MENA WOMEN: What kind of jobs are your husbands doing/looking into?

[♥JP♥ 5]

JP...its exactly the same benefits im getting....6 weeks PTO....8 if i was to have a csection....and i could take 12 weeks off under FMLA...

Right but I think if your doctor decides you need more than 6 or 8 weeks due to medical reasons, you will get that time paid as well.

That determination is made based on your company's disability benefits. It doesn't have anything to do with the law. Some companies don't pay for anything, they just hold your job for you.

I agree this differs from state to state, however its not state disability that holds you job, its FMLA. If your company has a short term disability plan then it is your doctor who will make the determination not the company. The company cannot let you go back to work until you have been cleared from the doctor. Some companies will subsidize the benefits you receive from the state so that you get more of you pay. Some companies just let the state pay you based on the taxes you have paid. Like I said before, Kelly should check to see what the laws are in her state. The statements I have made are based on the laws in my state.

[tammy2688 1]

And one more thing... When you submit a resume with ALL previous residences, education, and/or experience listed from countries like Morocco, Pakistan, Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, etc... they can probably safely assume what religious backgrown a person has also without asking. (obviously not all people from those countries are Muslim but an overwhelming majority is.)

Sure! Interviewers can narrow it down from resume too. Even they are not supposed to ask about the marital status. But interviewers sometimes try to find out the job seeker's marital status from their broad conversation without asking the straight question, "are you married?" Sometimes it is helpful to know when it involves relocation issue. But usually the interviewer does not care about to find out the job seeker's religion. I am not saying that all interviewers don't care to know the job seeker's religion.

first of all I asked MENA WOMEN ABOUT THEIR HUSBANDS - we know all this theres no reason to chime in with information that everyone knows. This topic was to expose the concerns of those people who's husbands are coming and the problems finding jobs - we dont need wisdom that is so blah that everyone knows..please voice your concerns here and dont waste your breath with whats already known and understood.

[tammy2688 1]

my husband is a mechanical engineer and can't get an interview here in america for the life of him! every job he's sent his resume to doesn't call back. i think just taking any job, going to more school, then looking again after might give him a better chance.

a friend of mine from morocco who moved to the US 32 years ago (things are different now, i know) went to school starting at high school even was a college graduate from morocco....and now he's the vice president of a bank (making bank!lol) so it can happen. i suggest putting all your husbands back in school here and see what happens!

Yes, taking a job and going to school really does help as I have seen it with my own eyes. Yes, I also know a man who came here about 34 years ago, and he is now the executive of Mutual Banking. There is good opportunity to work upwards, its just now with the economy and the taboo on these men, its harder and the process, all the more headachy for us who only wish to see our husbands satisfied with their work and give them peace of mind.

but they can tell a lot of times by the person's name if they have half a brain!

i had my husband abbreviate his name because his full name is practically impossible to pronounce. he refuses to use another name all together though.

absolutely. as a side note, Simplemale if everyone one did everything they are SUPPOSED to do, like not SUPPOSED to ask/look at religion I wouldn't have even and these concerned women wouldn't have even wasted a breath to respod to this topic.

I never said discrimination does not exist. Again, I know the guideline. An Interviewer is not supposed to ask the job seeker about his religion, race. However, some interviewer might not follow this guideline and of course many job seekers are not aware of this. If one is asked about the race, religion, he/she can simply politely say that he/she prefers not to answer the question. If a job seeker thinks the interviewer is too much concerned about the job seeker's religion, perhaps it is better not to work in that company, if a job offer is made. Sooner or later co-workers, bosses will come to know the religion of the new employee. So the job seeker should make an effort to figure out the company's working environment during the interview and company tour. For your information, sometimes I also interview candidates. It might be easy to find a person's religion by looking at the name, if the name is obvious (mohammad, ahmed, khan, etc). But it is also hard to know a person's religion by looking at the name when the name is not obvious.

We all know this...please again, this topic is to voice conerns of jobs that are happenning here and the problems faced by MENA newcomers, not a topic to discuss the hiring process. No need to talk of guidelines we all know them this is a topic for MENA women voicing concern of the situation at hand.

thank you

[Jenn! 918]

Tammy, you are out of line. Simple Male is just trying to be helpful and it is often that threads branch out into tangents.

[♥JP♥ 5]

Tammy, you are out of line. Simple Male is just trying to be helpful and it is often that threads branch out into tangents.

Agreed. I don't think there is much more to discuss in this topic anyway which is why is veering off to another track.

[Ban Hammer 13,113]

wow

[tammy2688 1]

Tammy, you are out of line. Simple Male is just trying to be helpful and it is often that threads branch out into tangents.

I asked a question for some answers like: Since my husband came he faced . . . thats all. Yes they do branch into tangents and are actually very helpful in many ways when things that weren't stated get discussed. I was irked because its something we all know that no you can't tell all Muslims by name...and we all know muslims get bad assotiations because of the world situation right now...no need to ask what I meant, we are passed all that.

