Maybe it's YOUR Fault?

[Greenday]

I have a...friend...who just posted an article about how 85% of women in her profession deal with discrimination in the workforce. I'm not surprised, it's a very heavily male dominated field. And she claims as a result of discrimination, she's had to switch offices multiple times.

Now, I'm not one to be a victim blamer but clearly her actions play a major role in this specific discrimination. She's not being discriminated specifically for being a woman, that she can't lift heavy things, etc. She's being discriminated against because she sleeps with half her co-workers. And then once she gets a reputation, she can't handle it anymore and moves to the next place. I saw this when she started volunteering in college. She had sex with half the guys that volunteered (which I know because she'd tell me). Then she'd get upset because she was known as sleeping with a lot of guys.

I'm not saying she's a slut or anything like that. I don't care about how many people someone sleeps with. But if you don't like it that people think you sleep with a lot of people, STOP SLEEPING WITH HALF THE GUYS YOU MEET AT WORK!

[Canarr]

Hmmm... tough one. I think one can accept as given the fact that men and women are treated differently if the have multiple sex partners - the whole "stud vs. slut" thing.

Still, if one flipped the situation, and imagined a lone male in a field with a mostly female workforce, like many medical professions sleeping with a lot of their coworkers, I think one would find his reputation to be far from stellar, as well.

So... I think someone behaving like you described your friend does, probably wouldn't be well-liked, anywhere. Sure, anyone is free to do as they please; but anybody else is free to judge them on their behavior, as well.

On a sidenote: is it truly discrimination to expect someone to do heavy lifting, if they were hired for a job that requires heavy lifting?

[BlaqueKatt]

On a sidenote: is it truly discrimination to expect someone to do heavy lifting, if they were hired for a job that requires heavy lifting?

It actually depends, some jobs that actually require ZERO lifting put that in the job description to discriminate*, also in one position I held the "job description" listed requirements to be able to lift 120 pounds(I weighed 130 at the time), but COMPANY SAFETY POLICY, didn't allow a single individual to lift anything over 80 pounds, if you were injured doing so workman's comp wouldn't cover. And NIOSH has specific standards for a safe lift. Also the pregnancy discrimination act has been in effect for over 35 years, and forcing or firing someone(someone, because some trans men have gotten pregnant) for being pregnant and being unable to lift heavy items is ILLEGAL. Same as if someone is on light duty due to injury, you CANNOT force them to violate medical restrictions, and it IS illegal discrimination to fire them. Worker almost fired for lifting restrictions related to pregnancy, while other employees accommodated due to injuries




*link goes to a perfect example of one such employment listing description(night security guard, with list of job duties[checking doors/parkng lot, write reports], none of which include lifting, but a listed requirement is "ability to lift 70 pounds regularly and repeatedly", prior employee of 9 years in the position never lifted ANYTHING)

[s_stabeler]

I think the rule about weight restrictions is that it has to be an actual requirement of the job- that is, you actually do have to lift that amount of weight to do the job ( it doesn't necessarily have to be regularly, but if, for example, you work for a place that sold the weights you see in the gym (I'm thinking of the weights weightlifters use) it would be reasonable to expect you to be able to lift the heaviest ones sold.) and that if someone is not able to do it for a reason that is temporary- for example, pregnancy- you are required to either modify the job so they can do it, or find a job they can do. (for example, take the weightlifter shop job I mentioned earlier. One modification to the job might be that they are put in charge of checking a new shipment of weights has nothing missing ( that doesn't have to require lifting- just checking what is there, and comparing it against the invoice)

wheras if someone has been crippled permanently, and can no longer do the job they were hired to do- or if the injury is long-term enough that keeping them employed there is an unreasonable burden on the employer- then yes, the employer can terminate employment. (If the injury was caused at work, then workman's comp would presumably include compensation for lost earnings.)

[Aragarthiel]

I remember reading about things like this in a law-type class I took in high school. The example they used was a firefighter. To be one, you have to be able to lift a very large amount (not sure of the specifics the example used, I think it was about 80 pounds), so it's no surprise it's a male-dominated field. When you have 40 pounds of gear on and one of your partners is injured, that's over 200, possibly 300 pounds you have to carry out of a burning building. Women in general aren't designed to be carrying that much, though it's certainly possible.

[Canarr]

*link goes to a perfect example of one such employment listing description(night security guard, with list of job duties[checking doors/parkng lot, write reports], none of which include lifting, but a listed requirement is "ability to lift 70 pounds regularly and repeatedly", prior employee of 9 years in the position never lifted ANYTHING)

Sure, but that's basically fraud, right? Like writing an employee up for bogus reasons, in order to terminate someone you want to get rid of. That's not what I asked - I asked if they were hired for a job that requires heavy lifting. Not "allegedly requires" but actually requires.

Aragarthiel brought the firefighter example. Construction would be another one, or working in a factory or plant - a lot of reasons to move bags, drums or boxes that might be heavy.

[Sleepwalker]

We used to sort new hires based on lifting ability. The ice cream machines we used take mix in 6 gallon boxed bags, so about 50 pounds, and you have to pour one in a couple times an hour. The truly small workers, mostly teenage girls, were stuck on front register for that reason- dead lifting and holding half your body weight all day would be asking for injury. More of a 'small person/frail person' exclusion than anything else.

[cindybubbles]

When I worked in my second last job, we sometimes have to replace the water cooler's empty water bottles with heavy, full ones. That included lifting the full bottle and carrying it to the water cooler and lifting it into place. That's just asking for injury there, because I'm not strong enough to do such lifting.

So what was my ingenious solution? Lift the water bottle from the floor and place it on the seat of a wheeled office chair. Then wheel said chair over to the water cooler, take the bottle from the chair and put it in place. Problem solved!