And then everybody clapped. Now- here’s a thought though. We can debate wether or not the best supervisors have experience in a field. I believe they DO, I’m old. I believe that someone I charge of making policy and setting goals and such for a department should know their workflow personally. But the reality is that is seldom the case. How many C level officers, VP’s, directors even- came from the mine? Usually- managers come from The business side, sales, finance, and so on.
The well worn trope “well- often women get paid less because they do less dangerous jobs...” is pretty thin. For starters- many of these industries are dried up in America. They exist- people work dangerous jobs in mines and so on- but the majority of people do not. Secondly- “across the board” means that the entire company- women make less. If your first thought is “put them in the mines!” Well...
A man walks in, slight build, big belly, 52. Has clerical skills. Doesn’t work with his hands. He’s applying for a position as a sales manager. Are we gonna put him in the mine? No. Chances are at most companies doin skilled or manual labor, administrative and executive staff is ill suited to do the actual work. Their skill set is different. So my question would be- why aren’t there female managers, and if there are, why do they make less ACROSS THE BOARD?
It certainly validates a narrative of the “senseless” and “entitled” crusader- “they want all the perks and don’t want to get their hands dirty!” Except... that’s... most people working in an office. Plumbers make as much or more as dental technicians or Jr. HR reps... so... why did those people not choose to go swear pipes or work in a steel mill? Derp. People doing jobs like that either enjoy it, or didn’t have another choice. Few people wake up and say “I want to work in a dangerous and physically punishing job instead of going to medschool even though I got a perfect on my MCATs and have a full ride waiting for me...” unless they feel a thing is their “calling” really.
Now hopefully we could all agree that answering phones is less work than mining. But... oddly enough you’ll see Lawyers and executives commonly showing health problems from their jobs, high blood pressure, stress disorders, heart attack, stroke, loss of eyesight, etc. etc. how do we compare? If two people are in tears and at the end of their ropes over how hard their jobs are- does it matter what the job is- it’s obviously hard right?
Having done manual and skilled trades AND office work- they’re hard in different ways in my experience. Dealing with executive committees and share holders and politics and knowing that hundreds of thousands of people’s livelihoods are depending on your choices directly... that’s a different kind of stress and difficulty. Making sure you are ok with legal and standards and have buy in from everyone and all your contracts are in order and that ONE single word or punctuation mark or typo could costs millions or billions... or even at lower levels hundreds of thousands or thousands... different stress.
But what are we going to say? Are we a team or not? If you DONT think your CEO has a harder job then you probably don’t think they should make 10-100x more than you right? Without YOU mining or serving food or shipping packages or whatever- no one makes money right? So then... why should YOU make more than the person who handles clients and customers and invoices and payroll? Without THEM- you don’t get paid. Customers don’t get served and without customers you can mine all the ore or whatever in the world and it is worthless. So no one makes money without them right? So why would you be able to say your executives are overpaid compared to you, and be able to justify not paying the people who take care of YOU?
If you believe that everyone should get paid to their role and contributions- and that what you make is fair, what executives make is fair, and what the office makes is fair- then you would never complain about what you make right? No matter what they paid you- that would be fair because that is what the job pays right? So if they cut your pay or didn’t give you a raise for 29 years- you wouldn’t be bothered at all... right? Or would you... ask for more? And where does that more come from? And why are you worth more today than you were yesterday?
There aren’t female managers and CEO’s for them same reason there aren’t female homeless - they’re more neurotic.
Also, the post said nothing about the non-clerical females getting shafted in any way. Just the clerks.
Actually it DID. the term “across the board” means that ALL females across the entire company make less. That is what “across the board” means. It was the authors choice to focus on a specific job position. They also say “all the women in the company have jobs that involve.... sitting... answering phones.... playing yahoo games...” Since we also know the same women he is referring to our complaining about wages not being as high as the male labor workers, either: A. These women are NOT managers and executives or B. They ARE and as executives make less than entry level employees. Either one is problematic.
The use of “across the board” indicates all positions for women.
The focus on women in low level office jobs either means there is a lack of women in other positions (there are more jobs in mining than miner and secretary...) or indicates the author specifically overlooked or omitted these positions because it doesn’t fit their message.
Since nobody seems to want to translate I shall
I used to work as an equipment operator in a mine. It’s fairly dangerous work, and even on the best of days it’s still damaging to your health. My company was put through a shitstorm when an audit showed that women made about 30% less than men across the board.
It made no mention of the fact that the women at the company had jobs that involved answering phones when they rang, otherwise sitting around and typing something or playing Yahoo games.
The women, of course, raised hell and started screaming discrimination, hoping they’d get raises.
There’s a happy ending though. Our big boss at the time was fucking brilliant. He decided to outsource our administrative work to one of those bookkeeping/clerical companies and concentrate only on the mining operation, effectively eliminating the womens’ positions.
To keep from getting in trouble, he told the office women that he wasn’t firing any of them. Not only did they get to stay with the company, they were all going to be given substantial raises. He informed them that they had all been given labor positions in the mine (the same position any of us started with) and that they had to show up at 6am (same as us) to start their safety training before being sent underground.
I’m sure it wasn’t hard to guess how many of them showed up
Also, the post said nothing about the non-clerical females getting shafted in any way. Just the clerks.
The focus on women in low level office jobs either means there is a lack of women in other positions (there are more jobs in mining than miner and secretary...) or indicates the author specifically overlooked or omitted these positions because it doesn’t fit their message.
I used to work as an equipment operator in a mine. It’s fairly dangerous work, and even on the best of days it’s still damaging to your health. My company was put through a shitstorm when an audit showed that women made about 30% less than men across the board.
It made no mention of the fact that the women at the company had jobs that involved answering phones when they rang, otherwise sitting around and typing something or playing Yahoo games.
The women, of course, raised hell and started screaming discrimination, hoping they’d get raises.
To keep from getting in trouble, he told the office women that he wasn’t firing any of them. Not only did they get to stay with the company, they were all going to be given substantial raises. He informed them that they had all been given labor positions in the mine (the same position any of us started with) and that they had to show up at 6am (same as us) to start their safety training before being sent underground.
I’m sure it wasn’t hard to guess how many of them showed up
“This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside”