Fabulously Broke in the City » Career

The tension between working classes: Blue Collar vs. White Collar

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:00:59 +0000

This post on Charlie’s Blog about blue collar jobs versus white collar jobs got me thinking (I love that!) about working classes and the stereotypes.

Somewhere in a high rise office is an executive.

He quaffs a Scotch and loosens his tie. He has risen far in the company, but he can’t tell you exactly what it is that he does.

He doesn’t know from one day to the next if he will be promoted, forgotten, or terminated. All his coworkers are enemies looking to plunge a dagger in his back at the first opportunity. He maintains the facade, but he hates his job. The perks are nice, but he realizes they are merely sugar on shit.

He gazes at a building under construction and sees iron workers putting together rebar.

They don’t even make a third of what he makes, but he envies them. Without men such as this, his office would not exist. There would be no chair to sit in or desk to write on. It is men such as these that make the world work.

They make the world livable. They deal with iron and concrete. What they do matters.

His PowerPoint from a month ago is now ancient corporate history. The company is paying a consulting outfit $250K to help craft a new mission statement. 250 smackers to write a goddamn sentence. Madness.

The above rant of Charlie’s is very Office Space when Ron (at the end) finally ends up getting an “honest” construction job where he just clocks in his time, works, comes home, has a beer and relaxes.

Compared to his other white collar former colleagues, they’re stuck in an office, stressed out, working on weekends and trying to figure out a stupid printer’s settings.

In case you are unfamiliar with the terms:

Blue Collar: Manual Labour

Line cooks
Construction workers
Street sweepers
Mechanics
Repairmen
Cleaners (maids, office cleaners)
Factory workers
Plumbers
Electricians

White Collar: Salaried Professionals

Office dwellers
Accountants
Bankers
Consultants
Teachers

By all rights, I am in the white collar category as a consultant, but that doesn’t mean I look down on blue collar workers, the way some might expect.

I just happen to like doing what I do, and it is classified as “white collar” work.

I have a great respect for people on the front line (the blue collar jobs), and just recently I had a conversation with a colleague that went like this:

FB: Well it’s just frustrating that I can’t get the information I need from them [factory workers]. I need those stats.

Colleague: *whispers* Well they’re blue collar workers, so you know, they aren’t professionals. You can’t expect too much out of them.

FB: *blinks* Well I think it’s just a question of them not knowing how to get the information, seeing as it isn’t readily available. I mean, they don’t time themselves or record that stuff, so they can’t give me what’s not there.

Colleague: That’s what I mean. They weren’t bright enough to even record that stuff in the first place.

FB: How could they have guessed? Never mind. I’ll find the info another way.

If you weren’t taught how to do something like fix a car, you wouldn’t be expected to know how to do it off the bat!

So why would you expect someone to know o record what bits of information seeing as they don’t know what someone in my job might need?

I couldn’t do their jobs — manual labour that is. Putting cars together on the line is no easy task. I saw how hard they grunt and sweat, and at the end they can see a row of shiny cars for their efforts.

SO WHY DO BLUE COLLAR JOBS GET A BAD RAP?

Because it’s manual labour. People think that working on a spreadsheet is far better than working on a machine as a job.

They think they make more money than someone getting dirty and fixing a car, and it is more ‘prestigious’ to say you work at So-and-So, than saying you’re a mechanic.

This is where I have a story: I know a woman who cleans stores at night and makes $150,000 a year.

She works for 3-4 hours of the 8 that she is there, and she isn’t let out of the store until the next morning by the manager.

By all rights, she’s a blue collar worker, but the difference between her and some of my friends with fancy titles is:

she loves her job — she actually gets a kick out of cleaning
she works by the job, not by the hour, so if it takes 4 hours, it takes 4 hours
she makes double what my analyst friends make

Blue collar jobs are seen as dirty, disgusting and unattractive to white collar workers… but there can be a lot of satisfaction in doing a basic task with your hands.

I like to cook, so seeing (and eating!) the end result is satisfying, so I can understand when you fix up an old car to make it run, how satisfying it must be to hear the purr.

SIMILARLY, WHY DO WHITE COLLAR JOBS GET A BAD RAP?

White collar jobs are seen as lifeless, dull, drone-like sets of tasks and responsibilities.

Clean up that spreadsheet.
Make a powerpoint presentation.
Go through these numbers and find a trend.

“Yawn”, right?

