Too sexy for your job
Russian woman fired for being too attractive, and other stories
Russian office worker sacked for being “too sexy”
A Russian woman has been fired from her office job after her bosses found a revealing photo shoot of her online.
According to the Mirror, Eleonora Verbitskaya had a junior role as a bureaucrat at the Administrative Infringements Enforcement Office in St Petersburg, but also worked as a DJ in her spare time under the stage name DJ Ellis Sexton.
Verbitskaya claims that on arriving at work one day she found a note from her employers dismissing her from her position, despite previous suggestions that she was in line for promotion. After making enquiries, she discovered that her bosses had found online photos of her promoting her work as a DJ.
Her lawyer Maxim Youshin said she was illegally sacked for being “too sexy”. “According to the Russian law, she did not do anything wrong,” he said. “It is rather a moral question right now.”
His client had always dressed appropriately at the office and all the photos were taken in her own time, he added.
Hottest jobs for 2016? Yours is one of them, claims US survey
If you’re considering a career move in the next 12 months then it might be worth looking across the pond for employment opportunities: according to a US survey, HR is among one of the most in-demand occupations for 2016.
CareerBuilder, in partnership with Economic Modelling Specialists Int. (EMSI), has compiled a list of careers where the number of job ads companies post each month outpace the number of hires. The list also includes data on job growth and salaries, indicating that these are well-paying occupations that have seen healthy growth in recent years.
“For over 100 occupations in the US, there is far more job-posting activity than hiring month to month,” said Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder. “While many of these jobs are in the technology and healthcare sectors, there are also plenty of opportunities in areas such as marketing, sales and transportation.
“The availability of jobs across industries underscores the need for companies to evaluate where their talent deficits are and become more strategic about how they fill these needs – whether that means re-skilling their current workers, offering higher salaries to attract workers, or using data analytics to target talent with the right skills.”
According to the survey, there were an average of 23,231 unique job postings for HR managers each month in the US from January to September 2015, while the average number of monthly hires was just 5,916 – a gap of 17,315.
Job growth in the field stood at 14,218 over the past five years, with total employment in 2015 of 124, 618. Median hourly earnings were $49.41.
Californian woman fired “for rejecting Scientology”
In the second bizarre dismissal story of the day, a customer services representative in California has allegedly been fired for saying she didn’t want to take part in mandatory Scientology classes.
Annie R. Lee is suing Lusida Rubber Products Inc. in Pasadena – along with two of its executives, Wayne Chin and William Johonnesson – for wrongful termination, religious discrimination, failure to prevent religious discrimination, harassment and retaliation, according to LA.com.
Lee worked at Lusida Rubber from June to December 2014. The lawsuit alleges that a month after Johonnesson joined the company in September 2014, the company started requiring all employees, regardless of religious beliefs, to “attend and engage in a mandatory, 30-minute class during work hours that was based on the teachings of L. Ron Hubbard and the Church of Scientology.”
Originally scheduled for three time a week, sessions were being held “almost daily” by December, the suit alleges. Lee claims she felt “pressured and brainwashed” into accepting the tenets of the controversial religion created by science fiction writer Hubbard, whose famous followers include the actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
But when Lee complained about having to participate in the classes, Johonnesson told her she had no choice, she claims. If she was not willing to “wear multiple hats” she would not be considered fit to work at the company, he said.
After one class, Lee and other employees were asked why they attended the sessions and what they learned from them, the suit alleges. She answered that she did not wish to be there or to learn any of the teachings, but was forced to be present.
On 18 December 2014, Lee was fired following poor performance reviews. The suit goes on to claim that other workers who objected to taking part in the sessions also lost their jobs, with most replaced by members of the Church of Scientology.
Unfriending a co-worker is bullying, claims Aussie tribunal
It’s a dilemma most Facebook users will find familiar: someone you work with (but don’t actually like) wants to be your ‘friend’.
But while clicking the ‘accept’ button may seem to be the path of least resistance, beware: if you ever change your mind and decide to delete them, you may find yourself accused not just of social media ruthlessness but also of workplace bullying – at least if you live Down Under.
According to news.com.au, Australia’s Fair Work Commission (FWC) has ruled that unfriending someone on Facebook can constitute workplace bullying.
It reached the conclusion after Rachael Roberts, an employee of estate agency VIEW Launceston, went to the tribunal alleging that she was being bullied by sales administrator Lisa Bird and her husband James Bird, the business owner.
Roberts, an experienced estate agent who had joined the company in 2012, cited 18 incidents of bullying. On one occasion, she said, Lisa Bird had accused her of being “a naughty little schoolgirl running to the teacher” because she had phoned James Bird to ask why none of her listed properties were displayed in the business’s front window.
According to Roberts, Bird had subsequently pointed at her, told her to sit down and blocked the door when she tried to walk away from the confrontation. When she later checked her Facebook profile, she discovered that Bird had unfriended her.
Overall, the Commission upheld nine of the 18 complaints, including the unfriending incident. FWC deputy president Nicole Wells said: “This action by Mrs Bird evinces a lack of emotional maturity and is indicative of unreasonable behaviour.
“The schoolgirl comment, even accepting of Mrs Bird’s version of events, which I am not, is evidence of an inappropriate dealing with Ms Roberts which was provocative and disobliging.
“I am of the view that Mrs Bird took the first opportunity to draw a line under the relationship with Ms Roberts on 29 January 2015 when she removed her as a friend on Facebook, as she did not like Ms Roberts and would prefer not to have to deal with her.”
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