It’s been a while since I’ve ranted via the form of a blog post, but given everything I’ve seen in the past 24 hours in light of International Women’s Day, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about women in the workplace.
First of all, I want to make it very clear that I don’t hate men. Because I don’t.
I don’t hate ALL men. I don’t hate ALL establishments. I just hate the ones that aren’t fair.
And as a result, I do hate that it’s typically harder for women to succeed in the workplace.
I could probably spend an hour writing about all my thoughts and feelings on the matter, but half of you won’t read that so I’ll make this short and sweet. There are two issues that I want to address today and those are fair pay and flexible work opportunities.
FAIR PAY
I believe that our salaries should depend on how well we perform, nothing else. Not gender. Not race. Simply results. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case, and I’ve seen many instances where long-term employees are paid more than us newbies just because of the fact that they’ve been around longer. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sit well with me. If I’m busting my ass and delivering excellent results, I should be getting paid equal to or more than others who do the bare minimum. Otherwise, what incentive is there for people to work so damn hard?
But why is it so hard to know if we’re being paid fairly? We live in a world where we have access to so much information, but it seems that our salaries are the one thing we keep secret. We feel comfortable posting half-naked selfies on the internet, but the minute we start talking about how much money we make, we feel uncomfortable. THAT is off-limits. It’s an interesting concept to me, and I’m sure it has a lot to do with why some workers are unfairly compensated. Truth is, I DON’T know how much the men I work with make. I don’t know how much ANYONE makes. So how am I supposed to know that I’m being compensated fairly? How do ANY of us know? And why should an employer feel the need to be fair about salaries when it’s all kept on the DL anyway?
Now again, I’m not saying that all employers are shady. I know that there are plenty of places of work who do things the right way. I’m simply posing a possible argument as to why unfair pay still exists, and hopefully we can set in motion policies that will level the playing field for everyone.
FLEXIBLE WORK OPPORTUNITIES
I read the most incredible article today called, “Flexible Work Is The Future of Feminism.” The writer, Elena Lynn Gross, interviewed the founders of Werk, the first marketplace for top jobs with pre-negotiated flexibility.
I’ll be honest here. I’d love to have a baby within the next couple of years. I’m ready for that phase of my life. But there’s not a day that goes by when that thought scares me shitless because I don’t know how I’d logistically do it. My husband works a very demanding job and makes a whole lot more money than I do, so I know in terms of having a kid, most of the responsibility would fall on me. Right now, I work from 9am – 6pm with about a one-hour commute each way. And I think to myself all the time, “How the heck would I be able to work and have a family if I’d be getting home at 8pm every night?” I’m exhausted as it is already!
So my natural thought has always been that my husband will have to make enough money so I can scale back at work. Maybe go from full-time to part-time work. Maybe not even work at all. But why are those my only options? I LOVE MY JOB. I LOVE WHAT I DO. I don’t want to go anywhere at all. And hopefully by the time any of this happens, my job WILL be willing to work with me and hopefully we’ll be able to figure out some flexible work opportunities so that I can still work and have a happy family.
But the truth is that you’re LUCKY if you find a job that’s willing to work with you. You’re LUCKY if you find a job that’ll be willing to adjust your hours or let you work remotely. And that’s pretty insane to me given that in a lot of jobs, most of what we can do at work we can do from home, possibly even better, with less distractions.
So I hope employers learn to embrace flexible work arrangements. Because a lot of us WANT to work, but we also WANT to have a family. And while I know that there are trade-offs we have to make as adults, I think employers can help us so that those trade-offs don’t have to be so big. A little more compromise will go a long way, and I think it’ll be a win-win for everyone.
#EndRant
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Great post, this is not a rant this is a passionate view of important issues. I wish more women got motivated enough to post about it, funnily enough I did a similar post today – great minds. Employers seem to be doing a little better but not quickly enough.
