Interviews Revealing Firm’s True Intent
Reader: I’m being interviewed by a large consulting firm for a project manager position - I think. I have 15 years of management experience and my MBA. But the interviews are making me suspicious I’m being interviewed for a clerical or secretarial position, not management. My prospective supervisor said he needs someone who knows computer programs, can keep him organized and on top of things and to take notes at meetings.
Comment: You must be female. No one would ask a male MBA to do clerical work. If you start out as a quasi-secretary, you’ll become more and more a secretary and less a manager. It’s not the way to go unless you want to go backward. Your feelings about this situation are right on.
Reader: I am 66 and a late starter: My husband left me in 1981, and I was forced to go to work after 30 years of marriage and seven children. I had a good administrative job and tried to build new systems to make work more cohesive for everyone. But my department was reorganized, and when I objected to some changes, I was accused of being insubordinate and incompetent.
So I retired one year earlier than I wanted to (I needed to accrue more Social Security benefits). I left with my self-respect. The great part is, I recently went to a department lunch and was told I was missed and that many errors were being made. But the best part was when I walked into the office I alone had occupied for five years - along with the copy and fax machine and mailboxes - and found there were three people doing the work I had done alone for so long - and doing it incompetently. It was gratifying to see - a personal ego trip. I left with a spring in my step and a huge smile on my face.
Comment: Good for you! After reading your letter, I had a spring in my step and a huge smile on my face. …
Reader: As you point out in your column, the next issue working parents should push for, and push hard for, is the opportunity actually to raise their own children. I work in high tech and have forged a schedule that allows me to pick up my children from school three days a week; their father picks them up the other two days. To get to do this, I needed flextime and the ability to telecommute.
Right now, I’m the only one in the company to have this arrangement. Let’s hope the push comes soon: I’m tired of being the only one to ask for such “privileges.” They are not privileges; they should automatically be provided because they help me do my job better and be a better parent.
Besides taking it on the chin from management, the oddest phenomenon is the resentment I sometimes get from other working mothers who are afraid to ask for anything.
Comment: It takes a lot of confidence to ask by yourself for a different schedule. I congratulate you for asking - and succeeding. I usually advise people to decide together what they need and approach management in a group of no fewer than three.
Despite your negotiations, you still need more, as you point out. President Clinton has asked Congress to pass a bill giving employees 24 hours more a year for personal and family responsibilities. It’s not enough, but it’s a good start, just like the Family and Medical Leave Act. In the future, in order to retain employees, companies will have to bend much more.
Don’t be hurt that some other working mothers don’t understand or support the issues. They are powerless and not the problem. The men who run corporate America just don’t see the need for workers to have time, as you put it, “actually to raise their own children.”
They are the problem.
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