This is the 500th blog post about job articles.
Mar. 17, 2018 "Tipped workers invoke #MeToo in fight to raise minimum wage": Today I found this article by Deepti Hajela and David Klepper in the Edmonton Journal. This overlaps between my articles about sexual harassment and min. wage:
NEW YORK (AP) — As a waitress, Nadine Morsch was used to having to force an occasional smile for an unpleasant customer. But when a man she was serving made a reference to grabbing her butt, she warned him he better not try. And he made her pay.
For the rest of the hour he was in the diner, she says, he was “running me around as much as possible.”
Morsch says she tolerated him, because she needed a good tip.
Experiences like that are one reason activists are invoking the #MeToo movement in the push for more states to adopt higher minimum wages for tipped workers. They say a wage structure that leaves workers dependent on tips often forces them to put up with harassing and abusive behavior from their customers or risk not being paid.
The effort has been around for years but has taken on new momentum lately with the increased reckoning and awareness of sexual misconduct. Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has called for public hearings; there’s a June ballot question in Washington, D.C., and an effort is underway to get the issue on the statewide ballot in Michigan.
A higher base wage, advocates say, could free tipped workers from the fear of speaking out.
“I wouldn’t have needed to feel like my entire life was in his power,” said Morsch, who now works at a pub in Rochester, New York.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are about 2 million people working as restaurant servers in the United States, about 70 percent of them women.
Currently, the federal government allows workers who get tipped, such as servers and bartenders, to be paid as little as $2.13 per hour if they make at least $7.25 per hour with tips included.
No state is talking about ending the practice of tipping. But seven states — Alaska, California, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin — mandate that tipped workers be paid at least the same minimum wage as everyone else. Another 26 states require employers to pay tipped workers a wage at least a little higher than the federal minimum.
Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, an advocacy group, says it has found that service employees in the states that require the same minimum wage for everyone, even tipped workers, reported lower levels of harassment than states that did not.
“This is about the power imbalance that women face on the job,” said Restaurant Opportunities Centers United co-founder Saru Jayaraman.
Cuomo said late last year that he was open to the possibility of joining the states that have eliminated the subminimum tipped wage.
It’s an issue that’s come up in New York before and gone nowhere while lawmakers focused on raising the standard minimum wage, currently at $13 in New York City for companies with more than 11 employees and $8.65 for tipped workers. Minimum wages are lower in other parts of the state. Cuomo’s administration could make the change itself through an order from the Department of Labor, if the legislature does not act.
Restaurant workers can be sharply divided over whether a higher base wage would help.
Maine created a level minimum wage for tipped workers in a voter referendum in 2017, but almost immediately reversed course. Servers said they were worried customers would stop tipping altogether.
Part-time New York City waitress Sarah March, 30, shares that concern.
“As soon as they hear that I’m already making enough money, I just don’t feel like anyone’s going to put forth the extra effort to compensate the servers,” she said.
March agreed that sexual harassment on the job is a problem. But a higher minimum wage, she said, will not deter customers engaging in improper behavior.
“They would just not tip and continue to act the way they were inclined,” she said.
Some wait staff said if they were less reliant on tips, it might change a workplace culture that is conducive of abuse, and not just from customers.
New York State Restaurant Association President Melissa Autilio Fleischut said a higher minimum wage for tipped workers would only saddle employers with expenses they can’t afford and wouldn’t help deal with sexual misconduct, either.
Harassment, she said, “cuts across numerous industries and has very little to do with what a woman makes or what a sexually harassed person makes,” she said. “I don’t see the correlation between the tip credit and sexual harassment.”
Apr. 16, 2018 "How some small-business owners are protecting their employees against harassment": Today I found this article by Tracey Lindeman in the Globe and Mail:
When Josephine Masterson opened her vegan café in 2016, she didn't anticipate having to deal with harassment.
Little Jo Berry's, on Ottawa's busy Wellington Street West, proudly wears its politics on its sleeve, says Ms. Masterson, 27: "When I think about our shop as a whole, we're a queer, feminist business."
So when a male customer discovered her shop and became enthusiastic about the brand, she was pleased to have made a new fan and ally - until she heard from patrons that the customer had a reputation for being abusive to women.
Then, she continues, "one day one of my staff members was working late and he was waiting outside for her." Ultimately, Ms. Masterson asked the man to never return, and she didn't have problems with him again.
Harrassment of employees is an issue that many business owners are thinking about in the wake of the #MeToo movement, according to long-time human-resources consultant and harassment investigator Margaret Michaels.
Much of the public dialogue in the wake of #MeToo has centred on boss-employee harassment and incidents between co-workers, yet members of the service industry say it often comes from customers.