Where I think white collar jobs get a bad rap from blue collar workers who thinks that they don’t do anything. The spreadsheets, the organization, the presentations for a mission statement for a company — it all seems like fluffy BS, doesn’t it?

This is where I think my bias comes in.

What I do matters, even if I don’t deal in iron and concrete.

I think that as a white collar worker, I can see that if I didn’t organize statistics into spreadsheets, the factory workers would never know that they were wasting 15% of their raw materials just by not having the right timing down for the factory to run at an optimal speed.

Or that they can shave an hour off their workday just by having a process to enter information in an efficient manner, as not to waste time re-calculating and erasing numbers to get to the end result.

What I do can have a real impact on the front lines. Not always, but sometimes it makes their lives so much easier.

Someone in accounting would set up analyses and have presentations to say “Yes, go ahead with building that new factory, it is worth it“, and then blue collar workers come in with their iron and concrete.

If they said “No, wait a year or two, or never“, there would be no building. No blue collared workers. No jobs. No work.

Everything is intertwined, and no one job can say that one or another is worthless or not as “real”.

There is a lot of merit in white collar jobs, and I have never felt like I don’t do anything, although I have said to myself: I can’t believe I get paid to do this!

This is all because I love my job and I’m good at it. I’m passionate about seeing things done right, saving people time and money and helping them do their jobs better on the front line.

It can be easy to brush off a mission statement, but sometimes remembering why you started a company can help bring your future vision back on the right track so you make the right decisions and can create more jobs for both white and blue collared workers.

Blue collared jobs do the work on the front line, and without them, there is no company. They do the work, they get the job done, and they are the ones who are considered ‘valuable resources’.

White collared jobs create and improve blue collared jobs. The more a company sells, the more money it has, and the more people they can hire to expand the business. You also need white collared workers to keep a company running — accounting, selling, buying, organizing projects, hiring resources; there is a lot more to a working company than just the job itself or the building it’s in.

It is very symbiotic, not parasitic.

Without one, the other doesn’t exist.

If you are reading this on any other blog than Fabulously Broke in the City or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist where I am living with less, but only the best!

Nice guys (and girls) make less money

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:00:15 +0000

If you’re nice, are you getting screwed, financially?

Perhaps.

…men who measured below average on agreeableness earned about 18% more—or $9,772 more annually in their sample—than nicer guys.

Ruder women, meanwhile, earned about 5% or $1,828 more than their agreeable counterparts.

– Human Resource Studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations

Read more on WSJ and via bakadesuyo

I should note that ‘ruder’ or ‘meaner’ women can mean many things.

People I negotiate with probably think that I’m ‘rude’ and ‘mean’, but it’s all perception, because it’s business and it’s MY money I’m negotiating for (remember? one of my rules is that no one has more interest in your money than yourself).

I remember with my first job, they wanted to offer me $50k, which is a very decent salary… but I asked for more, and I got an extra $15k.

Imagine if I had just accepted it without even trying to get more money? I would be at a $15k loss each year.

In fact, each of my co-workers who had accepted at $50k, would have never reached my starting salary in less than 7 years, with the way salary raises were going ($2k max a year). In contrast, I was making the extra $15k and earning an additional $2k in salary raises per year.

I see it as being ahead of the game right off the bat.

So if it means that I am called ‘rude’, ‘bitchy’ or ‘mean’ behind my back but I get the money I deserve, then I am all for it.

For the record, I still think I’m a nice, friendly, laid back sort of person (just not when it comes to companies (and their managers/whoever) trying to lowball me by using dirty tactics by using my age as a negative, or calling me ‘mean’ or whatever suits them to get me to work for less money).

READ:

If you are reading this on any other blog than Fabulously Broke in the City or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist where I am living with less, but only the best!

Are women burning out by the age of 30?

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:00:37 +0000

Read an article the other day on Forbes about Millennial women (my generation!) burning out by the time they hit the age of 30.

…..ambitious [women] go-getters are working as doctors, lawyers, engineers, and advertising executives, blessed with great salaries, health benefits, and paid vacation.

…these women understand the protestors’ frustration and unhappiness over the fact that their lives aren’t supposed to turn out this way. This is why a growing number of young professional women who seem to “have it all” are burning out at work before they reach 30.

One reason that women are burning out early in their careers is that they have simply reached their breaking point after spending their childhoods developing well-rounded resumes.

