I haven’t ranted here for quite a spell but need to get this out. A cow-irker just quit, storming out and used me as an excuse. It seems that that my company is sexist because they pay me what they do. Her arguments border on stupid insanity! She came in today looking distraught. She came into my office and proclaimed that she should be paid as much as me and wanted me to go with her into the owners office. I refused but tried to reason with her. She would have nothing of it and stormed into the big bosses office (who is female btw) and came out and left.
What gets me about this is that I liked her! Somehow she found out what I made, compared it to her salary and decided she was getting royally screwed. She was probably goaded on by friends and stopped thinking rationally. I don’t think she wanted to quit, seemed to like the job and now is unemployed. She was caught up in a perceived injustice to her detriment.
Here is my ‘rant’. Don’t be stupid! Think about this! I am 37, you are 26. I’ve been working out of college for 16 years, you 4 years. I am a manager supervising several people, you are a ‘project manager’. Having the title ‘project manager’ doesn’t mean you are a manager. You have a bachelors degree in Communications (is that a party degree?) while I have a MASTERS degree in MATHEMATICS. See the difference?
Yes, I know my department gets treated better than you do. Hint: it has something to do with supply and demand. You see, there are more communication majors roaming around to do your job. I know you work more hours. I know our work is more interesting. If you want to do it then go get your advanced degree in mathematics.
I really feel for her but she hurt her career over a perceived injustice and refused to see why the situation really is as it is.
She also hurt it by comparing salaries-salaries and wages are considered to be confidential-so if she told the boss she knew what you were making, and thus, she should get more, that could also get her in trouble.
I’m not sure how she found out about the salaries and she could have been fired for that alone. She wasn’t fired, but quit.
What angers me most here is that I think she is a good person. She just was poisoned by an expectation of discrimination that wasn’t there. What she saw as discrimination was just supply and demand.
I had a cow-orker who behaved similarly. She didn’t quit because of me, per se, but she was constantly comparing my job to hers–basically an “apples and oranges” kind of deal–and declaring the scales unbalanced when:
a) I’m older and have more education (this was actually a demand SHE made when the job became available; she insisted that if the person who landed this gig was going to make more than she did, they’d better have more education… I guess the last guy didn’t)
b) My job is… well… different, and more “crucial” to the operation of the organization (as is evidenced by the fact that it pays more, and by the fact that when she left, her job was made into a part-time position)
c) She had the opportunity to move into the job I currently hold when it was vacant (pre-me), but she didn’t want to; instead, she wanted to keep the job she HAD, and get paid 25% more for it.
d) She was constantly resentful that she was required to do things (that were in her job specs) that I wasn’t.
So I feel your pain. Basic difference was that MY cow-orker resented me AND my boss for all of the injustices she suffered.
That’s amazing Auntie. You nailed (d) and her right on. Looking back, I’m noticing behavior that should have given warning. For example, she went through a period a few months ago where she was trying to put some of her normal responsibilites onto me and my department. Of course, this was the grunt stuff. She decided, on her own, that my area was to be responsible for all spell checking of reports. She was rebuffed none to nicely.
No real comment on the OP, but I’ve heard the above assertion before, I didn’t think there was any legality behind it, just a condition some employeres have. Anyone know for sure?
Unless there is an union or she had an emplyment contract she was an employee at will. They could fire her for any non-discriminatory reason they wished, such as the fact that she was an annoying pain in the ass or was actively causing trouble.
Of course by quitting she just saved the company a hit to their unemployment insurance premium.
I hate my job and the people I do it with, but I KEEP MY MOUTH SHUT. No one cares what I think or desire- they just want the work done with a minimum of time and expense. I swear, some people (like the idiot described above) expect work to be some life affirming exercise in self-indulgence. It’s usually not-- that’s why they PAY you to do it.
All the really fun jobs either don’t pay squat or are really hard to get (trust me I have applied for that over-sexed millionare rock star job like a million time with hardly any callbacks to show for my efforts).
