Why You Should Be Grateful for that Tedious, White-Collar Job
by Jory Des Jardins

Thanks to BlogHer friend Mike Terry of LitCritter, who pointed me to Lynn Harris' Salon story that puts the whole I-hate-my-Scotch-Guard-carpeted-cubicle thing into perspective.

Being a disgruntled employee dreaming of when she could run her own show, I often forgot the little bennies associated with being a corporate drone--health insurance less and less, but namely the feeling that if I had a personal crisis to attend to I could go handle it without impunity. I didn't see it taken out of my paycheck. If my gynie appointment ran long, I could call in and say I wasn't planning to come back to the office. I could take a few extra minutes at lunchtime to shop or meet a friend. This is part of being at a company--unless you are egregiously abusive with privileges you are treated like an adult with a life.

There's still much to be done by companies to re-integrate women into the who have taken time off for child rearing, and other common--but voluntary--life changes. But basic things such as illness and temporary emergencies are usually considered part of the human condition. Things crop up and need to get dealt with. And if you didn't let people handle them, you'd breed low morale and--consequently--low productivity.

And yet, there are plenty of workers who don't have that kind of leeway, even in the most dire of circumstances. Harris cites a study released yesterday by the Center for WorkLife Law, a research and advocacy group at the University of California Hastings College of Law, that shows that blue collar workers, in particular, could lose their jobs for taking off any work time, let alone taking breaks at Starbucks.

Harris writes that the report, "One Sick Child Away From Being Fired: When 'Opting Out' Isn't an Option," reviews 99 "cases of work vs. life conflict that went to arbitration (the legal negotiation process for union workers)."

I was shocked to read about the ridiculous circumstances under which people had lost their jobs. Among the examples:

...a bus driver fired for arriving three minutes late (her son had had a severe asthma attack); a grandfather at a tractor supply company fired for refusing to work unscheduled overtime (he had to care for his 18-month-old grandchild); a packer fired for leaving work early (she'd just gotten word that her daughter was in the E.R. with a head injury).

This strikes me on a personal level, namely because so much of the most recent phase of my career has been about controlling my career destiny. While it's decidedly an uphill battle, consider those in blue collar jobs who may not have saved enough money to risk going solo, or they may not have jobs that provide them with the skills to run a business for themselves. Many have immediate costs/children to provide for and have to simply make do. They have to endure infantilizing positions that offer them little trust or support.

The study offers up some strong commentary on how the media handles work-life balance issues, often relegating coverage to the "style section" and focusing on whether uber-educated women should raise little Spencer and risk getting bumped from their EVP positions.

Once the press stops covering work/family issues as just a problem for professional women, policymakers will stand face to face with a central irony: In a country committed to the family values of caring for children, elders, and the ill, the lack of supports for hard-working families creates everyday crises for many ordinary Americans.

Even computers stall and break down; how can we expect uninterrupted performance from human capital?

Submitted by Jory Des Jardins (view blog) on Thu, 03/16/2006 - 20:34

Comments

 

You are Number 6

In the classic television series, "The Prisoner," a top British Secret Agent up and quits. He is to go on holiday, but back at his flat, as he packs his bags to leave, some men mysteriously arrive; then a noxious gas floods his room and he goes unconscious

He awakens on an island where everyone is a "number." No one can leave the island. He is told that he is Number Six. The place is run by a series of leaders, each who gains the title "Number Two; one after the other. In one episode Number Six even manages to become Number Two, but it is to no avail.

Our hero always wonders, "who is Number One?"

In the finale, we learn Number One is but a machine. Everyone unthinkingly has been serving a machine.

I always remember that and when I feel the Scotch-Guard-Walls closing in. I ask myself ... what "machine" do I serve?

Submitted by Katherine Lawrence on Thu, 03/16/2006 - 19:51
 

Work Life in the Post Industrial Age

I think what some of us fail to realize is that there is still a manufacturing economy in parts of the US. The demographic of mfg. employees usually consist of people who only have a high school education, one major employer within a 50 mile radius and, with diminishing pensions even less of a future.

When I worked for a small business I had no other choice. I worked six days a week mandatory because the business was a customer service organization. I also was required to work from opening till closing, 7 am - 6 pm. When you have two toddlers at home this is difficult. Its was very common for me to get harassed or warned whenever there was a doctor appointment that I had to go to. It was even worse when I had a car accident and couldn't return to work for a week. The sadder thing is that now I have a lovely corner cubicle with a view but I still feel guilty for taking extra time for the necessities.

We really need to support those that cannot see the forest for the trees. It's difficult to focus on self-actualization when you're fighting for survival as so many manufacturing employees are.

