Thirteen percent of all U.S. adults, or 20 percent of people who were employed in February, were laid off or furloughed. One in five American workers lost their jobs in March, including almost 40 percent of those in lower-income households, according to a Federal Reserve survey, underscoring the staggering impact of the coronavirus crisis. The data …
As society reacts to the spread of COVID-19, businesses are making difficult decisions. Despite the government’s interventions to encourage continuity in the workforce, unemployment is at historic rates and still rising. This creates high stakes for employers of foreign nationals. The inflexible regulatory scheme governing such employment did not anticipate COVID-19. It’s important to approach layoffs, …
Layoffs have high stakes for foreign nationals and their employers Read More »
Atlantic City, New Jersey, may be the gambling capital of the East Coast, but there are certain things that shouldn’t be left up to chance, namely public safety. However, bureaucrats in charge of the state takeover of Atlantic City are now ready to impose drastic budget cuts that will result in 50% fewer firefighters and …
Labor and Community Allies Fight for Jobs and Public Safety in Atlantic City Read More »
It’s college application time for high school seniors around the country, and Philadelphia public school students are facing more than the usual “will I get in?” stresses. That’s because last summer’s massive layoffs in the Philadelphia schools left them understaffed and without enough counselors to guide students through the application process—in some cases without enough counselors to …
Philadelphia School Layoffs are Endangering Students’ College Prospects Read More »
Despite educators’ best efforts, urban school systems are bleak places to work at and learn in these days, no matter the city or one’s position in the school. But Philadelphia offers a particularly grim view of the dismantling of public education in the austerity era. Few American city school systems have faced measures as devastating …
Dark Days for Philly Schools As Cuts Threaten to Decimate District Read More »
The improved jobs figures out last Friday obscured the ongoing decline in public-sector jobs. As the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics noted when releasing the March unemployment data: Employment in local government continued to trend down over the month. Local government has lost 416,000 jobs since an employment peak in September 2008. The loss of …
Women, Black Workers Hard Hit by Attacks on Public Employees Read More »
One phrase comes to mind as I started calling my friends to tell them that I had been fired, “a little bit pregnant.” I’m a guy, so please remember, this is a metaphor. I’ll explain. The American Dream isn’t just big cars and summer houses. No, at it’s heart is the belief that everyone has …
I’ve had countless people write to me, as a workplace columnist, to describe the security guard standing next to them as they packed up their soon-to-be-former desk and painfully did a final perp walk out of the building. Mine was not nearly that cinematic. Just me, a bunch of boxes and a coworker with whom …
My boss, and his henchman, arrived promptly for the meeting to discuss my sales update. It was 4 pm on Friday afternoon, approximately 48 hours ago. I knew something was up because my boss started speaking totally in sentence fragments. “I’ve made up my mind, things aren’t working out, I need people to get along, …
Fired in real time: Never meet with your boss at 4 pm on Friday Read More »
A number of years ago I was running a small non-profit that I’d founded. We negotiated a big six-figure payday with a video production company to produce a four part video series. We also tossed in exclusive distribution rights to an award winning video we’d created. Can you say windfall? We could. Thinking that this …
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