‘CALCULATED LAZINESS’

I am definitely classed as a “Millennial” (still a few years before I hit 30), but I think it’s safe to say I won’t be burning out any time soon, much less by the time I hit 30.

The major reason for that is probably because I’m very laissez-faire, and while others might scoff and call me ‘lazy’, I like to think of it as ‘calculated laziness’, or “working hard only where it really counts”, or simply “knowing your priorities”.

How so?

Well to start, I did spend my childhood developing a well-rounded resume, so to speak. I started a few businesses for instance, but never bothered spending time on extracurricular activities, except for playing a few musical instruments.

I was never a Girl Scout, I never tried to be the president or head of any association/club, and I didn’t volunteer my weekends away at the soup kitchen, or rescuing animals.

In school, I was never the go-getting academic either, to the chagrin to my professors.

I loathed the idea of spending hours on homework just to get it perfect, and during exam periods, I never freaked out and drank any coffee (the sheer amount of caffeine makes me throw up) to stay up all night for a month straight, studying like a maniac. I studied, just not obsessively.

As a result, my GPA wasn’t in the gutter, but it wasn’t a 4.0 by any means, but I didn’t really see it as such a big deal.

Everything for me was very cool, easy-going, and I was a girl who works-hard-only-where-it-really-counts.

I could pull out all the stops when I wanted to, but I knew if I kept on a treadmill of perfection, I’d burn out in no time (hence why I avoided applying to any investment banking jobs).

I had a good intuition that NO ONE would ask for my GPA after I landed my first job, and so far no one has ever brought up what I got as my final mark in Economics 101.

(It was a very dismal 62/100, if any of you were wondering)

What I lacked in academic and lifestyle perfection, I’d like to think I made up for in diverse, curious interests, an entrepreneurial spirit (read: businesses I’ve owned) and sheer tenacity, which I think seemed to be more interesting to employers than a cookie cutter perfect 4.0 GPA graduate with the bleach-white smile.

I was probably just lucky, but ‘calculated laziness’ may be part of the reason why I haven’t burned out yet, nor am I reaching any kind of burnout stage (far from it!).

OVERACHIEVING, PERFECTION-DRIVEN BURNOUTS

In contrast, I think the women they are mentioning above, were probably the presidents of their sororities who were also captains of their field hockey teams, in addition to maintaining a 4.0 GPA.

Oh, and they probably mentored Girl Scouts, led summer camps every year, all while trying to help fundraise to find a cure for cancer (bless their hearts!).

Did I mention that they are probably also drop dead gorgeous?

These women scare me in a good way……in a very “wow.. when do you find time to sleep and eat!?” way.

They’re admirable, fierce and formidable, but perhaps as the article mentions above, their Amazonian lifestyle is not sustainable.

You simply cannot have it all as well as a life.

Like with money management, you have to make sacrifices/decisions (whatever you want to call it!), and decide what is important for you.

This, I think is what is missing from these inspiring and exhausting women of my generation. They need to realize that there’s more to life than becoming the youngest advertising executive in the history of the company, and to find a balance in their lives.

Interestingly enough, most of my business school friends (who are these Amazonians I mention above) have reached the same sort of burnout conclusion as above — they’ve all quit their jobs and started trying to find themselves, or to restart their careers in directions that don’t involve working for someone else.

They hate the jobs they once coveted in business school, and are going back to get their MBAs at Insead, Harvard, Yale, and Stanford in hordes! I think in the past 3 years alone, 25% of my class has gone to get an MBA and/or quit and started their own company (myself included for the latter).

http://monicarosestylist.blogspot.com/2011/07/paris.html

SO WHAT ABOUT THE GUYS?

Yes, what ABOUT the guys? Don’t they burn out too? (as asked by @financialuproar, fellow Canadian who writes a witty blog of the same name that doesn’t put me to sleep or make me want to tear my hair out)

Aside from the stats thrown in from the article above:

Men are 25% more likely to take breaks throughout the day for personal activities, 7% more likely to take a walk, 5% more likely to go out to lunch, and 35% more likely to take breaks “just to relax.”

This, I can understand.

As a woman, I would probably be less likely to go out for a walk or take a break, for a few reasons:

Not wanting to come off as lazy and unproductive to other co-workers
Feeling guilty
Wanting to get the impossible done by the end of the day (a futile task)
Feeling the need to prove myself as a woman
Feeling unproductive

As I later mentioned to Nelson, I think that men don’t feel the same way about their jobs as women do.

