HR World: US Special
We go stateside to source more stunning HR stories
Three cheers for employment equality in America’s NFL
Two, four, six, eight! Who do we appreciate?
For those of us who grew up on an endless diet of American high school movies, this classic cheerleading chant might seem like the epitome of an unattainable teen dream – up there with having perfect skin and being allowed to drive a sports car at the age of 15.
But if you’re a cheerleader in America’s National Football League, it seems that the answer to the question it asks is very probably not your employer. Over the past 18 months, cheerleaders from five NFL squads have filed lawsuits against their teams, highlighting not only issues of low pay and lack of benefits, but a whole range of dodgy employment practices, according to the Independent.
Last month, however, California passed a new law to ensure that cheerleaders for all professional sports teams in the state would finally be treated as employees rather than freelancers, guaranteeing them fair pay and equal treatment across the board.
For Lacy T and Sarah G, former cheerleaders for the California-based Oakland Raiders, who filed the first lawsuit at the start of 2014, this must have been a sweet victory. According to the lawsuit, the ‘Raiderettes’ were paid just $125 a game for 10 games a season, were barely compensated for hundreds of hours spent rehearsing and making public appearances, and received no sick leave or overtime pay.
The Oakland Raiders eventually agreed a settlement of $1.25m to be divided between 90 current and former members of the squad. The team also offered its cheerleaders a new contract guaranteeing California’s minimum wage of $9 an hour for all their work, tripling their annual pay to approximately $3,200.
The case brought the issue to the attention of California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, who introduced what became known as The Cheerleader Bill last year. It was signed by Governor Jerry Brown a few weeks ago, and will come into effect in January 2016.
However, the other cheerleading squads inspired by the Raiderettes to file their own lawsuits have so far had mixed results. While Florida’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers recently agreed an $825,000 settlement with its cheerleaders, the Buffalo Bills in New York State disbanded its squad – the Buffalo Jills – rather than settle the case.
According to the Independent, the Jills allegedly received some of the worst treatment in the league: they were paid no wages at all, forced to pay $650 for their own uniforms and subjected to weekly ‘jiggle tests’ by coaches to see if their flesh wobbled.
Twitter ‘frat party’ fuels gender discrimination fire
Twitter has lived up to the first part of its name by throwing a fraternity-themed party for employees in San Francisco, while already facing a class-action lawsuit for gender discrimination.
According to Fusion, the company-funded bash featured a number of accessories traditionally associated with lairy fraternity parties in US colleges, including a keg of beer and ‘beer pong’ (a drinking game that involves throwing table-tennis balls into cups of beer). A banner reading ‘Twitter Frat House’ – in faux-Greek lettering – was hung from a wall.
The party came to wider attention when a female employee posted a photo on Twitter, which was later reposted to the Global Women in Tech Facebook group. It quickly went viral, with many posters citing it as an example of male-dominated Silicon Valley culture.
Twitter spokesman Jim Prosser said: “This social event organised by one team was in poor taste at best, and not reflective of the culture we are building here at Twitter.”
The party was especially ill-timed given the company is currently fighting a class-action lawsuit for gender discrimination. The lawsuit has been filed by Tina Huang, a female software engineer who claims Twitter’s promotion process unfairly favours men.
Figures released by Twitter last year showed that just 10 per cent of the company’s tech employees were women. Women made up 30 per cent of the overall workforce, and held 21 per cent of leadership positions within the company.
Ways not to get a job #1: play fast and loose with your CV
In a competitive jobs market, it’s only to be expected that candidates may get a little carried away on their CVs in order to grab the attention of hiring managers.
However, trying too hard to stand out from the crowd can backfire spectacularly. Claiming to be the former CEO of the company where you’re applying for a job, for example, is probably not to be recommended – but according to a recent Careerbuilder survey of more than 2,000 US hiring and HR managers, one job-seeker did just that.
Other blunders cited in the survey included:
- Claiming to be fluent in two languages – one of which was Pig Latin
- Having a personal website that linked to a porn site
- Starting a covering letter with the words, ‘Hey you’
- Having the email user name, ‘2poopy4mypants’
- Claiming to be a Nobel Prize winner
- Claiming to have worked in a prison when really serving time there
According to the survey, most employers (70 per cent) spend less than five minutes reviewing a CV, and half (48 per cent) spend less than two, so the urge to be memorable does make a certain amount of sense. But before they get too creative, candidates should bear in mind that hiring managers appear to have quite sophisticated BS detectors – more than half (56 per cent) have caught someone lying on a CV.
Ways not to get a job #2: stalk the hiring manager
Not all job-seekers in the US are out-there with their CVs, of course – some save the crazy for the job interview or even later.
Another Careerbuilder survey of more than 2,000 US hiring and HR managers has uncovered a raft of weird and wonderful ways applicants try to make themselves memorable (though not necessarily hireable).
One candidate even went so far as to find out where the hiring manager was having dinner and then pick up the tab, obviously failing to realise the not-so-subtle difference between career-driven and downright creepy.
Other inspired/desperate tactics used by candidates included:
- Setting fire to a corner of their CV to demonstrate their ‘burning desire’ for the job
- Getting their daughter to call the hiring manager before the interview to thank them for “giving dad a job”
- Having a cake delivered with the words, “Congratulations! [Candidate’s name] got the job”
- Sitting on the floor during the interview and asking the hiring manager to take their photo with the company mascot
- Acting like a game-show host
- Sending the hiring manager a coupon for a free meal
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