I can’t tell you how much of her crap she put off on me when I was new and didn’t know (until my first performance evaluation) that it wasn’t my job…
I guess the thing that drove me crazy about her, though, was that she confronted me (and everyone else) as though we were all consciously and deliberately involved in her personal “oppression”.
For example, each of us is in charge of certain publications for our agency. When I was new at my job, not really knowing to do otherwise, I put my name and title on the front cover of my publication (i.e., “The Navel Lint Report, 2000… by Auntie Em, Navel Specialist.”)
Then, when it came time for HER publication to come out, she came into my office and announced defiantly that if I could put my name on MY publication, she should be able to put her name on HERS!
And she did.
But nobody ever said she couldn’t (which I know because, after such a weird confontation, I asked my boss if I’d been out of place to put my name on the cover of mine, and explained why I was asking)…
I’m telling you. Office Mates like this are better in someone else’s office.
Perceived injustices are so difficult to overcome. I remember working at a small company years ago, and feeling that I was in the wrong job, but never for a moment did I feel anything but gratitude toward the employer - after all they were not forcing me to work there, and I was glad to have the experience. I gave notice and went on to work for myself, and am still grateful to have had that job due to the things I was able to learn there.
Fast forward to today. I have a dream job with a large company (its less dreamy these days due to economy and other factors, but nevermind). Another fellow in our group was less than happy here, after a short time with the company. He was transferred to another group, and became even less happy. Alienated practically every manager he met, and recently I heard he quit with no prospects of employement elsewhere.
Are people just frickin’ stupid? Do you expect to be provided with your ideal job out of college (this guy is probably 4 years out of college) or will you put in some work dammit? I just don’t get it, you said it, BlinkingDuck, “hurt her [his] career over a perceived injustice and refused to see why the situation really is as it is.”
At one of my employers, the HR manager made a Xerox copy of a list of salaried employees’ pay rates. She picked up the copy and left the original in the machine. Another employee picked it up, looked at it and then made multiple copies, which he distributed to everyone he could think of. Caused no end of problems and I always thought he should have been fired for it. He was, instead, suspended for a week without pay. The one good result was that the HR department got its very own copier.
Believe it or not, the Sales Manager at the same company posted a list of all sales department employees’ pay rates, salaried and hourly, on a bulletin board. It was part of a memo to sales personnel which basically said that those in the upper bracket would not be receiving any further increases until those in the lower bracket had acheived parity with the upper bracket. He wasn’t fired either, but the list came down in a hurry.
Rilchiam, the current theory is that the accountant left had it on her computer screen and was called away and forgot to lock the computer or turn off the monitor. Nobody saw her go in but it is not uncommon to go in there and the computer screen would be easily seen.
I’m beginning to think that the cynical advice of my old boss was correct. He insisted that, once a manager type, you cannot keep buddy-buddy relationships going with non-management. It seemed so cynical and I always disliked managers that were aloof but maybe he has a point. Since I didn’t act like a snob, she assumed she should be at the same level as me, I guess.
I have also noticed a ‘socialistic’ attitude among many people. I.e. if you work in the same company on the same projects then you should be paid the same. Maybe she thought that since she spends much time with client contact, her job was more important. I don’t know.
Having a B.A. in Communications myself, I can answer this. Yes, I see the difference. No, it isn’t a party degree (at least not at my college, maybe at some. Then again, I went to a tough private college.) I did specialize in theatre, which made a difference. But I am a little tired of people with science, math, engineering, etc. degrees who look down on those with English, communications, art, theatre degrees, etc. (Especially when said engineers I work with think the word “varies” is spelled “verys.”)
But this is off your topic, I know. That said, I agree that she was completely nuts. There is a big difference in your jobs, experience, and you have a Masters. Is there now a job opening at your work for someone with a Communications degree? How much does it pay?
