Today, a workmate expressed surprise after another mate and I approached our team leader individually to hint at a more "equitable" division of our workload, because he was seemingly oblivious to the fact that she was getting the raw end of the stick within our work unit. She said to us that she was shocked at how passionate we had fought for her - or something to that effect. Personally, I am still recovering from the fact that she used a variant of the word "fight".
The more poignant lesson from today is the low expectation she had of another person in the office to help her out in situations like this. Granted, it's a dog-eat-cat world out there, but have we lost the values of fairness and compassion in our merry journey along the corporate highway? More on the personal side, is this an indication of what may come my way?
How am I to live if I can't count on a little bit of thoughtfulness from the people to whom I'm dedicating more than half my waking hours to? Could it be that we are so wrapped up in the pursuit of success that everyone is either a pawn or a competitor in the workplace?
This same individual has mentioned experiencing disrespect from other colleagues, which she believes is coming from the idea they have of females being less competent in the business that we are in. First reaction I had was "No surprise", it isn't the first time that females had to go that extra 10 miles to prove that we can. Yet I find it ironic that in a way, these guys are actually feeding the stereotype of being egotistical, chauvenistic and closed-minded. I have mixed feelings about that particle bunch of people in question. Due to limited interaction with them, it's premature to pass any sort of judgement against or for them. But what's amusing is that our client has a majority of women working with us. If my colleagues can't even get along with the women from the same company, what hope do they have with the outsiders?
