[Obligatory mobile formatting apologies]
Hello hello. So, the beginning of an idea occurred to me recently and I was hoping y’all might have some advice or could point me towards some valuable resources. I’m an early(ish) professional in the tech industry and I often volunteer as an alum with the computer science student organization at my old university. I teach a workshop series that began as a single session on technical interview skills back when I was a director in this org but now encompasses several topics that I wish someone had taught me when I was in school.
Now that I’ve graduated and worked some years, I’ve learned a lot and expanded it to a 4 part series I teach every semester. It covers resume reviews, technical interview skills, offer negotiations, and basic financial literacy. I love doing this and I know these kids get a lot out of it; quite often they’ll message me in the days or weeks afterwards telling me about the cool jobs they’ve landed or asking for individual advice on how to approach certain topics with hiring managers or recruiters.
A student I recently spoke to rose the potential issue of how if he were to, hypothetically, be laid off or fired he could possibly lose his visa and have to leave the US as he’s an international student and graduating soon (his student visa would no longer protect him). He asked me if I had any advice or anything on that, and while I don’t know a lot about the intricacies of work authorization since I’m a US citizen, I did mention to him that companies legally cannot discipline, retaliate against, or fire someone for protected characteristics or activities. Some examples:
– Race
– Gender, gender identity, gender expression
– Sex
– Sexual orientation
– National origin
– Disability
– Religion
– Age
– Pregnancy
– Genetic information
– Military or veteran status
– Citizenship status
– Talking about wages
– Talking about/being involved in unions
He seemed very surprised by this and it got me thinking. So many people have never been taught what their rights in the workplace are. I’m already in a great position to educate young adults on these topics and have a rapport with many of them at my school, plus my school is one of the most diverse in the nation and has a large foreign student population. And even though I largely interact with CS students bound for white collar office jobs, a huge percent of the student population works service industry jobs to pay for their classes as it’s predominately a commuter school. You’re even allowed to take 2 consecutive semesters off without having to fill out any kind of form or deferral and still be able to sign up for classes no problem that 3rd semester — this is because it’s so common for students to take semesters off to work and save for tuition.
But while those pieces align, this is territory I’m unfamiliar with and I’d want to spend some time reading about the actual laws that protect workers. We talk a lot about what’s legal and what isn’t in the comments of this sub, but is there a handbook somewhere? I would imagine there’s some compiled literature out there on this exact stuff but I’m not even sure where to begin.
Thanks in advance to anyone who took the time to read and possibly help out!