Brighter Future with Coachange :: October 2006

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October 2006 - A New Age?

by Lorenza Clifford on Wed 04 Oct 2006 10:48 AM BST | Permanent Link | Cosmos

October 2006 - A New Age?

This month age legislation joins the other anti-discrimination legislation in employment and vocational training. We are entering a new age where discrimination at work is a thing of the past - or are we?

I had a discussion the other day with a recruitment agent who had been doing the right thing and checking she understood not only the letter of the new age legislation, but also the application of it.

Apparently there are those out there who are reacting with horror that they can 'no longer identify what their client needs'! It seems to me that many are missing the whole point of discrimination legislation, having no real understanding of why it was needed in the first place.

I wonder what these agents would make of this situation, which a close friend finds herself in: She has returned to work 4 months after having her baby to find that they have changed her job title and removed a large part of her job from her. She has always been rated very highly and with good reason - she has an excellent reputation for getting results. She has been very careful to keep in contact with her office during maternity leave to maintain relationships, has taken care to get a really good nursery that opens long hours, has the back up of a granny for odd days of sickness etc and is returning full-time, so there are no messages that she wants to change her mindset about her work. When she said she was not happy with this change, she was told that now she has other responsibilities (referring to her child) she would not be able to manage the full load of her previous work!

As a career coach I see this again and again, sometimes with a redundancy following. How long has the legislation been in place to prevent this type of unfair discrimination? I suspect that we will continue to fight all types of discrimination for a very long time, as mindsets still need a good deal of change.

I'd be interested to hear what you think needs to change in order to make discriminatory mindset a phenomena of the past: headoffice@coachange.co.uk

Keywords: gender, Age, discrimination, career, coach, maternity, working, legislation, parents

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Re: October 2006 - A New Age?

by Barb on Sat 07 Oct 2006 03:16 PM BST | Profile | Permanent Link

Jenny Watson, who chairs the EOC, was reported in the Guardian last December to be calling for new laws and saying:
"For many women, sex equality is a thin veneer which vanishes as soon as they take on caring responsibilities. We need to make more of women's talents and skills and prevent them from being channelled into low paid, part-time work below their potential."

This prompted me to write the following poem, as my contribution to National Poetry day! :

Brain Drain

I worked hard at school, liked my education
It wasn't really about getting qualification
Won my job, in fair competition
Then knackered myself for every promotion
For more than two years I worked hard every day
My job is my job, you can't take it away.

But now I'm a Mum and you think it's OK
To allow bits of my job to go astray
I've proved it before, so it's mad to imply
I can't work with your customers properly
I can't do politics, strategic song and dance?
How would you know, you won't give me a chance?

I'm still a good worker, I love to learn
And besides, I need the wage that I earn
Now you give me less work, you're not so sure
That I'm 'good value' in my role any more;
So yes, I'm furious, I've a right to be
I can see how this all ends in redundancy!

Do I raise a grievance, claim constructive dismissal?
Or will I be seen as One Who Makes Trouble?
I want to fight back, but I want this to end
Because I don't know what's around the next bend
Don't want to work far away, so I shut down
And keep what's left for me in this town.
Just do the minimum, enough to get paid
Die of boredom with the brain drain brigade!