Disclaimer: This is all speculation without any studies or research. Just my own ramblings, traveling from my brain through my fingertips onto a blog post.

I feel like men thrive on the stress, pressure, adrenaline and general competitiveness of having to fight, negotiate, be confident and basically push to get their way to the top.

Women, are less likely to be confident in their abilities and accomplishments (and therefore less likely to want to talk about them, in fear of coming off as boastful or arrogant).

Women are also less likely to thrive on any kind of pressure or competitiveness, and will go to extraordinary lengths to avoid conflicts (myself included!).

Women are just concerned about their public image — of what people think of them, who will talk about them, who will be disappointed in them, and so on. They get to the point where they psych themselves out and don’t do anything at all.

Men are just as concerned… but less so. They may have fleeting doubts of what they’re doing, then they just brush it off with: “Well if I fail I fail, but I’ll try my best to make sure I succeed before I give up.”

Men see their careers as something they have to grab by the reins and take for themselves. If they don’t do it, they won’t get it — that’s what they’ve been taught, and they are taught to give off an air of confidence even if they aren’t feeling it.

Women see their careers and promotions as a gifts bestowed upon them as soon as the other people gradually recognize how brilliant they are without having to actually point it out to them and come off as boastful or a show-off.

The difference between being arrogant and confident, is that confidence has to be backed by actual ability and skill.

If you are arrogant, it means you are saying you can do all these things without actually knowing how to do them (or if you actually can!).

If you are confident, it means you are simply stating what you can do because you’ve done it before and/or you are confident in your abilities to do it.

It seems to me that men seem to grasp this difference in being arrogant versus confident a lot more naturally than women do.

SO WHAT DOES CONFIDENCE HAVE TO DO WITH BURNING OUT?

Women who burn out, do too much so that they gain a sense of security from having overachieved in every aspect of their lives.

It’s kind of like a career security blanket — do more than what any human can do, so that you are assured of the position.

Say yes to every job that comes your way.
Never say no.
Grit your teeth and smile graciously if someone stomps on you unfairly.
Never brag or show off.

They do everything they can to be the best at the youngest age possible, so that they can avoid talking about themselves or marketing how fabulous they are — their accomplishments should say it all.

Men may not burn out as much, because they don’t go crazy and go above what they think is possible for any human, because they are better at marketing themselves with less ammunition (so to speak), and they are not afraid to fight for anything they want.

They take more risks with having LESS on their resumes (not being a Boy Scout leader for instance), whereas women take less risks by having MORE on their resumes to secure positions.

Buy you know what? Sometimes, a little fight for your salary and some creative marketing can make your employer see you in a different light.

Just read about what happened to Fabulously Frugirl:

People remember you for negotiating. The principal who hired me is currently my manager.

2 years later, when we were discussing my performance he reminded me that I negotiated for my salary and that stood out to him.

It took him aback since he thought that as a new grad, I should have been “grateful” for a job offer, but it also made him think that I was going to be able to interact well with clients since I was able to stand up for myself.

So in short, women seem to work harder beyond what is capable for any human for the same results as a man because of a lack of confidence, not so much of a lack of ability or talent. It’s all mental.

BF has always maintained the belief that women tend to work harder than men in workplaces, something he’s seen in France as a manager. He thinks women have a need to prove themselves whereas men feel less of the push of what others will think of them.

This may be one of the reasons why WOMEN burn out by the age of 30, and not men. (Who knows, we need a study made on men too!)

Men, work just as hard but they realize there’s a balance and are more likely to say “screw it, I’m OUT OF HERE”, even without a Plan B or an Exit Strategy. They also have the gift of risk, confidence and marketing on their side which helps show their accomplishments in the best light, and they aren’t afraid to tell you about them to get a leg up over the other guys in the workplace.

What do you think?

Are you, a millennial (man or woman) burning out by the age of 30?

Does any of my rambling about ‘marketing’ and ‘confidence’ between genders make sense?

Wage Gaps between Genders: Who’s responsibility is it to fix it?

Do salaries plateau at the age of 40?

If you are reading this on any other blog than Fabulously Broke in the City or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist where I am living with less, but only the best!

Invest in your appearance

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:00:49 +0000

Yes, I said the dirty word we PF’ers are never supposed to say when we talk about looks and clothes: INVEST.

