Why Do People Choose That Path?
A friend once told me about his experiences working in a bank, and the lesson about perception that he learned there. This bank employed several women as cashiers, and the bank manager would often offer these women “promotions” rather than raises. So a girl would get a title like “first assistant to the associate cashier” rather than a 3% pay increase for the year. And these women accepted this treatment.
At work one day, a few years ago, the subject of whether I could make one of my co-workers cry came up. I do not know why, and that is certainly not something I would want to do, but sometimes discussions get on strange tracks.
One of my other co-workers said that she didn’t think I could, because the co-worker in question was a woman and women are inherently stronger than men. I thought this was a rather sexist remark, and said so.
It wasn’t until a couple months later when I was telling this story to a friend that I understood the reasoning behind her statement. This friend had been raised Mormon and left the church as a teen. This co-worker who had said women are stronger was also Mormon.
My friend explained to me that in the Church of Latter-Day Saints the clergy holds pretty much all power, and that women are not allowed in the hierarchy. They excuse this by telling women that men are inherently weak and that they need this crutch of church authority to be the equal of women.
Another friend of mine is obsessed with the title he receives at work. He apparently made some stupid promise to his dad that he would become an engineer. So whatever job he gets he requests that his title have the word Engineer in it. This is regardless of whether the job actually involves any engineering.
When I was a Lecturer at university the administration put a freeze on all pay raises for a period of at least four years. What was their rationale? They wanted to standardize the titles that were used for similar jobs in the different schools and departments. And for some reason, which they never explained, this meant that they couldn’t give anyone a raise during that time. Instead, we would occasionally get certificates of appreciation. These pieces of paper did nothing to improve our standard of living, but gosh, they sure were pretty hanging on the walls of our offices.
So many times I see people chose style over substance; appearance over practicality; and I do not understand the thinking of these people. Are they that shallow? Or are they afraid of standing up for themselves? Is it just that they don’t care?