I was rather surprised at the number of comments on my previous diary, which talked about news stories saying that some Goodwill stores are paying disabled workers as little as 4 cents per hour and that 11% of the workforce is not even paid minimum wage. The news stories did not identify how disabled the workers were or how it was determined that they should get this wage. The discussion that followed was interesting to me, and I decided to see what other information there was about companies that hire the disabled. It turns out that Walgreens has been mentioned in this light recently.
...mentioned in a GOOD way.
Some companies are finally discovering what many of us knew; that the disabled can be better employees: http://www.csmonitor.com/...
The down side of that is that the disabled can be conditioned by society and governments to "be darn grateful for anything you get" and can be put into work situations that no able-bodied person would stand for.
In any case, there are companies that are hiring the disabled as part of their inclusion policies -- and they're proud of their practice.
The article by Solutions Marketing Group indicates that one population Walgreens is interested in hiring are the autistic (I'm assuming these are fairly high-functioning autistics) as well as the cognitively disabled (again, high functioning.) They aren't put in specialized workshops, isolated from the rest of society but are put into the workforce along with everyone else. I've seen this kind of thing work in schools and am delighted to see some company trying it in their workforce.
http://www.disability-marketing.com/...
Barbara Otto, at HuffPo, was not particularly enamored of these stories:
While any news about hiring people (regardless of ability) is good news these days, I do wonder why the media and the public are so enamored with an employment model that is focused on low-status jobs on an assembly line. While I value the investment Walgreens and these other retailers are making, I hope they are also exploring employment opportunities for people with disabilities beyond distribution centers. Packaging goods on an assembly line might be good for someone with a significant intellectual condition, but isn't the answer for everyone with a disability.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
While I concede the point, I think that these news stories are still very worth celebrating and that encouraging companies to offer these jobs (rather than sending them overseas) is at least a start. It's not a solution... but it's a start. In the end, this is a "wicked" problem but if we ignore it and don't try different options (even if they fail) the problem only gets worse.
(definition of a "wicked problem": http://en.wikipedia.org/...)
More:
Walgreen's site has an entire page on their diversity inclusion that I found interesting to browse: http://www.walgreens.com/...
On a personal note:
I really liked this little story on their site, mainly because when I looked at Robert's face, I could see the face of a kid that was really at risk in his community -- at risk of being bullied, victimized, and worse. I liked that there was an attitude of inclusion among his peers, some of whom were trying to learn ASL. No, this isn't a high status or high paying job but it's something and some days a "something" is better than endless amounts of "nothing." Been there, got that tee shirt.
http://www.walgreens.com/...