To be clear, I don’t believe in investing in a good handbag or a pair of shoes because frankly, those shoes will never get you an actual, monetary return on investment (which is the point of an investment in the first place).

To put it this way: You won’t be waking up to $20 bills beside your expensive so-called ‘investment’ shoes every morning.

So if you buy a really good pair of shoes, you just walk better and feel better. Period.

What I am focusing on is less about this crazy talk of ‘investing’ in your work wardrobe, and more about making sure you invest in YOURSELF.

What’s that I hear? You want to know actual numbers?

Investing in your appearance can grab you between 10-12 percent more than your dowdier colleagues for both men and women.

This is what Catherine Hakim of Erotic Capital, calls the ‘beauty premium’.

I know.

You read the word ‘beauty’ and snorted at it because like me, you’re imagining supermodels with brains fit for NASA achieving such results, however I have read the book and she says you don’t need to have been born beautiful, just to take the time to try to look attractive.

The very act of making sure you are well-groomed enough (haircut, a little makeup, clothes) to be considered “attractive markers of beauty”, meaning people will see all of those things together as a whole and find you more attractive.

As if you ever needed any more proof, you only have to flip to TLC and watch ‘What Not to Wear’, to see the transformations made to women who may have looked average and dowdy before, look absolutely stunning after a little wardrobe change to make them embrace their true shape and size, hair and makeup lesson.

Here are a few amazing transformations:

And my favourite one of all because I thought after they were done, she looked like a model. She was just.. heartbreakingly gorgeous.

Every one of these women above look better in the After photo, there is no denying this.

All it took was a little work in getting them to wear what fit them, in the colours that flattered. They didn’t need to lose weight or do anything extreme, they just need a little repackaging.

Almost everyone who goes through this on TV says they feel so much better now. Sexier, and more confident which also helps in the workplace and how you present yourself to others.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Exercise and stay fit: It gives your skin a healthy glow and society sees health as a major marker of ‘beauty’.
Get a haircut. No need to spend $500 on some designer hairdo, just a simple but modern haircut is good.
Have neat nails; but there’s no need to paint them or get fake nails (the worst are those super long, airbrushed painted ones).
Wear clothes that flatter and fit. Again, no need to go into debt for this, just make sure you wear your true size. Fitted, not tight.
Be aware of your posture. Hunchbacks don’t look attractive. If you are tall and trying to look shorter, don’t do it. Own your height.
[Women] Makeup: Try wearing just a smidge of makeup. Nothing crazy, but eyeliner, mascara & concealer go a long way.*
[Women] Don’t wear heels you can’t walk in: Nothing ruins a look more than a cave woman stomp.

You do NOT need to spend a fortune on any of the above. You just need to spend the time and use your money wisely to get fewer pieces of higher quality, not to buy in quantity.

Some consignment stores and thrift stores have some amazing pieces, so don’t discount secondhand goods either.

*I don’t wear makeup daily, but I do to go to work and other events.

It makes a big difference for me to even slap on just some concealer under my eyes and be out the door in 10 seconds. So unless you were born with perfect, porcelain skin, just CONSIDER the idea of a little, natural-looking makeup.

So. Do you invest in your appearance?

If you are reading this on any other blog than Fabulously Broke in the City or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist where I am living with less, but only the best!

Wage Gaps between Genders: Who’s responsibility is it to fix it?

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 09:00:30 +0000

Article: The Glass Hammer — “Whose Responsibility is Fixing the Wage Gap?“

Good article in general, but I want to highlight a few points for discussion.

Please, if you are going to disagree with me or especially with any of my readers commenting, I totally welcome discussion, but please keep it civil and productive. Thanks!

This paragraph:

An employer has valued a job at between $85,000 and $90,000. When interviewing potential employees, the employer requires that they provide their salary history.

A woman then comes in to be interviewed and when asking about the salary being offered for the position, the employer instead requests the female candidate’s salary history.

Currently, she is making $65,000 a year and is offered $75,000 for the job.

She accepts, grateful for the $10,000 raise, unaware of the fact that she will be receiving less than the position was originally valued at; thus saving the company between $10,000 and $15,000

Later, the article goes on to write:

“Gender stereotypes abound and it’s not unusual for a woman attempting to negotiate her salary to be seen as ‘too aggressive’ and then not get offered the job.

Also, if you ask your male co-workers how much they’re making for performing similar work, you run the risk of being retaliated against by employers.”

