MyLifeDump

Last week I upgraded MLD (this blog) to the latest version of Wordpress which is 2.5. I am writing my first post using the new wordpress admin and it is excellent.

I cannot stop loving wordpress, it is an excellent piece of code written by generous people who have made wordpress available free of charge to the blogosphere. All bloggers currently using wordpress to run their blogs are in great debt to the wordpress developer team.

I am sure that they will keep on improving wordpress in future. My problem right now is that I need to upload my other websites currently running old wordpress versions. I plan on doing that in coming weeks.

I know I have not been blogging lately as time is of essence to me these days but I guess nothing really has been happening these days besides the economy being in the tank and the gas prices reaching $4/Gallon unleaded.

I talked about a girl being disqualified from an interview at Hollywood Video because she was wearing a head scarf a week ago and I am happy to report an update in that case.

Apparently, a CAIR representative contacted the manager to mediate the matter explaining that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals because of their religion in hiring, firing, and other terms and conditions of employment.

Yes, the manager apologized for her actions and will comply with the following CAIR requests:

1. Will provide another interview to the Muslim woman

2. Allow the Muslim woman to wear her religiously mandated headscarf in accordance with Title VII.

3. Provide the Muslim woman with a formal written apology.

When you are on the right side, you usually end up with good results. I don’t know if now she is interested in this job anymore, If I were her, I wouldn’t be…

I attended the SFSU career fair yesterday and was disappointed at how things were organized. SFSU gym definitely wasn’t the place for this career fair. It is very small and it was really crowded in there. I don’t know why the GYM was chosen for this career fair because in the Cesar Chavez Student Center, there is Jack Adams Hall which I believe can easily fit around 1000 people and is the biggest hall on the campus.

As I walk in, I see employers that were not even on the list. Seems like they were there just to market their company or spread awareness. Recruiters were dressed in Polo shirt and seemed un professional. Most of the company representatives I talked to said “GO ONLINE” and apply for the job. What the heck is the point of a career fair if I am re-directed to the internet for submission of my resume? I am not interested in your company pen or paper cutter that is made in china…

I went to San Francisco City’s booth and handed the lady my application which I had already filled out at home and was waiting to turn it in. She takes the application, looks at it then hands it back to me telling me she is not collecting any applications from applicants. Once again, why the heck are you in a career fair if you can’t take applications and resumes? Who is putting a gun to your head? All she had on her table were print out of city jobs that can also be viewed online.

Do the recruiters really think that a job applicant is at their table to find out if the company’s stock should be bought or sold? If I need information about the company, I can go online and do my research. If I am at a company’s booth, I want to know if they have a job available for people with accounting majors, what are the requirements and if resumes are being accepted. That’s It!

Obviously after glancing at my resume if they see fit, they can take me to a side and take an informal interview. That is not something I will be deciding but I am obviously ready for it. I saw students forcing recruiters to take the resumes and the recruiters being hesitant to take the resumes and give out their business cards. Seriously, it was JOKE!

My wife told me about her friend who just got booted from a job interview at Hollywood Video store in Los Gatos, CA because of her Hijab (head-scarf) which Muslim women usually wear. At first I couldn’t really understand anything and was really surprised because California as a whole is very diverse and you see girls wearing Hijab working everywhere from Starbucks to Bank of America.

I asked my wife to email her a few questions, an informal interview, to find out more about what had happened and below is the reply:

Q: How did you hear about the job, did you walk in and or apply online etc?
A: I live near Hollywood video, so I walked in one time and saw the now hiring, and I asked about it, and a worker told me to fill out an application on line, so I did that.

Q: Did the interviewer ask questions directly or indirectly about age, marital status, race, or religion?
A: In the middle of my interview she asked me about my scarf… she asked me if i was 18 or not…

Q: Was the interviewer welcoming, easy to talk to?
A: She seemed friendly

Q: Were you offered the job?
A: She told me that my availability was really good and then she told me to sign my name and date on some paper… then when I finished she said “before we go any further I want to ask you… do you have to wear that thing on your head” and I said “yes it’s a part of my religion.”

Q: What was the exact reason the interviewer gave for not hiring you?
A: Said to me “I’m sorry we don’t allow that here… it’s just not good for our environment” then I said “are you serious??… I’ve never heard of such a reason.” She asked me if there was any way I could take the scarf off… “I told her there was no way I was going to take my scarf off because it was a part of my religion. She then told me she was sorry and couldn’t give me the job but if I took off my scarf, she would give me the job! I felt that there was no point continuing with the interview any further and I left…

According to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of l964, employers are prohibited from discriminating against individuals on the basis of religion. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or EEOC has a page on its website that answers concerns that are faced by Muslims, Sikhs, Arabs, and South Asians. One of the question there is:

Susan is an experienced clerical worker who wears a Hijab (head scarf)…. XYZ Temps places Susan in a long-term assignment with one of its clients. The client contacts XYZ and requests that it notify Susan that she must remove her Hijab while working at the front desk, or that XYZ assign another person to Susan’s position. According to the client, Susan’s religious attire violates its dress code and presents the “wrong image.” Should XYZ comply with its client’s request?

XYZ Temps may not comply with this client request without violating Title VII. The client would also violate Title VII if it made Susan remove her Hijab or changed her duties to keep her out of public view. Therefore, XYZ should strongly advise against this course of action. Notions about customer preference real or perceived do not establish undue hardship, so the client should make an exception to its dress code to let Susan wear her Hijab during front desk duty as a religious accommodation. If the client does not withdraw the request, XYZ should place Susan in another assignment at the same rate of pay and decline to assign another worker to the client.

Source: http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/backlash-employer.html

Another question, this time, a Sikh’s turban is in question and is relevant to the concept of scarf:

I am a Sikh man and the turban that I wear is a religiously-mandated article of clothing. My supervisor tells me that my turban makes my coworkers “uncomfortable,” and has asked me to remove it. What should I do?

If a turban is religiously-mandated, you should ask your employer for a religious accommodation to wear it at work. Your employer has a legal obligation to grant your request if it does not impose a burden, or an “undue hardship,” under Title VII. Claiming that your coworkers might be “upset” or “uncomfortable” when they see your turban is not an undue hardship.

Source: http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/backlash-employee.html

This case definitely falls under religious discrimination and there is no question that the interviewer rejected her on the basis of her scarf and claimed that it was “not good for the environment” which is basically like saying “we don’t want people walking into Hollywood Video to see you in your head-scarf.”

My wife’s friend has filed a complaint with CAIR but there has been no response yet. Where this goes now remains to be seen.

After a lot of consideration and out of necessity, I have decided to launch a portfolio type website that lists all the websites managed and operated by Zindah Inc.

Zindah Network lists all the websites that I (aka Zindah, Inc.) currently operate on an ongoing basis. The purpose of this portfolio type website is to basically provide people with more information on the websites I own and operate and answer other questions like how many people visit ABC website on daily basis etc.

Though not yet complete as far as traffic stats are concerned, the basic website is up and running. Soon, if interested, you will be able to buy advertising through paypal with just few clicks directly from the website information page on Zindah Network. This will save me alot of time replying to emails people send me to advertise on my websites.

Just a note here, MLD (this blog) is not part of the Zindah Network as this is my personal blog. As you can see, I don’t have any advertisers on this blog besides the Google AdSense and people I have exchanged links with. Get in touch with me if you want to advertise on this blog.