Thanks so much, Kate! Feel free to leave the link to your post so we can all check it out! xoxox, Kayla
Okay, so this entire post is awesome and so true, but I think about the second part on a daily basis. Like you, I want children in the next couple of years. I also want to stay at home and raise my children. But I don’t necessarily want to give up work entirely. Like you said, I KNOW that 95% of what I do can (and probably should) be done from home. There is no reason I need to be in a physical office for it, yet for some reason that is the expectation. Just so someone can “keep an eye on me” while plenty of other people (men) in my company work 100% remotely and always have? I don’t get it, and I’m hoping it’s something that I give myself permission to start pushing back on.
Right?! I’ve always said that if a company feels they need to “keep an eye on me” and can’t trust me to do my job, then they might as well fire me. Like, if you can’t trust me, why’d you hire me? I think if I was hiring people I’d want people on my team that I know could do a good job from anywhere so that whole “keeping an eye” on employees doesn’t fly with me. Best of luck, lady! Thanks for swinging by to check out the post! xoxox, Kayla
I am at my employer from 7 a.m. – 4 p.m. Every. Day. I wish I could have a flexible work schedule. I work in social media, too, where it is available from any location.
7am is way too early for me, but man let me tell you something, when you’re leaving the office at 6pm and getting home at 7, it’s kinda exhausting. I’m all about working really hard and getting all your work done, but I think if we had some more flexible work opportunities, we could probably be more productive and more fulfilled. Thanks for stopping by and reading! xoxox, Kayla
It’s up to us to change the future 🙂
Sincerely,
Thivy Michelle
http://www.thivymichelle.com
Heck yea it is! Thanks for swinging by to read the post! P.S. LOVE that you have a Youtube channel! Just subscribed! Here’s mine in case you wanna check it out! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj_hEatkwJHFLco_aUXs4Yw 🙂
As a blogger and full time worker I can tell you how frustrating it can be sometimes. And the fact that you’re only offered flexible options half the time if you already have kids. Like just because I’m single doesn’t mean I don’t want my own life and flexibility to manage it. I’m glad I’m not the only one who struggles with this.
Amen to that girlfriend! It’s true. I think we’re spending way too much time in the office and we need to find a better way to balance it all. Thanks for reading! xoxox, Kayla
YESSSSSS! I was thinking about the same things yesterday. I chose to work in the morning then volunteered with my coworkers in the afternoon, because I am lucky to work for an extremely ethical company that pays me exactly what I deserve, actively supports every important cause, and embraces flexible work styles. But I fought to get here from companies that treated their employees unfairly. And STILL, I don’t know what I’m going to do when I decide to have kids. I’m putting it off because I just don’t know how it’s going to work. I’m researching other countries and seriously considering moving. We shouldn’t have to do that! It’s crazy! I could talk about this all day, but I think I’ll go read that article on flex-work environments that you recommended and that I bookmarked 😉
I’m now self-employed and hope to have kids someday, but I felt like being self-employed was one of my only options for still working and expanding my family at the same time. I don’t ever want to quit working and totally agree that employers should be more flexible.
YASS! I don’t look at this as rant lol This is just the facts! It’s funny, for my forbes stuff I’ve recently been talking to millennial CEO’s about remote workers, it seems completely polarized! Like some are alllll for it and some are soooo against it. Interestingly, it seems like the more insecure CEO’s are the one’s against it.
Thank you, Kayla, for writing about this important topic. My wife and I work in the construction industry, and pay rate is not something that many people hold as sacred information. So, knowing how much we are losing out on, because we don’t have a penis, is not any easier.
Like in most male-dominated industries, we have to work twice as hard for half the respect. And unfortunately, when we discuss this fact with most of our male counterparts, they dismiss it or blow it completely out of proportion and claim we want more than what is FAIR.
As for flexible hours, you are spot on. There are a lot of jobs that ARE accessible remotely, so why shouldn’t we be able to have that available to us? I would also like to add a bit about having the same offered to new fathers (or in our cas, othere mothers). They are just as important in the parenting role.
Keep striving for better. I got your back, girl.
xoxo