by Race in the Workplace special correspondent Erica Mauter

Fact Sheet on Employment Tests and Selection Procedures - The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
“The fact sheet describes common types of employer administered tests and selection procedures used in the 21st century workplace, including cognitive tests, personality tests, medical examinations, credit checks, and criminal background checks. The document also focuses on ‘best practices’ for employers to follow when using employment tests and other screening devices, and cites recent EEOC enforcement actions. Discriminatory employment tests and selection procedures are prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act — which are all enforced by the EEOC.” (via DCI Consulting’s OFCCP Blog)

Racial or Business Decision? - Evil HR Lady
“If you believe that their decisions involving race are having a detrimental effect on office morale or business results, then you need to be able to show that. Not through, ‘it’s not fair and it makes me angry,’ but through facts and figures.”

Beware the Professional Hispanic - Advertising Age’s The Big Tent
“Professional Hispanics are folks who are Hispanic and have chosen their ethnicity as their profession. They have no specific expertise in Hispanic Marketing (or even marketing per se, for that matter) but rather ride the ethnicity of their name to define and build their career… [W]hile Professional Hispanics ride their culture and ethnicity to career advancement, Hispanic Professionals leverage their efforts, experience and expertise.”

Workplace Prof Blog - The Impact on Employers and Employees of Taxation on Domestic Partner Benefits
“The lack of recognition for same-sex marriages is not only in violation of basic principles of equal protection, but it also leads to these absurd consequences for companies and citizens of this country in which ‘the taxation of domestic partner health care benefits sets up a two-tiered tax policy that costs many American families and their employers millions of dollars each year.’ The study above estimates that this system costs employers some $57 million per year in additional payroll taxes and costs unmarried couples some $178 million dollars in additional taxes per year.” [Williams Institute Study (pdf)]

Ethical Decisions and Business Gifts - On the Job
“Once you start to fudge on your ethics, once you put your personal integrity up for sale for season tickets to the Knicks or some other gift, then some day you’re going to realize that you’ve gone down an ethical abyss that may be hard to climb out of.”

How to Find More Black, Latino, Native American Executives - DiversityInc.com
“Providing a support network for blacks, Latinos and Native Americans pursuing business doctoral programs, The PhD Project puts them in front of the classroom at some of the nation’s top B-schools… It has slashed the average dropout rate for doctoral students from these groups from 35 percent to 7 percent.”

Five things people say about Christmas that drive me nuts - Brazen Careerist
“People want tolerance and diversity but they are not sure how to encourage it. There is a history of tolerance starting first in business, where the change makes economic sense: Think policies against discrimination toward women, and health insurance that includes gay partners. Tolerance and awareness in the workplace reliably trickle down to other areas of society. So do what you can at work, where you can argue that tolerance and diversity improve the bottom line, and you will affect change in society, where tolerance and diversity give deeper meaning to our lives.”

Creating Masculine Identities: Harassment and Bullying ‘Because of Sex’ by Ann McGinley - Social Science Research Network
From the article: “Workplaces are sites of construction of male gender identity. While there may be nothing wrong with constructing gender identity at work, masculinities research and the new bullying research demonstrate that men’s proving of masculinity in the workplace can be destructive to many men and to women. Title VII’s hostile work environment law provides a vehicle that, when interpreted properly, permits courts to conclude that severe or repeated harassing or bullying behavior, especially when performed by groups in sex segregated workplaces, discriminates against the target because of sex. Only if this behavior is eliminated from work will Title VII reach its promise of affording equal employment opportunity to both men and women.” (via Workplace Prof Blog)

Recommended Reading is a weekly feature where we link to some of our favorite workplace-related blog posts and articles. If you would like to suggest a link to Erica, please email tips@raceintheworkplace.com