Anonymous Bitches

You see the man and woman on the right? You think they are equal in the workplace?

THEY AREN’T.

Look at their faces. She is serious and he is smug. THAT is because, if they do the exact same jobs, he is making at a minimum $20,000 more a year for that very same job than she is. And in all likelihood, she works twice as hard and is at least twice as productive. To top that off, she undoubtedly goes home and does all the housework, cooking, laundry and nurturing of the children and husband.

On the other hand, he will be invited to join all the men’s civic clubs. It’s part of his job, after all. So he’ll spend his time on the golf course and smoosing with the movers and shakers while she’s buried up to her eye-freaking-brows in budgets, public relations and staffing problems. He’ll be praised for how well the place runs while he’s sitting in the sauna at the club.

The difference is one has a penis and the other doesn’t.

Don’t misunderstand. I’ve been on both ends of the employment spectrum. I’m been employee and employer. I know that employees think the boss doesn’t do anything and they do all the work. THAT is not what I’m talking about.

I’m talking about doing the EXACT same job, or even the female being the boss and having some wet-behind-the-ears-hot-shot come in as support and being offered $20,000 right off the FREAKING bat.

My first professional job I came into a position vacated by a male. Somewhere along the line I found out the male who had the job prior to me was making $20,000 per year than I was. I was a struggling divorcee with two young children and barely making ends meet. I was working my ass off trying to make it and trying to prove myself as a professional. I was young and had to screw up all my courage to go into my bosses office and request an explanation as to why I was being paid so much less for the same job. Especially in light of the fact that everyone, including him, had praised me for being the best, most productive person he had ever had in that position.

He looked at me and said, ‘He has a family to support’.

‘So do I’, I replied.

‘But he’s the main bread winner in the family’.

‘So am I’.

Silence. And just looking at each other. Then I blinked first and asked him to take it under consideration. My salary was not changed.

There have been many similar incidents in the years following that first overt slam at the monetary value of my gender in the work place. I did learn to not blink first, but nothing really changed.

I’ve been told, ‘We’d love to raise your salary. You certainly deserve much more, but if we pay you any more you’ll be making as much as a man.’

I’ve been told, ‘If we raise you’ll salary, that would put you up in the executive range.’ I am an executive.

And now. I am the boss. I have been excruciatingly fair in my decisions regarding salary, probably because of my own previous experiencing.

So now comes a new position on the staff. It was proposed by the board that I answer to. I was hesitant at first, but finally supported creating this new position. Before I could turn half-way around the guy is hired and I’m being asked to a lunch meeting by the president and treasurer of the board. I’m thinking it’s about one thing, but it was about another.

They wanted to break the news to me about the compensation package they had offered him. Please note, this was done without my input which is highly out of order considering my position.

They hand me a piece of paper with his salary and other benefits. Everything was in line EXCEPT the salary, which was $20,000 more than I make. Starting out at $20,000 more. ALL my years of experience. The fact I built this place from scratch, the fact that the reason we need this guy is because of MY success in leading the business is all for naught.

No wonder they took me out to lunch to tell me.

I just looked at the paper in front of me and listened to their explanations and attempts to pacify me before I had even responded. They expected me to not be happy.

‘He was making more where he was before.’

‘Getting him is a coup, he had two other offers and we had to be competitive.’

‘We had to act quickly or he would have taken one of the other offers, we had no intention of leaving you out of the loop.’

‘You’ll tell [our financial person who does payroll] won’t you so she won’t be upset. Present it to her like this ….. ‘

I put the paper in my organizer and smiled. ‘I’m very excited he’s coming on board’, I said looking each of them in the eye. They were caught off guard. They were expecting a fight.

They began falling all over themselves to tell me about all the high expectations they have of him and how he’ll have to produce [this much] in order to keep his job. It won’t be easy for him. They won’t be easy on him.

‘Who will he answer to?’, I asked, ‘me or the board’.

Continuing their discomfort, they explained they haven’t gotten all that figured out yet. They had acted so fast they don’t have a job description or thought out how he will fit into the organization. We, the board and me, will meet with him weekly to keep updated on his progress.

‘So you are doing his job description and will evaluate him.’ I said more as a statement than a question. ‘I won’t have to monitor his progress or performance in any way.’

‘Yes, yes.’

‘What about when the board changes?’. It always changes. These guys will do their time on the board and then move on to other interests. They didn’t have an answer to that. ‘That’s a good point. We’ll have to create a policy for how to handle this position’. They made notes to themselves to do that. I thought, ‘That sure will make it hard to find someone willing to be the president of the board’.

I gave them no fight. I smiled and continued to say this is an exciting development. Having someone in this position will certainly enhance our success. I long ago learned my lessons on conducting a direct frontal assault in these kinds of situations.

I will bide my time. This is ill concieved and it is now completely not related to me, so I will not take the fall when it fails. Let them go for it.

They beat me to telling [the financial person]. Since I’m her boss, she came to me in tears. She’s been there 20 years and ‘it’s great they all tell me how valuable I am to the organization, but it’d be nice to be paid for it.’ ‘How can they justify this salary for someone just starting.’

I didn’t have any good answers for her.

‘We are women.’ I said.

I would write more but I’ve taken today off work. I have to put in a load of laundry, clean the kitchen, polish the wood floors and work on the 2007 budget. Oh, and I have to get some publicity materials ready for a meeting next week.

FUCK YOU WOMEN’S LIB.

Does she have the same problem, does she. What about him. How about her. Does she get paid the same as the Priest?