I'm not talking about gifted 12 year olds that graduate college, or the high school all-state quarterback that can throw the ball like Brett Favre. (haha, packers suck!)

I'm talking about mentally/physical/emotionally/any other kind of handicapped person.

My question starts from my work place, where numerous "special" people are employed. They're given the exact same tasks as every other employee in their department, and yet are held to LOWER standards of both production and quality, AND get paid MORE per hour.

To clarify: THEY GET PAID MORE TO DO LESS/WORSE. My question is; why?

I've been with the company I work at for a little over a year. I've been promoted twice (now group leader of my department) and given raises 4 times. (Almost everyone gets the raises, it's not THAT hard of work)
I've seen people come and people go.


Example 1:

Just a few weeks ago an elderly woman (I'd guess in the 50-60 range) was fired from her job for having low production. (Standard = 100%, she was at around 87%, which is STILL in the 'acceptable' range of production, and cannot disqualify a person for a raise.)

So who came in and took her place? A "special" person.

What the bloody hell? We fire someone who shows up every damn day of the week at her age, to replace her with someone that gets to have extended breaks, lunches, higher wage, and above all gets to do less?

Example 2:

As of late, we've expanded our area so we can have more employees, and get more work done, so, the company is looking to hire new blood. We've gotten quite a few applicants, but the only thing I here come out of my superiors mouths is "Well can we afford the risk?" "What were their production / quality averages for their trial period" etc etc bullshit.

They're not even given these new people a fucking chance at learning all our policies and processes, tricks, etc that the job involves. (we don't even have an official policy book, there are so many, and they change so damn often that at times even the people that have been here for 20+ years have no fucking clue whats going on) They're dismissing them right from the get go based PURELY on production / quality IN THEIR FIRST WEEK. While these "special" employees don't even have to do jack or shit and they're 99% assured a job. WHY?

Is it fair to hold a normal, able bodied / minded person to a 100% quality standard while these "special" people can dip down into negatives seemingly, and all that's told to them is they need to try harder, they need to and I quote "learn from your mistakes, and build on them".

There's all this bitching at work since we've moved from our "parent" company lately. (which is owned by Glen Taylor, the owner of the Timberwolves... jackass.. (I beat his nephew up when we were kids, I guess this is payback? :())

It's all about the $. That's all anyone there cares about. Yet they look at this financial burden (the special people) and just smile and blame everyone else in the department, saying we can cut back on this, cut back on that. They've even taken the privelege of wearing headphones while working to 'try' and 'resolve' these 'production and quality' issues. But for the most part the issues aren't with the 'normal' people, It's with the 'special ones'.

I just don't understand why a normal person thats prepared to work for 40 hours a week, that has the potential to meet or exceed production standards, gets paid less or turned away from a job in favor of a fucking retard.

Someone, please enlighten me on this subject.

I bet your company is getting some serious governmental funding for hiring those "special" people.

Kivorn... those companies usually get tax incentives or tax breaks for employing the "disadvantaged".

I have seen the same thing... I used to work for a company that had some of the same practices. Folks began a campaign of making suggestions and complaints... NOT about the physically challenged... but rather about a lack of policy and procedure manual.

It took a while to get it through, but once a policy and procedure manual was in writing, then the employees had solid ground to stand on. It made the playing field a little more level. Employees had a procedural process to go through upon being hired. They were evaluated and then the decision was made to keep them or let them go.

Those with handicaps were given jobs or opportunity for jobs that they were actually capable of doing within the limits of their abilities... and their pay was comensurate with the job.

Example: Someone in a wheelchair was not given the opportunity to apply for a job on the production floor... the job requirements (stated in the P&P manual) stated that to work there, you had to be able to lift a certain amount of weight, that you had to be able to carry that a certain distance.

On the other hand... in my department, we had a couple of folks in wheelchairs... I was network admin and they were programmers. The programmers were paid the same no matter what their physical challenges.

This all came because we asked for a Policy and Procedure manual... you have to go around and use the side door to get what you want sometimes. If we had made a stink about physically challenged employees, we would not have gotten anywhere. Instead, we asked for policies... and those policies were the same for everyone.... if they had tried to make exceptions, they could have been sued. It sounds like your company is worried about the same.

I'd state my opinion on this, but I'd end up offended some bleeding heart liberal somewhere in kentucky or something.

Give it a try Vhex!

"haha, packers suck!" -Quote

For once I agree, so true. Damn Packers defense sucks ass.

Ibudin

It's all about the $.
Quote of the... era?

It has nothing to do with "special" people, it has to do with money. How can companies earn more money, or pay less. Simple as that. If govs would give more/take less when companies employ tibetan people, guess where recruitments would take place?

Who cares about Kentucky Zhen? :(

I'm acctually a little confused by this post, so I'll start off by asking a few questions. When you say "special" people, you're talking about mentally and physically handicapped, correct? Having delt with this for nearly all my lifetime, with my sister being lumped in to that category, this message makes me think that Minnesota would be a *damn* good place to move.

This information is only accurate for Alaska, California, Idaho, and Washington and with severe mental retardation along with cerebral palsy level of disability, but state and federal governments acctually allow employers to pay "special" people sub minimum wage based upon their percieved capacity to do work, a number usually figured out by the company they're working for. My sister has had a few jobs throughout her life. Currently she's working for a facility that garners odd jobs for them to do, rolling silverware in napkins for resturaunts, etc. She makes .19 cents an hour working at this job. Her previous, and most favorite job paid a whopping .23 cents an hour, her best paying job yet.

I would honestly be curious to know about the level of disability of the people working with you, and where you found out that they make more? I'm not saying that I don't believe you or anything, but it's sort of amazing that it flies in the face of what I've seen first hand in some of the most progressive states around.


ps. Vhex, It would probably end up being a bleeding heart liberal from Idaho. Kentucky's close though!

Hey you guys tricked me... I thought this was going to be about that commercial where those quasi-stars think they are getting "special" treatment from there car insurance guy...... :(