The theme for today is: "Oh, Grow Up!"
Apr. 7th, 2003 11:10 amOK. So I am at the office, and I have just been informed that the rear stall in the men's restroom has been plugged up for two weeks. And nobody has done anything about it, and the men in the office want to know why. So I say, "Well, did anyone call building services?" No. "Why not?" We don't know the number to building services. Only the admin assistants know the number to building services. "And the admin assistants are all what?" Women.
So for two weeks, the men's room has been befouled and nobody would take care of it because calling building services is an admin's job, and none of the admins knew about the problem because, well, frankly, we don't go in there, and nobody said anything to us about it, apparently because all of the men thought it would be assumed that whoever reported it would be the person responsible for it.
Didn't the rest of us get past this in grade school?
So for two weeks, the men's room has been befouled and nobody would take care of it because calling building services is an admin's job, and none of the admins knew about the problem because, well, frankly, we don't go in there, and nobody said anything to us about it, apparently because all of the men thought it would be assumed that whoever reported it would be the person responsible for it.
Didn't the rest of us get past this in grade school?
no subject
Date: 2003-04-07 06:37 pm (UTC)As a man in corporate america, I have been continually embarrassed by the pathetic actions and choices of some of the guys whith whom I have worked. From verbally abusing female subordinates because pathetic entitlement issues to a staunch (and explicitly expressed) refusal to wash their own lunch dishes, a steady stream of my own gender have shocked, bewildered, and disappointed me.
I can't even begin to imagine how bad it is to actually be a woman amongst these neandrathals.
If only we could ingrain the meme in our culture that a swift kick to the nads was an acceptable response...they'd wash their coffee cups then, else they wouldn't be able to reproduce - a win-win if I ever heard one.
B.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-09 09:32 am (UTC)They also regularly ask those of us lower on the totem pole to do work for them not related to our business. For example, I have it on good authority that the CEO and several of the VPs have had our facilities person (read: handyman) go to their home to change lightbulbs, shovel the driveway, and other assorted domestic tasks.
It's not strictly sexism, since the men in the lower strata are treated much the same way the women are. It's just that all of the people in the upper strata are men, and all of the women in our organization are in the lower strata.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-11 07:56 pm (UTC)Indeed, being a chick can have the downside of having to deal with these sorts of people...certainly my firm has it's share...stick an expensive degree and professional prestige to one, and it's all she fucking wrote.
D.