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KFC demoted an employee for wanting to pump at work. She just won a $1.5 million lawsuit against them.

KFC demoted an employee for wanting to pump at work. She just won a $1.5 million lawsuit against them.

Women have been re-entering the workforce after giving birth for decades now. You would think that employers would know how to treat new moms back on the job, but apparently some people still have a lot of learning to do.

When Autumn Lampkins was hired to be an assistant manager at a Delaware Kentucky Fried Chicken just months after giving birth, she was told her new job wouldn’t interfere with her need to pump breastmilk. Instead, it did nothing but interfere.

Lampkins claimed the KFC outlet gave her a hard time for wanting (and let’s face it, needing) to pump breast milk during her working hours.

Lampkins filed a lawsuit against her former employer, stating she was demoted over it.


Now, the fast food franchise must fork over $1.5 million to their former employee.

The lawsuit claimed Lampkins’ co-workers and supervisor made it so hard for her to pump milk during her shifts that her milk supply dried up.

As a result, Lampkins experienced pain and had to switch her baby to formula sooner than she had planned. Lampkins was only able to pump once per 10-hour training shift, a far cry from medical recommendations.  Generally, women are advised to pump once every two hours.

The lawsuit also claimed that she didn’t have a private place to pump. Her options were to pump in a single-stall employee bathroom or in the manager’s office, which had a surveillance camera that they were not able to turn off. Sorry, wasn’t there a recent controversy because women were being shamed for wanting to breastfeed in public? Now we’re shaming women for wanting to pump in privacy? Is there no way to feed your baby in peace?

To make matters worse, Lampkins was demoted at the end of it all.

When Lampkins finished her assistant-manager training, she was moved to a different store and demoted to shift supervisor. “This was a demotion and not at Ms. Lampkins’ request,” says the lawsuit. “[Her boss] explicitly told Ms. Lampkins that her demotion to shift supervisor was because she was pumping breast milk while at work.”

What. The. What.

At the new store, Lampkins’ co-workers complained that she got special “breaks” so she could pump, and even threatened to walk out. As if having to pump breast milk is a privilege, not something that is a necessary part of going back to work after giving birth.

A jury deemed the work environment to be hostile, and found evidence of workplace discrimination. Lampkins was awarded $25,000 in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages. “It’s a great day for women’s rights. The jury sent a message that employers cannot treat lactating women differently in the workplace,” said Patrick Gallagher, one of Lampkins’ attorneys.

Working 10-hour shifts while tending to a newborn is hard enough.

Lampkins shouldn’t have been given a hard time for having needs that are completely normal and natural on top of it. Pumping breast milk is a vital part of the process when women re-enter the workforce after giving birth. Kudos to Lampkins for standing up for her rights!

Health

4 simple hacks to help you meet your healthy eating goals

Trying to eat healthier? Try these 4 totally doable tricks.

Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

Most of us want to eat healthier but need some help to make it happen.

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When it comes to choosing what to eat, we live in a uniquely challenging era. Never before have humans known more about nutrition and how to eat for optimal health, and yet we’ve never been more surrounded by distractions and temptations that derail us from making healthy choices.

Some people might be able to decide “I’m going to eat healthier!” and do so without any problem, but those folks are unicorns. Most of us know what we should do, but need a little help making it happen—like some simple hacks, tips and tricks for avoiding pitfalls on the road to healthier eating.

While recognizing that what works for one person may not work for another, here are some helpful habits and approaches that might help you move closer to your healthy eating goals.

man pulling chip out of a chip bagOur mouths loves chips. Our bodies not so much.Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash

Goal: Snack on less junk food

Tip: Focus your willpower on the grocery store, not your home

Willpower is a limited commodity for most of us, and it is no match for a bag of potato chips sitting on top of the fridge. It’s just a fact. Channeling your willpower at the grocery store can save you from having to fight that battle at home. If you don’t bring chips into your house in the first place, you’ll find it a lot easier to reach for something healthier.

The key to successful shopping trips is to always go to the store with a specific list and a full stomach—you’ll feel much less tempted to buy the junky snack foods if you’re already satiated. Also, finding healthier alternatives that will still satisfy your cravings for salty or crunchy, or fatty foods helps. Sugar snap peas have a surprisingly satisfying crunch, apples and nut butter hit that sweet-and-salty craving, etc.

slice of cakeYou can eat well without giving up sweets completely.Photo by Caitlyn de Wild on Unsplash

Goal: Eat less sugar

Tip: Instead of “deprive,” think “delay” or “decrease and delight”

Sugar is a tricky one. Some people find it easier to cut out added sugars altogether, but that can create an all-or-nothing mindset that all too often results in “all.” Eating more whole foods and less processed foods can help us cut out a lot of ancillary sugar, but we still live in a world with birthday cakes and dessert courses.

One approach to dessert temptation is to delay instead of deprive. Tell yourself you can have any sweet you want…tomorrow. This mental trick flips the “I’ll just indulge today and start eating healthier tomorrow” idea on its head. It’s a lot easier to resist something you know you can have tomorrow than to say no to something you think you’ll never get to have again.

Another approach when you really want to enjoy a dessert at that moment is to decrease the amount and really truly savor it. Eat each bite slowly, delighting in the full taste and satisfaction of it. As soon as that delight starts to diminish, even a little, stop eating. You’ve gotten what you wanted out of it. You don’t have to finish it. (After all, you can always have more tomorrow!)

colorful fresh food on a plateA naturally colorful meal is a healthy meal.Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

Goal: Eat healthier meals

Tip: Focus on fresh foods and plan meals ahead of time

Meal planning is easier than ever before. The internet is filled with countless tools—everything from recipes to shopping lists to meal planning apps—and it’s as awesome as it is overwhelming.

Planning ahead takes the guesswork and decision fatigue out of cooking, preventing the inevitable “Let’s just order a pizza.” You can have a repeating 3-week or 4-week menu of your favorite meals so you never have to think about what you’re going to eat, or you can meal plan once a week to try new recipes and keep things fresh.

It might help to designate one day a week to “shop and chop”—getting and prepping the ingredients for the week’s meals so they’re ready to go in your fridge or freezer.

woman holding blueberries in her handsOrganic foods are better for the Earth and for us.Photo by andrew welch on Unsplash

Goal: Eat more organic/humanely raised food

Tip: Utilize the “dirty dozen” and “clean 15” lists to prioritize

Many people choose organic because they want to avoid pesticides and other potentially harmful chemicals. Organic food is also better for the planet, and according to the Mayo Clinic, studies have shown that organic produce is higher in certain nutrients.

Most people don’t buy everything organic, but there are some foods that should take priority over others. Each year, researchers from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyze thousands of samples of dozens of fruits and vegetables. From this data, they create a list of the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” fruits and vegetables, indicating what produce has the most and least pesticide residue. These lists give people a good place to start focusing their transition to more organic foods.

To make organic eating even simpler, you can shop O Organics® at your local Albertsons or Safeway stores. The O Organics brand offers a wide range of affordable USDA-certified organic products in every aisle. If you’re focusing on fresh foods, O Organics produce is always grown without synthetic pesticides, is farmed to conserve biodiversity, and is always non-GMO. All animal-based O Organics products are certified humane as well. Even switching part of your grocery list to organic can make a positive impact on the planet and the people you feed.

Healthy eating habits don’t have to be all or nothing, and they don’t have to be complicated. A few simple mindset changes at home and habit changes at the grocery store can make a big difference.

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Education

3,700-year-old Babylonian stone tablet gets translated, changes history

They were doing trigonometry 1500 years before the Greeks.

via UNSW

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