Legal and Human Resources: People turn to gallows

Some turn to gallows humor to cope with pandemic

It didn’t take long after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s shelter-inplace order for the shelter-in-place memes and videos to start hitting the internet. I’m grateful for that because I, like most people, need a laugh right now.

My favorite meme so far is “Everyone please be careful tonight, there is a DUI checkpoint on the corner of hall way and kitchen … be safe,” and my favorite video is the one of the guy singing the Adele song “Hello” with his face pressed against his living room window.

However, scrolling through Face book, it’s evident that some people are offended by these attempts at humor or think they reveal that people are not taking COVID-19 Robin Paggi seriously. While it’s obvious that some peo ple don’t understand the severity of the situation, I think making fun of the coronavirus is just the latest example of gallows humor (humor that treats serious, frightening or painful subject matter in a light, satirical way, according to Dictionary.com).

In her article “Humor as Weapon, Shield and Psycho logical Salve,” Nichole Force says that gallows humor was coined by the Germans (galgenhumor) in the mid-1800s and was considered to be “an expression of resilience and hope.”

Used primarily by the oppressed, gallows humor helped people cope with circumstances beyond their control. An example is this Soviet-era joke regarding whether Joseph Stalin or Herbert Hoover was the better leader: Hoover taught Americans not to drink. Yes, but Stalin taught Rus sians not to eat.

Because this form of humor was also seen as a “secret, subversive weapon” used by the masses, it was sometimes considered to be dangerous by those in control, said Force. Not surprisingly, anti-Nazi humor was outlawed in Germany during World War II and those who engaged in telling such jokes were punished, including being sent to concentration camps or death.

Despite this threat, gallows humor persisted even in concentration camps. Elie Wiesel’s memoir “Night,” re counting his imprisonment in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps, provides an example: “In Treblinka, where a day’s food was some stale bread and a cup of rotting soup, one prisoner cautions a fellow inmate against gluttony. ‘Hey Moshe, don’t overeat. Think of us who will have to carry you.’”

Such macabre humor “demonstrates the vital role it plays in resilience and survival,” according to Force.

COVID-19 is a serious, frightening, painful subject that has resulted in circumstances beyond our control. Joking about it helps us from being too depressed about it. Force theorizes, “In much the same way that the release of white blood cells is the body’s natural means of combating an intruding infection, gallows humor and humor in general could be the natural psychological means of combating an intruding depression.”

However, joking about self-isolation is different than making racist jokes about the source of the virus or that the death of older people from it might be a good thing, which have also popped up on the internet.

According to www.militarytimes.com, an Army social media manager was fired in March because of something he posted on the Army’s official social media account that his superiors thought was derogatory toward Chinese people. I haven’t seen any news releases about someone being fired for calling the virus a “Boomer Remover” yet, but just give it time.

Employers, managers and supervisors should respond to these jokes just as they would to any jokes that dis parage people because of their race, age or any other protected characteristic. This response should include the appropriate corrective action (verbal warning, written warning, suspension or termination) based on the sever ity of the situation.

To the creative people who have helped us laugh about hand sanitizing, social isolating and toilet paper hoarding, I salute you. Laughing about it helps to ease the anxiety until we can go back to our lives.

Robin Paggi is a training and development specialist with Worklogic HR.

California’s new ‘gig law’ snagging Kern employers

The passage last year of Assembly Bill 5, which became law on Jan. 1, has sent shock waves and confusion through California’s labor market. More than 30 bills have been introduced in the Legislature to change, delay or overturn the “gig economy” bill.

Authored last year by San Diego Democratic Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, a former labor organizer, AB 5 was introduced in the wake of the Cali fornia Supreme Court’s Dynamex ruling. The case redefined the classifications of “contract worker” and “employee,” who is entitled to receive benefits and protections.

Numerous law suits have been filed by both em ployers and indeKaren Bonanno pendent contractors, and affected industries are turning to the November ballot to qualify an initiative asking vot ers to exempt some contract workers, such as Lyft and Uber drivers.

In this chaos, employers who depend on independent contractors must obey the new law, while they monitor ongoing endeavors to reform it. They also should contact their elected representatives and explain how AB 5 affects business and hiring practices, as well as the liveli hoods of independent contractors.

Dynamex is a nationwide, on-de mand, same-day, pickup and delivery service. Prior to 2004, the company clas sified its California drivers as employees. In a cost cutting move starting in 2004, Dynamex reclassified the drivers as “in dependent contractors.”

For 30 years prior to the court’s land mark 2018 ruling, the 11-factor Borello test was applied to classify “independent contractors.” The test basically focused on whether the employer had control over the means and manner of the work performed. Also considered was if the contractor used his or her own work tools, had established a business and was able to work for other clients.

The 2018 Dynamex ruling replaced that with an ABC test, which asks if contractors: A) Are free from control or direction in work performed; B) Perform specialized services that differ from a client’s usual business; and C) Maintain an independently established business offering services to clients.

Within that test, Gonzalez crafted a far-reaching bill that exempts some industries and restricts the work in others. Basically, AB 5 limits employers’ ability to label workers as “independent contractors” and requires benefits, such as sick pay and overtime pay, to be pro vided to contractors who work beyond the limits.

Among the occupations exempted from the new law were doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, marketing spe cialists, human resources administrators, travel agents, graphic designers, building contractors, hair stylists and barbers, licensed estheticians and man icurists. But so many others have been ensnared that a backlash has prompted a scramble to amend AB 5.

A much-cited example of how AB 5 impacts independent contractors is the limit it sets on freelance writers and photographers.

AB 5 places a cap of 35 annual sub missions a year on the work writers and photographers can make to a publication or media outlet before the “independent contractor” is considered an employee, who must be provided benefits.

A freelancer who writes only one