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Fall 2022 Winner of the Civil Rights Scholarship

Sam McLendon

We are proud to award Sam McLendon our Fall 2022 $1000 scholarship award. Sam’s essay is of high quality, exhibiting professional writing skills and well researched information. The Devadoss Law Firm looks forward to helping more students pursue their dreams for years to come.

Sam’s Winning Essay:

Headshot of Fall 2022 Scholarship Winner Sam McLendon

There are numerous civil rights issues that affect workers around America. But what are the most important civil rights issues that affect millennial workers? Let’s start with who are millennials? These terms are often confused in today’s society, but a millennial is a person who is born in the early 1980s to the late 1990s. So a person who is a millennial is around the age of 30 to 40 years old. With that being said, they more than likely started their workforce careers in the early 2000s and are still working. Furthermore, millennials having above or under 20 years of work experience have definitely faced many civil issues in the workforce. In this essay I’ll be discussing some of those issues, how they can avoid them and protect themselves, and how they can understand their rights.

There are numerous civil rights issues that affect workers around America. But what are the most important civil rights issues that affect millennial workers? Let’s start with who are millennials? These terms are often confused in today’s society, but a millennial is a person who is born in the early 1980s to the late 1990s. So a person who is a millennial is around the age of 30 to 40 years old. With that being said, they more than likely started their workforce careers in the early 2000s and are still working. Furthermore, millennials having above or under 20 years of work experience have definitely faced many civil issues in the workforce. In this essay I’ll be discussing some of those issues, how they can avoid them and protect themselves, and how they can understand their rights.

Headshot of Fall 2022 Scholarship Winner Sam McLendon

The first civil rights issue I’d like to open up with is their appearances. A lot of people express themselves through their appearance. Appearance can be from what clothes you wear, to the type of hairstyle you would like to wear, or the tattoos on your body. I think that most millennials have been programmed that there is a specific status quo to how you should be presenting yourself to the company or representing the company. While Generation Z thinks that your appearance doesn’t matter, and what matters is your performance at the job. Millennials have so much struggle and programmed with this civil rights issue that they feel as though their status quo or opinion on themselves, coworkers, or other random peoples’ appearance matters. But it seems like as of late their mind has slowly been molded. This could be due to them having some type of younger influence in their life who is outspoken on opinions. Those younger people alone can better inform them about how they can protect their rights in the workplace. This can simply be expressed through meetings with the union of the workplace; or if there is an absence of a union they could express to a high standing person in the company how they’d like to express themselves in the office. They could even go as far as giving examples of other companies that may not have a specific dress code, such as Google who has no formal dress code. This would better help them understand their rights and the ways they can protect themselves.

To add on another civil rights issue for millennials is with them being considered young in the workspace to the extent that their boss may be treating them as an adolescent. There could be quite a large age range in these workspaces that could range from people in their early 20s to those in their 60s. I know this is very prevalent because I have heard my parents express this issue at home, and whoever is reading this could have once experienced this. When your boss or a coworker who is simply just older than you, talks to you as a child or that you are their child it’s very disrespectful, especially in the workplace. I think millennials can be better informed about how they can protect their rights in the workplace by making sure someone in a higher position is aware of these situations and is cracking down on them. Also another thing that could happen is that people in their workplace can have a better understanding of each other and have some type of better relationship. This could occur through extracurricular activities together that don’t involve work. Whether that’s happy hour, a friendly kickball game during lunch, or simple conversation while working. Workers could be informed about their rights and the ways they can protect themselves more than likely through the human resources office more times than not. Human resources usually establish and enforce what the respect level should be in the office.

Moving forward into another huge civil right that is kept more so secretive in offices due to companies not wanting “comparison” is wage rights. This issue could easily benefit millennial workers or it could hinder them. For example, if you’re a millennial in a highly qualified young office you may or may not earn more for your salary than them. Or the younger staff could have started at a higher base pay than you. There could also be another scenario where the millennials are the younger people in the office, but are getting paid less than those in the same position. It would be more unfair because as time has gone on, the qualifications for jobs have risen. Some companies also have it written in your contracts that your not allowed to speak on your pay with coworkers intentionally so that way discrimination isn’t known amongst during hiring process. With that, millennials should definitely be better informed of their coworkers pay especially if they are in the same position.

In conclusion, there are multiple issues that can be addressed for millennial’s civil rights inside the workplace. I think the three most important ones are appearance in the workplace, respect in age difference, and wage rights. A millennials should be able to express the way they want in the most “professional” manner. Another point within that is, millennials should not judge those who want to express themselves in the workspace. Moving forward to the respect value in a workspace. With millennials falling in the middle range of today’s work environment, they have to be congous to make sure they have the same amount of respect for their coworkers who are younger than them as those who are older than them. Following up with wage rights, I think not only millennials but everyone in the office in the same positions should have equal wages despite the ages. This could potentially eliminate the issue with a lack of respect in the office because everyone would be put on the same level. With these issues it is important that millennials are better informed about how they can protect their rights in the workplace. A couple ways to make sure they understand their rights and the ways they can protect themselves is by having a work union or even having frequent meetings with their bosses or even with human resources!