Lords at work

[sharmawa]

Are women at your workplace responsible for organising Christmas dos/birthday collections etc?

We have all male managers at our organisation and all the women ask how they are and the conversation is always one way. They are like lords. They talk about themselves and never ask about the women. There is zero effort. My dh is such a good man and our marriage is 50/50.

I just can't be bothered with it all at work.

Anyone been in a similar situation?

I used to work in a department that was entirely female apart from the male department head. And he strutted around like cock of the walk pleased as punch with his ability to palm off shitwork, and wife work, to the women in the department. He was fond of making loud matey phone calls to other male higher ups with his office door open (made it hard to concentrate). I often felt we were like a pride of lions keeping ourselves and the department going but stuck with a showy lazy male 🙄😡

Oh yeah 100%

Say no to drudge kids!

At one point I worked for a company that employed two other women, and about twenty-ish men.

When I was offered the job I was asked if I'd be ok with "occasional" cleaning of staff areas including the (at times quite grim) kitchens and toilets. I said no.

If the boss wanted a cleaner he could pay for one separately. I can't remember if I was quite that blunt about it at the time.

The card & collection thing didn't come up in the interview, if it had I would have said no to that too.

Don't get me wrong I was always happy to contribute, but I was there to work, not chase people around for signatures and cash, and then use my own time to shop for a present for people I didn't hang out with outside of work (and in some cases didn't particularly like). It was every birthday too, not just limited to the big ones or important life events like babies, marriage, retirement etc..

It was apparently an established culture there, and often fell to the younger of the two woman who already worked there. Funnily enough it was the younger woman who got roped into doing all the cleaning too. Not funny at all!

When it came round her turn, the boss asked me to do the card & collection, then find something nice to buy for her with the money.
He didn't ask any of the men, he came straight to me. I did it because if I hadn't , she wouldn't have had anything. By then the older woman had retired - if she had still been there I doubt she would have done it tbh which is fair enough!

I politely told my boss afterwards that I wouldn't be doing it again, I think I suggested he do it himself next time.

It galls me that women are just expected to do this by their male colleagues. It's not on, and it is just another example of women's unpaid labour.