My friend and fellow writer, Amy Alkon (author of Good Manners for Nice People Who Sometimes Say F*ck) received a press release announcing a certain company’s celebration of International Women’s Day. The press release stated:
[Company] CEO, [Man], is joining the nation in solidarity of women’s rights and values by giving his female employees paid time off March 8th. With nearly 35 percent of his company’s positions held by women – including a majority of the executive seats and almost the entire PR department – much of the site’s operations will shut down for the day.
Does anyone see a problem with that? Alkon did, and she emailed back to ask for clarification:
Alkon: So, men have to work and only women get the day off?
PR person: Yes. Women across the country are participating in a national day of strike (called “A Day Without Women”) on International Women’s Day as a way of showing how important women are in the workplace. [Company] CEO supports this movement and has encouraged any women in the office who wish to participate to do so.
Alkon: “yes” meaning that men have to work while women get the day off?
PR person: Correct.
To read more, click here: When Your “Day Without Women” Press Release Announces You Are Violating Federal Law
I’m an EEO professional. If the company really is giving all employees — men and women — an extra vacation day, in recognition of the fact that a lot of their female employees would probably take off on the Day Without Women, I don’t believe that practice, or the press release, for that matter, violates the law. The press release did, however, raise that question, and it’s good that someone looked into the situation and published the company’s — legally correct — response.
You can give employees time off whenever you want. But you can’t give just women or just men the day off.
Agreed. Fortunately, that’s not what they were doing.
HAHAHA! That’s hilarious…
This was great. Hooray for astute journalists!
Also, I have just added that book to my Amazon cart–that looks fantastic
I noticed INC put a disclaimer at the bottom of your article that your opinions might not be INC’s. I don’t remember seeing that on your other columns published there. I usually read all the way to the end (of course!). I wonder why they are extra touchy about this one!!
Nah, the disclaimer is always there.
http://pix11.com/2017/03/10/local-bar-gives-female-employees-off-to-participate-in-womens-day-rallies/