I am a white woman. I note that I am white because I cannot speak to the experience of minorities in the workplace. I note that I am a woman because I CAN speak to the stupidity and outright misogyny of many men in the workplace. (That makes me sound really pissed off, but I'm more just incredulous that in this day and age, etc.)
To wit: one day I was on a teleconference with 2 men and about 4 other women. The 2 men were big VP types, including our friend, the Lieutenant. (What frequently happens on these teleconferences is that 1 or 2 bigwigs monopolize the conversation while the rest of the group sits in silent agony, wishing for an instrument of death with which to end the torture.) Here is a snippet of the conversation between the Lt. and the other dude.
Other dude: Yeah, my wife is due to give birth any day now.
Lt: Well, if she's anything like my wife (mother to 5 of his issue), who always has quick labors, she'll drop it like candy. (Cue laughs)
???
Several things wrong with this statement:
1. Use of completely unconnected simile
2. Insulting to wife, who is made to sound like breed cow
3. Who do you know, male OR female, who purposely drops candy?
The worst part about it is how NOT funny it was. If I do say so myself, I'm fairly witty and can take a joke as well as anybody. But only if it's funny. This guy can't even insult women in a CLEVER way, which would make his insults more tolerable to me, interestingly.
Now I'm off in search of Reese's peanut butter cups. Thanks for nothing, Lieutenant.
Last year I was on the planning committee for a conference for my company. The head of the committee was telling us some of the logistics we'd need to know for the conference, which was held in another city. She discussed things like: name of hotel, conference schedule, confirmation numbers for travel, time and place for us to meet once we all arrived, likely weather, etc.
The head of the committee had asked an admin assistant to sit in on the meeting and take notes on these logistics so she could circulate them to us for our reference later. I happened to be sitting next to the admin and happened to glance down at her notes. After this long litany of details it was vital for us to know, the only thing she had written on the page was "light coat."
This was in response to the committee head's admonishment that it might be chilly in the evenings.
I'm going to say something shocking.
I suspect that some of the decisions my company's muckety-mucks make are made not with the company's, but with the muckety-mucks' best interest in mind.
Oh yes I did go there.
Case in point: The company recently hired a consultant. In this case, "consultant" means "crony of the CEO." He is a shortish Asian guy who has a military rank and has kept the military 'do. His job is to come in and get a project finished within a couple months that will tax our already overburdened, skeletal staff. As far as those of us who are at the consultant's mercy can see, the payoff of this project will be in helping the muckety-mucks ensure their huge bonuses for the year.
When I met with the consultant, I explained that I was willing to work with him on the project, but that it came at a particularly busy time for all of us. He said, "You know, when I was deploying my reserve troops to Iraq, my one soldier said to me, 'Sir, can you send me next year? This year is just too busy.' And you know what I said to him?"
Here, the consultant stood up, leaned over my desk, and pointed right into my face. "I said, 'There's never a good time, private! You just gotta do it!'"
So our project has been equated with a military operation. Whatev.
Oh, and he looks at my boobs, too. So whoever wrote about that, I know what you mean!