Category: Observations Page 37 of 89

Resources for Working Women

On February 4, 2015

One of the perks of my job is getting to sit in on all sorts of presentations, informational sessions and other things I’d normally have no interest in, idea was happening, or right to be in.

Recently, one of these was an information sessions hosted by the Women’s Bureau. Which in itself is a great resource for information about women at work and for working women.

Recently, I hosted and sat in on a session called Employment Protections for Pregnant Workers. It was an hour-long panel discussion panel covering Federal protections as well as individual state’s protections for pregnant women.

During the session, there were some great resources shared that I wrote down and wanted to mention.

Babygate

The first is Babygate from A Better Balance. It’s billed as Your one-stop-shop for information about pregnancy and parenting at work

Babygate covers national protections offered by the Federal government. But it also has detailed information for every state about protections in your state.

It covers issues while you’re pregnant, leaving work and returning to work. In addition to information specific to your state, they also run a hotline for anyone having problems at work relating to pregnancy or parenting.

Call 212-430-5982

Our free hotline can provide you with information about your rights at work (or refer you to another attorney or legal organization in your area). The information provided here or in response to a Hotline inquiry does not constitute legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship. If ABB chooses to represent you, then a retainer will be signed setting out the scope of the representation.

Women Employed

Women Employed is about Mobilizing people and organizations to expand educational and employment opportunities for America’s working women.

They lay out the problem as:

Far too many jobs women hold fall below the standard that most Americans would consider decent work. They offer very low wages, few if any benefits, and little respect. Hours are irregular and schedules change constantly. Women are twice as likely as men to work in occupations with poverty-level wages. Over 40 percent of private-sector workers have no paid sick days. Sexual harassment and pregnancy discrimination are common. Bad jobs keep women in a state of economic crisis and harm their children. We all pay the costs of low-wage work.

And it’s their mission to address these problems with financial aid, supporting students and offering career pathways to women.

They have a good page of resources including your rights at work, so you can learn exactly what your rights are. They also offer a career coaching program to get you into a better position. And even a program to help complete a degree including academic counseling.

U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission

The U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission has the authority to investigate charges of discrimination. It also works to educate about and prevent harassment and discrimination before it occurs.

The EEOC has a huge amount of information about harassment and discrimination. The newsroom has a list of major topics. Such as protections for LGBT workers, Americans with Disabilities and Workplace Religious Accommodation. The EEOC is based in Washington, DC. But they have a number of field offices around the US.

If you need to file a charge, they have a process for filing a charge of discrimination.

I hope these resources might be helpful for someone out there. There is a lot of information and there are some really amazing people working very hard to defend and protect the rights of women, pregnant or not.

Updating my Books I’ve Read page with a little help from my friends

By Carl

On February 3, 2015

In Observations

For as long as I’ve had my books I’ve read page up, I wasn’t entirely happy with it. So I decided to change the implementation to Jamie Rubin’s Shortcode method. Which was what my other method was based on anyway.

I learned how to create a child theme for WordPress so my changes wouldn’t get wiped out the next time the theme was updated. I downloaded the function.php file into it and pointed it at my Dropbox book list.

All was going well except I had an extra parenthesis on all the dates.
Example: This Could Help by Patrick Rhone (1/20/2015))

The last item on the list was missing its trailing parenthesis.
Example: This Could Help by Patrick Rhone (1/20/2015

Since I don’t speak code, I went looking for help from nerds greater than myself. They suggested two changes to make to the code and it worked perfectly.

Tony Giunta suggested changing line 21.
Original: $date = substr($second_part[1],0,-1);
Change: $date = $second_part[1];

Nick Wynja suggested changing line 54.
Original: echo "<li>$title by $author ($date)</li>\n";
Change: echo "<li>$title by $author ($date</li>\n";

I am not a coder. They both commented on the quality of the code. I’m sure these changes (and all of this code) could have been written better and I’m sure lots of people have solutions and versions they’d tout as being superior. But this works for me, and with their help I was able to get it working in my WordPress setup.

Here is my changed version on Github.

The Origin Story of Origin Story

By Carl

On February 2, 2015

In Observations

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been fascinated by Internet handles. That is, what name do people use on the Internet. Do they use their real name? Are they semi-anonymous with a pseudonym or screen name they like? Is there identity a complete mystery?

In December, I finally decided to act on my curiosity and started asking. The interviews are posted at Origin Story.

I didn’t tell many people about it. But I started to send emails with that subject line, What is your Origin Story?

I debated long and hard about what questions to ask. I didn’t want to ask too many. I didn’t want to ask too much of people’s time and attention. So I tried to keep my questions brief. And even then, the questions have evolved since the first interview.

Here is what I’ve asked everyone.

What name do you use on the Internet?
Do you keep the same name everywhere?
Where did it come from?
What does it mean to you?
Why did you choose it?
Do you ever think of changing it?
Why do you / don’t you use your real name?
What was your first internet screen name?
What is your favorite name you’ve seen in your travels across the net?

I added this question when I realized I was asking these interesting people about their stories. I should also ask them whose story they’d like to hear.

Whose origin story would you like to hear next?

