job? You might well be overqualified for whatever it is you’re doing, suggests a new study, as almost half college-educated Americans are apparently in jobs they’re overqualifed for. And the way things are going, that’s how it will be for recent graduates down the line as well. [More]
Job Interview? Your Potential Future Is More Interesting Than Your Past
By 8.31.12
Ready to impress a hiring manager with a list of your past accomplishments? That may be a flawed approach. According to studies conducted by Stanford’s Zakary Tormala and Jayson Jia, and Harvard Business School’s Michael Norton, people prefer potential rather than achievement when evaluating others. [More]
EEOC Investigating Coffee Chain For Alleged 'Hot Chicks Only' Hiring Policy
By 5.29.12
A food-service business that only hires attractive young women for customer-facing jobs? Gasp! Who can imagine such a thing? But that’s what Boston-based chain Marylou’s Coffee has been accused of, and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has taken notice. They’re conducting an investigation to see whether otherwise qualified uglies, oldies, and fatties are being passed over for jobs at Marylou’s. [More]
How Being Too Competent Can Get You Fired
By 4.18.12
Being the weakest performer in the company or performing a service that’s utterly dispensable is dangerous to your continued employment, especially in a weak job market. But working hard and being good at what you do is potentially dangerous as well, especially if your bosses are insecure, paranoid, and just not a good as you are. To people who think this way, having a bright future within the company makes you a threat. Your future endangers theirs. [More]
American Workers Growing More Flexible About Temp Work, Changing Careers
By 1.27.12
With about a half-decade of a blah economy and weak employment, Americans are growing more amenable to taking temporary employment, changing their viewpoint from the glass-half-empty opinion of “it’s a job without permanence” to “it’s a job that may lead to something permanent one day.” [More]
