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I'm sad (work related)
I need to vent. After 5 and a half years at my company I've reached the ceiling on pay but not responsibility. Coworker A and I have been in our current positions about 4 years and each year we are expected to do more and more for less than 1/2 of what the "senior" techs in the dept (all men) make. The only difference aside from penises is that they have worked in the field. This counts for something, but not more than double the salary. We do at least as much and as difficult work as they do on a daily basis. The boss consistently refuses to put us on a regular tech salary because we haven't worked in the field. Yet most of the time we have to fix work coming in from the field from people whose only qualification is that they're breathing. So the "no field experience" is really not a valid excuse.
Because I know this place won't change, I am applying for jobs, but not hearing back from anything which makes me feel discouraged and worthless. The fact that the other woman in this position has a family and is married to the IT guy has gotten her several perks and considerations that I do not get - the option of working from home being one of them. I feel like they are more likely to give her a raise than me which again makes me feel discouraged and quite bitter. She has just given them an ultimatum - pay me what you pay the men or I'll quit. But I can't afford to do that - I don't have a husband to fall back on if I storm out when they refuse my demands, so what can I really do? Not much. Mr. Bang and I don't live together yet but even if we did, his company is still growing and beyond basic living expense they can't draw salaries - he could not support himself, the little dude AND me right now.
So I feel trapped, angry, bitter, depressed, and broke. Most days I just slog through it and deal with it but today it is really bothering me. And the heater in the office isn't working today so I'm cold to boot and I want to cry and go home.
/ventyrantyboohoofest
Re: I'm sad (work related)
That sucks. Is there any way you can keep records of the work, you do fixing the field work, to actually present it to your boss, and ask again?
I hated working at a place that I wasn't happy. Know that I'm sending lots of job/money dust your way.
Fortunately I keep a record of everything I do (it's required) but that hasn't helped in the past.
I know it could be WAY worse. I really do. It's just that I have gotten into a really bad head space about this and feel extremely bitter and angry and sad with little hope of changing the situation. I feel like I will always be struggling just to stay afloat!!
I don't know what to tell you about the job situation where you currently work, but I can tell you as far as not hearing anything back from jobs youve applied to... It took me FOREVEEERRRRRRRRRRR to get responses back when I was looking for a job last year.
I wouldn't hear anything for months and then a trickle of responses and then I kid you not the day I finally got an offer and accepted it, I got FIVE positive responses to come in for interviews etc. All for jobs I'd applied to up to 5 months prior. It is so ridiculous out there, you just have to hang in there.
Good luck!
First of all, (((hugs)))
Job stress SUCKS. I definitely know how you feel and honestly, changing my job completely changed my life. I know that the perfect opportunity will find you, it's just a matter of sticking it out!
Do you have a review? Do you get feedback on your work? I definitely think you need to sit down with your boss and tell them that you are not happy with the current situation. Is it possible for you to do some field work in order to get the "necessary" experience for the pay increase? Is that something you would want to do and that your company would support?
Or you could always just sell your novel and flip your boss the bird on your way out!
Keep applying for jobs. It only takes one position that really fits to have a way out/up.
I was told when I was laid off a few years back that it was because everyone else had a family and I was married to someone with a steady income. That made me excessively grumpy because DH and I were trying to save money to start a family and the layoff set us back, well, DS is 5 months now and we didn't have IF problems so there's the math.
ETA: Whoops, I hit reply not quote. This is re: how to get the precious field experience!
Work a part time independent contractor job that would absolutely not pay the bills in this territory (and I can't relocate). It's not required to excel at this job, but they cling to it as a life raft of an excuse!
This place is a good old boys' club though. I suspect even if we did go out in the field they'd find some other reason not to pay the young females as much as they pay our bald male counterparts. Very frustrating.
Also ETA: Thanks guys. Really what I need today is a big hug and someone to tell me that even though this company may not value me I'm not a total failure. Blech. This feeling is really frustrating and debilitating.
I've been there too. My first real job out of college was at a state-supported agency that operated as a boys club for ex-military. One of the newspapers requested the salaries of all employees under the FOIA and published them. Let's just say the women were basically in a near-revolt. I knew I was grossly underpaid, but to see how far it went was eye-opening. "Class-action lawsuit" was tossed around pretty casually in the hallways. The sole female VP was making far less than her peers, as well as men far down the totem pole. Everytime I had a yearly review, I was told that I would never go anywhere in the agency, not because I wasn't doing a good job, but because I wasn't a part of the boys club. Even in my previous temp job, I had been talked down to and blatantly told that the only placed I belonged was in the kitchen.
After the hubbub died down, and some female employees were given small raises, another coworker confided to me that she was looking for another job, but most of the other women would never leave. The men > women mindset was such an accepted fact in the agency, the community, the entire state. It's what prompted me to also find another job with an international company, and eventually leave the state. To this day when I tell people that I used to live there, they coo about how wonderful it is. Yeah, it is...if you have a penis.
I'm sending job dust your way Interro. Some companies just suck, and use the depressed job market as an excuse to treat their employees like shiit.
Eh, time to vote with your feet. You'll exhaust yourself -- to no net benefit to you -- trying to overcome/defeat this kind of institutionalized sexism that's benefiting everyone else BUT you. Just focus on finding somewehre else to work that's participating more fully in the 21st century.
That's definitely the point I've reached. Now to keep chugging away at that search!
And Bowies, that is absolutely appalling!! Thanks for the job dust
I'm sorry, Interro. I know how frustrating it is to keep sending out the resumes with no feedback whatsoever. It feels like such a waste of time. Keep at it though. A job offer is your way out- either through the act of leaving or by just giving you a bargaining chip.
Good luck, sweetie. Something has to come around.
Working at a job like that is so frustrating. I hate those "good old boys' club" type companies. Don't get too discouraged about not hearing anything back on the applications, a lot of companies go on hiring freezes around the holidays and lift them after the new year (at least around here they do, anyway), so maybe you'll be getting some responses now.
And gigantic BOO to the other coworker who gets perks simply by being married to someone else in the company. That blows monkey balls. Been there, made me quit a job once.
Hope you hear back soon from another company. I'd FedEx you my heater if I could!