[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.It feltgood to talk about it and validate her own perceptions.Unfortunately, itdid not help her move on.Shoshana, the new HR director, registered the water-cooler confabulationsand soon worked her way through the various participants.It didn t takeher long to discover how disenchanted Harriet had become with the wholeorganization.Feeling that she had gone as far as she could go with thecompany, Harriet was thinking seriously about leaving, and either movinginto a smaller company where she would have better opportunities, orsetting up her own business with her lovely partner, Martin.By now, shehad realized that Martin was never going to set the world on fire, but hecould help her with the administration and systems side of the business.__________________________________________________________________27� 2012 Dr Annie Kaszina - All Rights Reserved www.anniekaszina.com Is There Something I m Missing? Shoshana listened carefully to everything that Harriet had to say.Withcertain individual variations, Shoshana had heard it all before.She hadseen any number of 30+ women become disenchanted, start up their ownsmall business and struggle.Why?Because the oft cited the glass ceiling was, and was not, the cause of theirfrustration.Shoshana was as keenly aware as any other woman in the organization ofthe degree of male domination that still prevailed.A lot of men in the 21stcentury workplace were still behaving as if under direct instructions fromAtilla the Hun.Getting in touch with their fluffy, feminine side was notsomething these men had any wish to do; in fact, they would be almost aslikely to queue up for testosterone suppressing injections.However, Shoshana was also a great realist.Like many of the womenthat she worked with, Shoshana was bright, attractive, well groomed, andfeminine.But, unlike them, she had no complaints about the glass ceiling.When asked how she had avoided the usual masculine dismissiveness, shewould reply, tersely: I just talk sense, and they listen. That simple statement was, typically, shorthand.Shoshana talked sense,using the kind of terminology and tone of the men she spoke to; and theylistened.Because she had the expectation that they would listen.Looking at Harriet, she prepared, once again, to give the message she hadalready given to so many talented, committed, hard working Ladies-in-waiting -as she called them.The values and behaviours by which theywere operating were the values and behaviours of their schooling and/orupbringing.They were not the values of the workplace.The same goodbehaviours that were rewarded by teachers and parents, meant thatwomen could be easily overlooked in the workplace.Teachers and parentsappreciated biddability.So, too, did employers, not least because hardworking, talented committed Lady-in-waiting types tended to knuckledown and get on with the job, without creating a stir.This meant thatmore vocal, self-important people usually men would often bepromoted over them.Ladies-in-waiting, like Harriet, believed there was an inevitableprogression from merit to reward.Attila s right hand men who, Shoshanahad noticed, were legion in most organizations, believed that loudlyproclaiming their talents, successes, ideas (and inside leg measurement)would fast-track their upward corporate progress.In the main, shethought, they were right. The Mr Look-At-Me-I m-Wonderfuls wentfurther and faster in the corporate world than did the Harriets.__________________________________________________________________28� 2012 Dr Annie Kaszina - All Rights Reserved www.anniekaszina.com Is There Something I m Missing? Left to their own devices, the Harriets mostly left either to have a baby, orstart their own business, or both
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