Its fine though, from the posts here, the answers I essentially wanted are all given. Its a concern and a serious one at that. I hope that in the near future there can be a shift in mindset, it may take many years but progress is happenning.

[tammy2688 1]

Simple Male, discrimination may be illegal, but it happens constantly here in the deep south where we live. I saw it for years against myself as a woman, and my husband sees it as a non-Muslim Arab man. He's been asked to his face if he's a terrorist, if he talks to Bin Laden, been called Bin Laden by supervisors, etc.....

Now that he's unemployed he doesn't even get calls for interviews in spite of a great work history. They just have to see his name for his resume to end up in the trash apparently.

My economics professor made a comment last week in our Labor Economics course that was about like what you were saying. He seems to think that if something is illegal it won't happen very often. That isn't the case. Laws can't change what is in someones heart and mind, no matter how hard we wish they would. People rarely risk sueing for discrimination because it will get a person black-listed for life and nobody wants to be out of work forever (well, some people do, but not the majority.) I put up with sexual harrassment daily for over two years because I was supporting two kids and had no choice and I know many people who do the same.

On the note of knowledge of Morocco - when we send money to his family we've been asked what state Morocco is in even though we put it in the County field on the form. When Abdel tells his co-workers that it is in Africa, they say "Hey, you're our brother man!" That has actually helped him form friendships at work before. Some people seem surprised that there are white people in Africa and think he's lying. He has to explain to them that North Africa is mostly Arab. I have to admit that I knew very little about Africa or Arabs or lots of things before I met an Arab man. The people he meets who know much about Morocco and Africa are usually the older guys at work who were over there during a war or whose fathers were there. We have a lot of retired military down here who are big into US history especially of the wars, so they have studied up on it and love to talk to him about North Africa.

Thats essentially what I mean by bad associations - I think we all understand that here. Asking me what are bad associations wasn't being helpful, it was trying to argue that there should not be such associations because employers are not supposed to ask he religion and also that all names do not reveal religion. again i think we all know that right now those things are not always happenning, and employers are not being neutral and it is quite obvious what I meant by bad associations.

Edited April 23, 2008 by tammy2688

[Nutty 2]

Abbas is a chemical engineer with a sub specialty in petroleum and gas.

I want him to follow his engineering career here in the USA. However, not if we have to move to some ####### area to pursue this. Like out in the middle of Texas.

Abbas, knows that chemical engineering is the best way to make some money. But his dream is to pursue skulpture and painting. He wants to open some sort of business doing base relief skulpture on people's houses. What he does not realize, this may be popular in Iran.but it would not work for houses made of wood (like the ones here in Portland, OR). It may work in New Mexico because they have a lot of adobe style buildings.

I try to encourage him to follow his dreams, but I also want him to realize that it will take baby steps.

Many foreigners think that life in USA is easy and that jobs and money fall from the trees. But that is not the case.

He might also consider work in a museum. Which many people don't think about.....the NYS State Museum has a petroleum and gas specialist on its payroll. They do scientific type stuff (ok, I was a liberal arts major).

Anything is possible...But I think the first thing is to see if he can get a job here in the pacific Northwest or California. Since I am already established. I would really only prefer to move if the money/salary is exceptionally good.

Oh, no, that's not what I meant. I meant that maybe there are positions in museums there that are similar to what we have here.

We'll see....

[Nutty 2]

It is not impossble for your husband to go into the hotel business. One of my first jobs was front desk agent/cashier for Sheraton Boston Hotel & Towers. Often, people who have degrees in hospitality management have to do internships at all levels of hotel business. Catering, housekeeping, maintenance, reservations. your husband may try for "back of the house" position with a larger chain. Having a second language is also a plus for hotel work. Working in hotel business is hard, but it teaches practical knowledge.

[shadtov 0]

Hubby is a barber. Hopefully I can convince him to go back to school after he works on getting a GED. However, it is his life and one of the things he wants badly is to live his life as he sees fit so I'll support whatever he wants to do..... well for a while.

a barber can make a good living. And if he can open his own shop, he can rent out spaces to other barbers and have quite a bit of autonomy. I'm not sure if a barber makes as much as a hair stylists who works with women, but I think it would be a pretty steady job, here.

[doodlebugg 10]

who wants some vicadin?

[palilover 1]

Hubby is a barber. Hopefully I can convince him to go back to school after he works on getting a GED. However, it is his life and one of the things he wants badly is to live his life as he sees fit so I'll support whatever he wants to do..... well for a while.

a barber can make a good living. And if he can open his own shop, he can rent out spaces to other barbers and have quite a bit of autonomy. I'm not sure if a barber makes as much as a hair stylists who works with women, but I think it would be a pretty steady job, here.

I guess it would all depend. Some pretty boys go to the salans I'm sure more than women do and maybe spend just as much on products:)

[Ban Hammer 13,113]

who wants some vicadin?

i will this weekend, if the weather is good. yard work, bleh.

[SaadBell 0]

who wants some vicadin?