Even later on, I realized the blunder I was making by not pointing my readers to these fine folks. So I added the last question.

Now that people have heard your story, where can they go to find out more about you?

I’m sure it will continue to evolve as I figure this thing out and bug more people for their stories. I’d like to thank everyone who has taken the time to take part in my little project so far.

Thank you all! I’ve had a lot of fun with this project so far. And I hope those who have taken part have enjoyed it. I feel like I learn something about each of these people from the answers they send back. And the best part is getting to know people I hadn’t previously crossed paths with on the internet.

It’s been a lot of fun so far. So if you should see an email in your inbox asking about your origin story, I hope you’ll take part.

New Origin Stories go up every Monday morning at Origin Story. New posts are tweeted from @StoriesofOrigin.

Sports commentary with Marshawn Lynch

By Carl

On January 30, 2015

In Observations

I don’t know Marshawn Lynch and I don’t follow the Seahawks, but I continue to be amused and interested in his handling of the media. It’s a circus and he wants no part in it. He’s not feeding into the media hype and sound bites to replay a thousand times over.

Is this what an introvert thrust into the spotlight looks like? Or is this a guy who wants to do his job and do it well without the extracurricular activities his workplace demands of him?

Either way, I continue to enjoy his treatment of the media. Because really, what are they expecting from him?

His first required appearance he answered every question with “I’m just here so I won’t get fined.”

The next time he was required to appear, he answered, “You know why I’m here.”

In his required media appearance today, he broke his silence and said:

“I don’t know what story you’re all trying to get out of me,” Lynch said. “I don’t know what image you’re trying to portray of me. It don’t matter what you all say about me.”
…
“You’re all mad at me,” he said. “And if you’re not mad at me, then what are you all here for?”
Done with his introduction, Lynch glanced at his phone and said, “For this next three minutes I’ll just be looking at you all the way you’re looking at me.”

I’ve followed professional sports for years and every single interview sounds the same. “We went out and played well / didn’t play well. We are going to look forward to the next game and focus on that. It’s not about today’s win/loss but we are looking ahead to the next one.” It’s refreshing to see Marshawn Lynch’s disinterested treatment of the media. They need him and he doesn’t need them. And he knows it. He’s doing what the NFL requires of him and nothing more.

I’ll leave you with another great sports interview. This one from DeAndre Jordan.

“I was listening to Tupac and I forgot the question.”

At the end of the day, say what you will about Marshawn Lynch and his treatment of the media. But the clips of him blowing them off have generated far more interest, hits and views than anything else he could have said. So is he really doing the media a disservice? He’s giving them what they want. Ad Dollars.

Taken by Tomas Laurinavicius / via http://getrefe.tumblr.com/

Computers are not predictable

By Carl

On January 22, 2015

In Observations

One of the problems with computers is the sheer number of ways to do things. Take for example how to copy a file from one place to another. You can:
– drag and drop
– copy and paste with keyboard shortcuts
– copy and paste with menu items
– cut and paste
– open the file and use save as to save it in another place

That’s just what comes to mind as I sit on the Metro typing this. And that’s the problem. There are any ways to do everything and that’s a major point of confusion.

I am good with computers so I know these ways. I understand the conventions of computing. I understand them because that’s what I’m interested in and where I’ve spent my time. I enjoy computers and what I can do with them.

But not everybody does.

In fact, I’d wager most people don’t enjoy their interactions with computers. They’re confusing. Why? Because they’re unpredictable. Doing the same thing over and over doesn’t always produce the same result.

I’m talking to a mostly tech savvy audience so this can be hard to relate to. So let’s take something I struggle with.

Navigation.

I can’t find my way out of a paper bag. Drop me in a housing development and I may never be seen again. I have absolutely no sense of direction.

I struggle to find my way to the simplest of places. I struggle to remember if I turned right or left into a strip mall. Which direction did I come from and how do I get home from here?

Driving is my computing. I rely on my phone’s GPS. With that bit of tech, I can fearlessly drive anywhere and find my way home.

Why am I talking about my sense of misdirection? Because that’s how computers feel to many people. What?

When I am in a new city, riding with a friend, we will often take different routes in and out of their neighborhood. We will never use the same route twice. This is not to be mean. They know the best routes and will take the best choice as needed.

Because it’s familiar to them, it’s easy and they don’t think about it. But to my already struggling brain, I’m confused beyond belief and without aid of a GPS, I’d never leave the house for fearing of taking the wrong turn at Albuquerque.

That’s how computers are to many people. Remember all of those ways to get a file from one place to another? That’s how everything feels.

There’s many ways to print, open a file, navigate the Internet, access email and move files. And often times different people will use and try to show them a different way.

It’s the never take the same route twice driving problem. How can I be expected to learn the route when it’s different every single time?

And roads are static. They don’t change. And if they do it’s a slow process of construction.

Computers are nothing but change. They’re a box of variables upon variables. Even reproducing the same steps 10 times could produce two or more results.

It’s easy to dismiss questions as being so easy. But think about something you struggle with.

For me it’s driving and navigating. For you maybe it’s something else. We all have something we struggle with. And asking for help can lead to greater confusion. Is it any wonder people give up and just have you do it?