Chantel Williams
BlogHer Contributing Editor - Personal Blogs
http://lifeandtimesofchantel.blogspot.com

Submitted by Chantel Williams on Thu, 03/16/2006 - 21:23
 

Are you kidding?

"I think what some of us fail to realize is that there is still a manufacturing economy in parts of the US."

Pardon my language, but who the f*&5 are you speaking to with this post? How can ANYONE with a firing synapse and access to a newsstand not be aware of the manufacturing industry? Perhaps people like yourself? (who are apparently so disconnected from the trades that you'd deign to remind others that the trades *exist*). Your post speaks loudly of your own privilege more than anything else. That's too bad about your six day week. I'd like to have that kind of employment or job stability. I'd like to be able to *afford* to have a kid (a car, a house, a steady income, job security, etc). The biggest luxury in my life is my Typepad account. yeah, that's a luxury for some of us.

I am appalled by the bourgeois flavour of this conference. And when I look at your sponsors that says so much as well. I'll be the first to say it: blogher is bullshit.

Submitted by chandrasutra on Sat, 03/18/2006 - 13:01
 

Who you callin' Bourgeois?

Maybe that's the case, maybe not. I found what Chantel shared to be really eye opening. She shared HER experience, not Chandrasutra's. That's actually YOUR job, not hers, to provide your perspective. I think you're taking the easy way out by disenfranchising the organization because you don't feel represented, vs you taking a stand and representing yourself. You have a choice: enlighten the community and provide us with your perspective, or insult us and perpetuate your feelings of alienation.

Jory Des Jardins
BlogHer
Personal Blog Pause

Submitted by Jory Des Jardins on Tue, 03/21/2006 - 10:47
 

I have a very simple

I have a very simple barometer for how good a day it has been (as a measure of cubicle/work life) based on things I've done so far in my life, 'did I get a shower this morning?'. If the answer is yes than it couldn't have been that bad a day. Paired with my definition of an emergency ('is someone lying on the ground bleeding?') it's served me pretty well.

I created it when I was serving in the Army in Europe in the early 80s where we would spend weeks at a time in the field wearing the same stinky uniform (thankfully your chemical protective suit kept most of the stink inside), eating nasty food, awake and working for days at a time, sometimes doing patently dumb things. I learned that if you have a change of underwear and socks and get a shower once a week or so you can endure all sorts of other things. If you get good chow you can endure even more monkeyspew. (but God Help anyone who messes with your pay)

Jim Heivilin

Submitted by heivilinj on Fri, 03/17/2006 - 07:23
 

Jim, You make me feel

Jim,

You make me feel positively petty in comparison;)

Jory Des Jardins
BlogHer
Personal Blog Pause

Submitted by Jory Des Jardins on Fri, 03/17/2006 - 12:45
 

Re; grateful for white collar job

Yeah, I'd be greatful if i had a white collar job. I don't. I've never had one in fact. I've never worked in a cubicle. I don't own a car or a house, and my partner and I can't afford a kid. We have no medical coverage or anything. Yeah, we're poor. I read a post like yours and it confirms that I'm in a privileged space. I feel alienated here. And I am bothered by fact that the majority of bloggers here are bourgeois. You have less than nothing to say to a woman like myself.

Submitted by chandrasutra on Sat, 03/18/2006 - 13:24
 

Priviledge

Chandrasutra,

Though libraries help, anything that happens online is happening in a priviledged space. When I first starting blogging, it was almost totally a coastal thing, but I got into it because I wanted to bring a midwestern voice to the table. So why not use your voice to change the space? You've obviously got a lot to say, and obviously offer a perspective a lot of us lack.

Oh, and I can very much identify with Jim. My brother's a paramedic, so when someone comes to me with an emergency, I always ask who's bleeding.

Mike

Submitted by litcritter on Sun, 03/19/2006 - 18:27
 

a rich girl's party

Thanks Mike. You're 100% right that blogging is a privileged space. But I have a big problem with the kinds of voices that are being promoted by their inclusion this space - voices that don't need any further promotion because their views are the views of corporate consumer America. I can find that anywhere - we don't need more of it here. Reading a post in one of the forums here about "feeling poor" as opposed to *being* poor by none other than a market research professional. The post is, ostensibly, advice. I don't want advice from market research professionals, thank you very much. Just because they're women doesn't mean they're helping women. What I see here is a lot of trendy conservatism presented as mainstream feminism.

