Super Spooky Halloween Shorty & Thank Yous!

Do you ever wonder about the intersection of corporate policies, legal action, and social statements? We're pulling back the curtain on a staggering legal case in this episode, exploring the implications of a lawsuit involving Dollar General and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA). Prepare to have your perception of corporate conduct challenged as we dissect allegations of Dollar General demanding family medical history from applicants, culminating in a staggering $1 million settlement.

We also take a moment to express our heartfelt gratitude to our Patreon supporters, Hallie, Bill,. Also wanted to thank  Ashley, and a special fan who connected via Instagram. Your feedback is our compass, guiding us in crafting content that resonates with our listeners. As we anticipate a thrilling upcoming episode, we can't help but acknowledge the Herculean task of hunting for fresh material. Join us as we navigate these intricate topics, and remember - your voice matters, so keep the feedback coming!

Transcript

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Spooky Podcast Thank You and News

Warren 0:06

Had you actually read the email, you would know that the spooky podcast you're about to listen to could contain explicit language and offensive content. The views of the hosts are not representative of their past, present or future employers. Yes, this is going to be an extra scary, spooky episode. Tonight is Halloween evening and I am sitting here in the dark with the lights out, recording in the dark so little children don't think that I'm home and ring the doorbell and make my dog go fucking notes for half an hour or so. So that's why we are extra spooky tonight and it's even scary for you because I am by myself and Ron. Yes, solo episode today.

Warren 0:57

I do intend for this to be a shorty episode. I do not think it will take too long, especially being by myself, and actually the whole point of this episode is I want to get some thanks out there. I want to tell the story and also let you know we have some exciting news coming up. So, starting off with the thanks, in the last episode I mentioned, I recorded another solo episode while I'm driving and actually the audio didn't turn out that bad. I'm going to try and edit it at the same time I edit this episode so you Patreon listeners can have a special episode, just for yourself, of me ranting. It didn't turn out half bad, better than I would have thought for being by myself, but a thanking people as always. We want to thank Halle, our original Jaded HR rock star. However, now Halle has a friend I'd like to introduce the world to Bill. Bill is our newest Patreon supporter, so thank you very much, bill, for helping us make this podcast happen. Another thank you I wanted to get out there which I thanked this person on, or these people, I should say on our Patreon only membership.

Warren 2:09

We had two people I wanted to thank. The first is Ashley. She was the first person to reply to a post on our JadedHRcom website and she said she's checking through all the episodes and is going through the back library and she made a request. She said that she wanted to hear more episodes like our season one episode, nine episodes, my little ponies in their underwear, and so I am running out of good ammo to use for stories of horrible resumes. I think I might have one or two left that I can put out there, but yes, but we will work on that. So go ahead and send me those comments and, through Instagram, send them through our website, send them to feedback at JadedHRcom. I'll take a look at them all and see what we can come up with. Another fan contacted us on Instagram through direct messages and made a request for a similar type episodes. So, please, I really do look forward to getting your feedback on the social media or any way I can get it, because sometimes it seems like you're just yelling into an empty void all by yourself. And to get feedback from the listeners is always fun and exciting. Even if it's negative feedback. It's sort of fun as well, because it's just fun. But another listener feedback Feathers and I we had our first fan meet and greet two weeks ago, and it just happened to be in Greenville at East Carolina University, with a listener who is a fellow ECU alum and got in touch with me, and so she got to meet the two of us again, I guess you could say.

Dollar General Lawsuit and Social Statements

Warren 3:57

And on top of that, she got to see us at our absolute finest, our tailgating group. We have themes for each of our tailgates, and this theme for this week, which has happened to be homecoming, was Octuba Fest. And no, I'm not mispronouncing it as I mispronounce so many other things it is Octuba Fest. We celebrate the tuba section of East Carolina University marching band. So I was wearing real German later hosin, and Feathers was wearing a later hosin T shirt and a spiffy hat, along with an absolutely fabulous mullet wig. So, yeah, she saw us at our best, and a few drinks in to begin.

Warren 4:36

So, leslie, thank you for meeting up with us. Hope to see you again soon. So, yeah, we would love to meet more of our fans. If you happen to be in Eastern North Carolina, southeastern Virginia, central Virginia, let us know. Maybe we can meet up with you. Though those are the three places you can find us, but right now, feathers is gallivanting across the United States again, so I wasn't able to record, but I did want to get an episode out to you. I thought it was very important to do that, so I only have, besides our thank yous there, I only have one topic I really wanted to cover, and this was. This is something interesting. This is interesting. This came to me from HR dive of.