That's a tough nut to crack in an industry driven by the mantra "the customer is always right," says Julie Lalonde, a public educator who specializes in antiharassment training.
"Small business relies on reputation, and part of that is being nice to people," Ms. Lalonde explains.
"You want repeat business, but how does that fit into conversations about abusive clients?"
In Ontario, workplaces are required by law to have anti-harassment policies, but it's up to individual businesses to write and implement these policies. As Ms. Lalonde and Ms. Michaels note, the law doesn't consider that many small-business owners haven't received anti-harassment training and may not even know what constitutes sexual harassment.
"There are still many people out there who think sexual harassment is about pinching a butt or making overt sexual comments," Ms. Michaels says. Harassment can also include unwanted flirting, sexualized jokes, abusive language and acts, as well as remarks about appearance, gender and sexuality.
Then there's the compliance issue. Although inspectors with the province's Ministry of Labour are supposed to verify these policies exist, enforcement remains primarily complaint-driven. More often than not, this means customer-facing employees have to draw their own lines about what behaviours they're willing to accept.
The missing link here, Ms. Lalonde says, is requiring employers to create an environment in which an employee can disclose customer-harassment reports without fear of reprisal.
For Little Jo Berry's owner Ms. Masterson, that begins with education. All of her full-time employees are required to do bystander-intervention training to help prevent colleagues from being harrassed, and many of her 11 staff members have completed It's Your Shift, an online training program provided by not-for-profit group OTEC aimed at preventing sexual harassment in the service and hospitality industry.
She even hosted a bystander-intervention training event at her café for other local business people, which Ms. Lalonde moderated.
Ms. Masterson also ensures there are two employees in the café at all times and that no one has to open or close alone.
Across the street, at boutique clothing store Victoire, owner Katie Frappier says that isn't always possible. Instead, she's developed a list of neighbours to call for help and installed a doorbell that rings at the business next door in case of emergency.
She also trains her staff to always uphold store policies, which helps prevent customer attempts to undermine employees' authority.
Most importantly, both Ms. Masterson and Ms. Frappier say their respective employees are encouraged to trust their instincts, with the knowledge that their bosses will unequivocally back them up in a customer dispute.
"It's really important for our employees to know their own boundaries and the support they're going to have from myself and my business partner," Ms. Frappier says.
As many business owners contacted for this article noted, losing a good employee is usually far more expensive than losing a bad customer.
In the absence of a broader re-education in society about how to treat service-industry workers with respect, business owners need to assume their legal and moral responsibilities to protect their employees from harassment - if only to protect themselves.
"It's financially expedient and advantageous to care about and look after my staff, because staff turnover is very expensive," says Carlyle Jansen, owner of Toronto sex shop Good For Her.
Happier staff usually means happier customers, she continues. "It's a win win."
Associated Graphic
Little Jo Berry owner Josephine Masterson, seen in Ottawa on April 3, has required all of her full-time employees to complete bystander intervention training to help prevent their colleagues from being harrassed.
My opinion: I like this article because it talks about the problem and the solution to customers harassing the employees.
This week's theme is about sexual harassment in the workplace:
"Women are just as capable of sexual harassment as men"/ "The unintended consequences of #MeToo in the workplace"
"What do you do if someone makes a false sexual- harassment allegation against you?"/ "The effects of sexual-harassment scandals"
My week:
Nov. 6, 2020 "Tim Hortons struggling with no sign of customers returning to morning commute":
Tim Hortons is struggling to claw its way back to pre-pandemic sales levels, blaming another tough quarter on the disappearance of morning commuters.
The coffee chain had been slowly regaining ground after a massive sales decline in March due to COVID-19 restrictions, but that recovery appears to have stalled.
“When’s the last time you ordered a coffee and a bagel at 6 a.m. to be delivered to your house?” asked Duncan Fulton, the chief corporate officer at Tim Hortons parent company Restaurant Brands International Inc.
https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/tim-hortons-struggling-with-no-sign-of-customers-returning-to-morning-commute
My opinion: There are like 78 comments and most of them are negative. They say they like McDonald's coffee and food more. I find them both to be average. I hardly ever eat out. I usually buy chips and cookies from Shoppers Drug Mart and it will last for 2 weeks.
"'Jeopardy' Champ's Tearful Revelation To Alex Trebek Wins The Day":
Burt Thakur earned $20,400 to win his first “Jeopardy!” game on Thursday’s episode. But the victory meant so much more. (See the videos below.)
Thakur, a project engineer who’s an immigrant, gave the game show’s longtime host Alex Trebek a tearful thanks for a very important reason.