A good part of our oppression as women can be directly tied to the celebration and reinforcement of consumerism as an index of value, beauty, class, status, etc. Therefore, I reject the inclusion of those people whose job it is to sell us things or normalise consumerism. Women, especially, are taught to participate in consumerism as a means of "self" expression from when we are children. I am not going to applaud women for thier participation in that kind of work. And I do not celebrate corporate woman for their professional self-actualisation when their success is directly connected with their active participation in the pathological ideology of corporate business. Those women are not my sisters. And I especially do not appreciate their privileged thoughts and perspectives on *work* or labour. Or patting each other on the back for merely *acknowledging* their privilege. I look on the sidebar and see MSN, Yahoo and the Stepford-Culture Club Mom.

I don't like what's happening in this space so this and I don't feel comfortable even posting here. This does not feel "community" to me. And so this will be my very last comment.

I know there are some exceptional women involved in this conference who *are* aware of class, consumerism and the evils of the corporate world. Who make no apologies for those views. But I believe them to be in the minority.

I guess the reality is the majority of women who can afford to go to trendy conferences are the same women who occupy the kind of class privileges that dominantes this space. And that's why their voices are in abundance here. It's really too bad because these are just the same middle class to affluent voices that dominate our entire culture.

Submitted by chandrasutra on Tue, 03/21/2006 - 09:59
 

In my view

The real barriers to blogging are cultural and educational -- the former because some cultures celebrate individual voices more, the latter because if you never had the chance to learn how to write effectively or clearly, then blogging isn't going to provide much opportunity for expression. Blogging in itself takes little more than time and access to free services online. It can be done from the library (which is how I had to do it in my last blogging life). Most of the bloggers I know are not of the ruling class -- in fact, blogging is much too disruptive to be embraced by the ruling class.

I've never been on the corporate gravy train. I've never had employer-provided health benefits. I've been freelance or self-employed or the owner of my own business for pretty much all of my adult life. I've been to shows with free admiission, but never to a conference, not even BlogHer. When I look at my Social Security statements, I realize that I've lived at or below the povertly line more years than I care to admit.

My privilege comes from the excellent education I've received, and the upbringing I had that helped me break out of cultural expectations where one is pressured to not say anything to rock the boat, to always make nice, to keep one's feelings to oneself. I still fight it, and often try to err on the side of tact.

That doesn't mean I am unable to blog or express my views ... or relate to Jory's posts about corporate life. To me, each person's experience is valid. (What they take away from that, and how it informs their politics, and what their politics may be -- well, that's something else. I have opinions, too!)

I will say this: If people's experiences are to be rejected out-of-hand because of some pre-defined criteria of worthiness or goodthink, then indeed there would be no community here. Thankfully that's not the case (at least, as it seems to me, as an individual).

Laura

Submitted by Laura Scott on Tue, 03/21/2006 - 10:47
 

Why the change?

Melanie, I remember you being a big supporter of blogher last year when the first conference was announced. I remember you writing posts in support of a separate woman's conference and an effort to raise the visibility of women blogging. What has changed?

Defining any group as broadly as by a gender means that you will find a wide variety of subgroups within that community. There are many womens voices in the Blogher community that I don't identify with. But there are some that I do. It would seem unrealistic to expect everyone in Blogher to share my views and experience on politics, technology or economics. I wouldn't want that. If I only interact with those who agree with me, then I'm never exposed to differing views, limited in my opportunities to learn and would be bored quickly if validation is all that's available. So I value disagreement.

Blogher does have a SV centric feel to it. For the moment that the state of the organization. The organizers live there. The conference takes place there. The only way to broaden the perspective is to have people outside SV participate. Quite a few of the CEs are from other parts of the US and the world. There are limits to what level of community feeling can be achieved in the 30 days or so that women have been participating on this site.

Maybe a little patience and tolerance with others would leave you feeling less frustrated? Perhaps volunteering as a CE would give you a the opportunity to provide the voices you want heard the visibility they deserve.


Debi Jones
Contributing Editor, Blogging and Social Media
Feed your mobile jones

Submitted by mobilejones on Tue, 03/21/2006 - 11:25
 

Good points

Blogher does have a SV centric feel to it. For the moment that the state of the organization. The organizers live there. The conference takes place there. The only way to broaden the perspective is to have people outside SV participate. Quite a few of the CEs are from other parts of the US and the world. There are limits to what level of community feeling can be achieved in the 30 days or so that women have been participating on this site.

I would add that the site is still in Beta, so that almost certainly biases the participation here towards the "inner circle" and friends and friends of friends -- one or two degrees of separation at best. Once the site is announced publicly, and word starts to get around to other online circles, I would expect (and hope) that the diversity here will increase.

Submitted by Laura Scott on Tue, 03/21/2006 - 11:50
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