Warren 5:18

The author is Kate Taroni, hope I'm saying that correctly, but it involves a Gina lawsuit, and I remember discussing with the employment law for into mind many, many, many years ago how ridiculous the Gina act was, and basically, by looking at someone, you are collecting. Their argument was this is ridiculous. So just by looking at them, you are collecting genetic information. You see their eye color, their skin color, their hair type, their hair color, their lack of hair, if you might be me. You see, maybe, their height, their weight. You find all this other telling information about potential genetic information about them. But here it is many, many, many moons later, after having that discussion with the that attorney, dollar General is the set to pay a $1 million settlement because it requested applicants family medical history, which runs, of course, a muck to the genetic information non-discrimination act.

Warren 6:22

Also called Gina, they'll play this $1 million lawsuit to settle allegations that it requested family medical history from applicants. The employer, formerly Dahl-Gen Corp LLC, requested applicants at its Bessemer Alabama Distribution Center to share past and present medical conditions of family members, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease. According to the 2017 lawsuit, it also required applicants to pass a post-offer pre-employment medical exam that screamed out qualified individuals with disabilities. The commission called it highly invasive. For example, the agency said Dollar General rescinded job offers to applicants whose blood pressure exceeded 160 over 100 or who had less than 20, 50 vision in one eye, even when those impairments did not prevent the applicant from safely performing their job.

Warren 7:15

So, wow, now, every time you think you've seen it all in HR, nope, something else comes up. And this is a perfect example. I can only have the feeling that this was a rogue HR person who had no training. Probably one of those fell backwards into HR type of position and had no training, no development, no anything in had no idea what they were doing to start asking this because they thought, oh, it would be a good idea, it sounds, oh, it sounds like it's a good idea, and a lot of these things on face value sound good, they feel good to the person until they realize, oh shit, I did not know that we had this type of situation. So, anyways, that was a little bit about the Gina episode lawsuit that I never thought I'd see in my life. But once again, I also said I would never see a Crown Act lawsuit and bam, I've seen multiple of them because I thought that the world was past. That Well, speaking of the world being past, that I did.

Warren 8:20

I'll throw out another topic out there. It's sort of rambling off the top of my head versus something in my show notes. I'm a little concerned about companies out there who think that it is their obligation to make a statement on every social event in the world happening. As you know, right now October 31, 2023, there's multiple wars going on. We've had Ukraine and Russia going at it for quite a while and now Israel and Hamas are going at it and, yes, in some cases it seems like those conflicts are very one sided and one sided it may be very right and the other side be very wrong. So I will focus on the Ukraine Russia situation because it doesn't involve religion hardly at all.

Warren 9:11

But either way, if you, if a company, is putting down the actions of Russia, that can actually be interpreted by some of your employees of a Russian descent that you are anti them. And I know how many of people with a Russian descent I've met them many over the last 10 years and it's been interesting to to learn this and I would hate to feel any of them feel badly about being mistreated because of the actions of their native land. But everybody I've talked to, they basically realize that their leader is batshit crazy and you should realize that these are the actions of deranged individuals and not the people of the country. You know, I read an article recently men of fighting age are escaping Russia. They're leaving, they're trying to get out, so they don't have to fight in their little war with the Ukraine right now.

Warren 10:09

So, anyways, don't want to go too much on a political track or anything along those lines, but just just companies. You don't need to make a statement, even if you think, yes, the side you're supporting is absolutely right. And when you get into the really Israel Hamas situation, oh my God, there's religious, there's political, there's every type of undertones to it. So, even if you think you're saying the right thing, yeah, we're going to support whomever. Or maybe you have an employee who supports at the opposite side that you do Because of their cultural background. What have you? It doesn't need to be said. A company does not need to make a stance on every social justice issue in the world. Yes, war sucks, war is horrible. I'm not a peacenik, but I'm also not a war hawk, but nobody wants to see anybody lose their life in these type of situations. So, being a Debbie Downer here in the podcast, but, like I said, employers, you don't need to make a comment on each and every social situation happening in the world. It just could come to bite back, to bite you in the ass.

Warren 11:14

So those are more than the topics I had to put out for today. The other thing I wanted to put out is that just this is excuse me, just yesterday we landed a very special guest for next episode, which, once again, we're recording every two weeks now. So if you missed an episode you thought I think you missed an episode you probably didn't it's just because we're going back to a biweekly schedule. So please listen to us. In two more weeks we're going to have a very special guest I think you'll really enjoy. I've heard him on another podcast and the topic we have for him is excellent. He's going to be the best, the best person I can think of.

Connect With Guest for Next Episode

Warren 11:56

I read the article and I'm not going to go into too much detail. I wasn't even. It's a short article, but I wasn't even halfway through. I said, oh, I got to get in touch with this person. I did, and they graciously accepted to become our guest for the next episode, but once again, didn't want to leave you without an episode again or run an encore episode. So thank you very much for listening. As always, I'm Warren and I'm here helping you survive HR one. What the fuck moment at a time.