“Here’s a true story, man,” Thakur said. “I learned English because of you. And so, my grandfather who raised me ― I’m gonna get tears right now ― I used to sit on his lap and watch you every day. So it’s a pretty special moment. Thank you very much.”
My opinion: Awww....
Nov. 8, 2020 Alex Trebek's death:
It was announced Sunday that Alex Trebek, the iconic host of the Jeopardy!, died at the age of 80 after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Nov. 6, 2020 "Lana Del Rey donates $350,000 to provide Navajo Nation with clean water": I found this on Facebook:
Lana Del Rey has revealed that she donated an advance payment from her latest book to provide clean water for some of the most vulnerable communities of America’s Navajo Nation.
In an Instagram post, Del Rey revealed how the payment, which she received for the book Violet Bent Backwards Over The Grass, has been donated to the Dig Deep Water project.
“No matter what the results of the election just remember we can each as individuals shine brightly and contribute to our world in our own individual way,” she wrote.
“As I’ve been lucky enough to be given an advance from Simon and Schuster, I’m so grateful to be able to spread that money around to foundations that are in need of our help
beginning with foundations connected to the Navajo community.
“We hope the @digdeepwater project will find relief with the $350,000 that we delivered to them last month. I personally have always believed in personal reparations to give back to the people who have shaped our land.
https://www.nme.com/news/music/lana-del-rey-donates-350000-to-provide-navajo-nation-with-clean-water-2808918?fbclid=IwAR1Grfoi4B0_-unEWiI4R61SXMXrRNwCSFFTPsr0WH08hLXY1fN4eOf4dRU
Nov. 8, 2020 Winter: The first big snowfall has finally come. The autumn did last until the first week of Nov.
Weekend fun: This weekend I did something fun. My friend Cham picked me up at 2pm. We went to T&T for 30 min. because she had to buy groceries.
We went to her place and I took some pictures of her for her to put on Facebook. We then went on Netflix.
Arrested Development: I watched the Arrested Development season 3 finale/ series finale which I haven't seen since it aired in 2006. I have the first season on dvd. The show was then continued on Netflix years later. I haven't seen the new episodes yet. The episode was average. There is an 8/ 10 rating out of 270,000 votes.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367279/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3
Brooklyn Nine-Nine: I saw the pilot when it came out in 2013. I thought it was average and then I never watched it again. Then I decided to watch the 2nd ep. I didn't like it. There is an 8/ 10 rating out of 210,000 votes.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2467372/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Strictly Dumpling: This is on Youtube where Mikey Chen goes to restaurants around the world and shows and eats the food. Cham showed a few videos to me of him going to buffet restaurants in Las Vegas since I'm planning on going there. I then was telling this to my little brother P.
P: Is it called Strictly Dumpling?
Tracy: Yeah, you know that?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5VB4PON0eA
Canned foods: Cham's sister gave her all these canned foods, peanut butter, and mac and cheese. I also got Belgian dark chocolate (from Homesense) from her. I ate a can of mushroom soup for dinner there. I slept over. I went to bed at 9pm as usual. I then had a can of pears for breakfast. I will share the food with my family.
I will keep the chocolate for myself. I'm sure some of you guys are laughing at this part.
McDonald's coffee: She then drove me to a McDonald's drive-thru so I could redeem my coffee card. (Buy 7 coffees, get 1 free.)
She then drove me to downtown and I got off and got on the bus that was already parked. I didn't have to wait outside at all. I went out from Sat. 2pm to Sun. 11am.
American Presidential election 2020: There was 5 days of counting the votes, but Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won. I was really happy about that because I have been cheering Biden on. I was also posting negative articles about Donald Trump on my blog in the weeks leading up to the election.
When the American Presidential election 2016 when Trump won, I know a lot of Americans were wanting to move out of the country. That costs lots of time, effort, and money to move:
-move away from your friends and family
-get a new job
-get a new home
Or you can stay in the US, and avoid watching or reading the news about Trump.
Nov. 7, 2020: Mark Hamill's Twitter: I saw this on Facebook. I had to show this to P because he loves Star Wars:
Nov. 12, 2020 Restaurant job scam: I applied to a restaurant job at Indeed. This was for the Nook Cafe which is a real restaurant. The email told me I was hired and to expect a call in 2 days. Today I called the restaurant to ask for this name. The woman said they weren't hiring and that job ad was a fake and they were trying to take that down.
Woman: The ad was probably to get your information.
15 yr old boy sings with Michael Buble: I saw this on Facebook. This 15 yr old boy named Sam, and his mom asked Buble if her son can sing with him. Sam sang "Feeling Good" and he impressed Buble. I was impressed. Sam auditioned for the X Factor and he got eliminated.
