Fighting Inequality – Blog Action Day #BAD2014
Since 2007, Blog Action Day has organized bloggers from around the world for one day to talk about a single issue. I’ve participated in Blog Action Day (aka BAD) since I started HR Bartender and have written about subjects such as human rights, famine, water, climate change, and poverty.
This year’s theme for Blog Action Day is inequality. Merriam-Webster defines inequality “as an unfair situation in which some people have more rights and better opportunities than other people”. Inequality exists both at work and in our personal lives.
If you want to see the extent that inequality exists in America, check out this series of graphs on NPR’s Planet Money site. It’s very interesting and absolutely shocking. We often read articles about the shrinking middle class. This data supports that conversation. Middle income jobs are becoming harder to find, creating in essence, even more inequality.
What can we do about it? As human resources professionals, we need to become more educated about job creation and design. We should become more involved with our local workforce development board and economic development council.
We must also have more conversation about what’s happening to the existing workforce. SHRM recently conducted a #NextChat on The Extinction of the Middle Class Job with Mike Vandervort. You can read the recap here.
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Unfortunately, inequality isn’t going to leave us tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean we can let the current situation continue. As business professionals and the architects of work, we have the opportunity to create equality in the workplace.
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