Dealing with Employee Discrimination at the Workplace
Instructions: For this assignment, you’ll choose a single publication and write as if you were going to submit your work to that magazine. Building on the work you did defining the conversation in A2, you’ll still synthesize sources to define the existing conversation, but this time, you’ll find some way to join the conversation yourself along the way. Here is where you need to find a much narrower focus than in A2. What can you contribute? What can we see about this topic (and how we should better talk about it) through your eyes that we couldn’t quite see the same way through anyone else’s? How are you uniquely situated to reframe this subject with your own rhetoric? You’ll need to tailor your writing to suit the publication and the audience you’ve chosen. Consider where you imagine that audience to be in their relationship to your subject, then consider what rhetorical moves you have to make to move them to where you want them to be. You may or may not write in the first person. You may or may not include or even heavily feature personal narrative. You must work significantly with existing sources.
Sources: You will naturally lose some sources and pick up new ones as your project progresses. This time, you must use at least two “scholarly” sources, and at least six other sources.
The pieces:
1. The essay itself: write in a way appropriate for your chosen publication. 1,500-2,500 words.
2. Visual component: Either generate at least one original image or graphic to accompany your essay, or use at least one source that is a still image (photo, chart, map, etc.). This must be in the same document arranged at a point in the essay where it makes sense. Purposefully discuss the image in your writing, rather than dropping it in without explanation. Mention it in the text somehow, as well as in a caption. Images and other texts that are free to use (see “creative commons” licensing) can be searched through the Advanced Search functions on Google, Flickr, etc. or through sites like creativecommons.org.
3. Works cited: Even though most magazine articles don’t feature bibliographies, you should for A3. Cite properly in MLA style, both in the text and here at the end.
4. Include your revised hashtag campaign plan: In the same document, after the Works Cited, include a 600-900-word proposal for a hashtag campaign to launch along with the publication of this article. Revise your work in Short Writing Assignments 3.2 and 3.3 to pitch the hashtag, explain what it will do, which voices you hope it will attract, why that will be important, how this interacts in context of other relevant hashtags currently in use, what risks such a move may run, and how you might address them as they happen or minimize their likelihood beforehand.
5. Write your rationale: At the end of the same document, after the other parts, include a 600-900-word rationale in which you discuss the rhetorical decisions you made. This kind of rationale is really a rhetorical analysis of your own writing. Instead of using rhetorical theory to analyze another author’s rhetoric for the philosophies underneath, here you will use rhetorical theory to explain how you tried to achieve your purpose for your particular audience, what deeper philosophies you built your rhetoric on, and what implicit things you wanted your audience to adopt. Quote yourself. Analyze yourself. Use our rhetorical vocabulary.
Formatting: Often, publications will have strangely specific guidelines for formatting. Consider this practice. For your essay, follow all of these instructions exactly. Editors look for any reason to put your work in the trash.
—Double-spaced
— MS Word or PDF files only
—1”margins on left, right, top, and bottom
—Font: 12-pt. Cambria, Times New Roman, Palatino, or Perpetua for body type
—Image captions, if any, should appear in 10-pt. Calibri, Helvetica, Optima, or Arial font
—Sub-headings, if any, should appear in 14-pt. Calibri, Helvetica, Optima, or Arial font
—Number pages at the upper right corner.
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Dealing with Employee Discrimination at the Workplace
In October 2018, an investigative report run by The New York Times brought into light the existence of sexual discrimination at tech giant Google. The report further reported that Andy Rubin who was one of the top executives at the company accused of sexually harassing employees were paid $90 million when he was leaving the companyCITATION Dai18 \p 1 \l 1033 (Daisuke and Katie 1). It is also alleged that Google went silent on the sexual harassment claims raised against the executive and instead they silently made him resign while awarding him and praising him for being the creator of AndroidCITATION Jil18 \p 2 \l 1033 (Jilian and Michelle 2). Soon after the investigative report, Google employees across the world staged demonstrations to fight what they termed as ‘an inappropriate working culture’ at the companyCITATION Sha19 \p 7 \l 1033 (Shannon 7). People at the company said they need transparency on the handling of sexual harassment cases at the company, employee empowerment and resolution of payment inequalities at the company. During the demonstration, there are so many employees who came out to talk about the incidences of sexual discrimination they have gone through. Google is a reputable company across the world with good workplace culture in place. The incident reminds me of sexual discrimination and the different way it has affected employees. There is a need to come up with policies to ensure the victims involved are brought to book so the victims can get justice.
Google Employees Demonstrating in California in November 2018
Source: CNBC
The discrimination of employees at the workplace is not something new. Over a long period of time, the women at the workplace have been discriminated against in terms of low payment, promotions and in some cases, they are sexually harassed. The rising number of sexual discrimination in the workplace can be attributed to the lack of an appropriate workplace model to prevent the occurrence of such cases. Despite the existence of these allegations, most of the top executives at the companies have decided to remain silent about it. In most cases when a sexual discrimination incident is raised at the company, the victim will be subjected to a certain form of suffering that often makes them avoid reporting the incident. There is a need for the protection of the victims from any form of punishment they are subjected to after reporting about a sexual discrimination incident. This protection requires a clear understanding of sexual discrimination and the policies in place to protect the employees. An institution such as the courts should also be serious when handling sexual discrimination issues. They need to ensure the protection of the victims since they report the incidences.
Defining Sexual Discrimination
The legal definition of sexual discrimination can vary from one country to the other. However, the simple definition of sexual discrimination is that it is the treatment of the employee in a less favorable manner due to the sex or gender of the employeeCITATION Sch18 \p 135 \l 1033 (Schultz 135). Sexual discrimination is often associated with sexual harassment. Sexual harassment refers to a wide range of behaviors such as glances, jokes, demeaning comments and other acts of physical violence. Sexual discrimination can often interfere with the working environment of the employees in a negative manner.
Depending on the context and the frequency, some sexual jokes can be regarded as sexual harassment. Different people react differently to the sexual insults directed towards them. Some employees can take an issue with sexual harassment comments made while others can treat them as a joke. Sexual discrimination also comes in the form of payment. There are a number of companies where the female employees have been reported to be paid less as compared to their female counterparts even though both employees carry out the same tasks.
Discrimination Targets Women
Sexual discrimination targets both men and women. However, the majority of the victims are women. The victims are also likely to be younger and holding lower positions. They are mostly supervised by the members of the opposite sex.
The risk of sexual harassment is higher in women than in men. The existence of stereotypes against women is the main reason that contributed to this rise. Women have been viewed for a long time to be having less value as compared to their male counterparts.
Most of the tech companies have been blamed for the underrepresentation of women in different job positions. Away from the tech companies, there are so many companies where women are not allowed to hold certain job positions since these job positions are often viewed as difficult and a ‘reserve for men’.
Creating an Appropriate Workplace Culture
To avoid incidences of sexual discrimination in the workplace, the first thing an organization needs to do is the creation of proper workplace culture. The organizations should adopt a stand-alone policy to provide a clear framework on how they will deal with sexual harassment. I do acknowledge the fact that these policies are already in existence in many institutions. Unfortunately, they have not been put into use. The organizations should be sensitized on the need to revise their sexual harassment and discrimination policy to make sure they meet the rising cases of sexual discrimination.
An organization should create a zero tolerance to issues of sexual harassment. However, most organizations have so many challenges achieving this initiative since most of the people accused of se...