Learn the game

I am not saying gender stereotypes do not exist.

Hell!

I’ve been & challenged a lot more than other consultants, and partly, it’s because I’m a woman…. but it’s also because I’m young and in a male-dominated industry.

They think I’m a pushover, and they act as such to use anything they can to their advantage — that’s the way negotiations work.

If I wasn’t young and/or a woman, they would act differently towards me, and not call me unflattering descriptors like: “aggressive”, “hungry”, or “tough”.

I’ve seen it happen with the same contracts/brokers dealing with BF (who is older and clearly a man), and they call him: “fair”, “firm” and “confident”.

They are reacting to the situation & trying to squeeze out what they can use as their advantage.

So I may not like it, but I understand the game (after making a ton of mistakes) and I accept the challenges and hurdles that come with what I’ve chosen.

Every job seeker should do their legwork

She accepts, grateful for the $10,000 raise, unaware of the fact that she will be receiving less than the position was originally valued at…

Frankly, she’s the one that accepted, with the key words being: unaware of the fact that she will be receiving less than the position was originally valued at.

Without proper salary and wage research, nor being able to confidently ask for a higher salary than what is initially offered, I dare say it isn’t really discrimination against women in particular for that case.

I think it’s misleading to say that hardball negotiation tactics are only done to all women — it is done to everyone, but perhaps women are less aware of the situation & are not as inclined or to fight/challenge the salary, as written above.

But I am not saying that it doesn’t happen women at all, because getting challenged on my rate/salary happens to me all the time!

We may be targeted more as a group, but that’s because we still have a long ways to go to reach wage parity in society, but we aren’t helping matters if we sit back & accept our ‘woe is me’ mindset.

Man or woman, if you’ve made the decision to either:

a) not do the legwork & check out how much the job is worth, thus being unaware of what you should ask for

b) did the legwork & still accepted for other reasons without negotiating

…then I am sorry, but in that particular situation, I cannot see how it can be only directed to women, other than writing in the hypothetical job seeker as a woman.

Either way, it’s either you did your homework and accepted anyway, or you didn’t do your homework and are now realizing you just lost $15,000 off the bat.

Women in particular definitely have to be more proactive and force themselves out of their comfort zone to ask for what is fair, while erasing their own mental stigma of being “bitchy” or “aggressive”.

It’s a two-way street

We can’t sit back and wait for it to happen, not want to be patronized just for being a woman, not want to actively try to change a little, and then complain!

Yes, there is a lot of work to be done in general to change attitudes.

Yes, we are still not paid equal wages (although there are other factors at play).

Yes, we are challenged and steamrolled over a lot more than our male counterparts.

But we still have to try as individuals; I am not saying to succeed 100% of the time, but just trying to negotiate when you have a good basis to go on, can yield surprising results.

After all, you are just asking.

It isn’t aggressive behaviour if you are calm, and firm, rather than enraged at the wage gap when you go talk to your manager, backed up with achievements and salary research.

You don’t even have to mention that you asked the guys at the office who gave you that info (I traded salary info all the time); just mention that you’ve done your own research and based on your findings, you are being paid less than the average, while backing it up with your achievements at the company.

Use that as a starting point, and then negotiate for a raise right away.

If they cry “recession!”, and say they don’t have the ready cash for that, tell them you want to know when they feel they may be “ready” — either with dates, or measurable goals such as: ”if we hit our targets this year”.

Bide your time (if you want to stay) and if they refuse again when the company seems to have pulled out of its slump, then perhaps that company isn’t one that you should be working for if you are really unhappy.

It’s your call

It all boils down to whether or not you want to accept that stereotype that women are bitches when they negotiate, or change your own mindset to believe that you are just being a firm, confident (not “aggressive”) employee.

You can still decide to negotiate and then stay at the job without nary a change — but that is now your choice to do so for whatever reason (great benefits, retirement plan, perks, vacation time… etc).

Or… sometimes a job is a job is a job and we have to make our bills!

Regardless of gender, we should all do our research, ask for what we are worth & back it up with hard work and results.

It just seems to me, to be like a dangerous, fine line between saying what you are worth and challenging what you are worth by playing the gender (or even race) card.

Just saying.

EXTRA READING:

Sandy from Yes I am Cheap talks about how advice given to women about negotiating like a woman is a bunch of crap.

I agree.

Negotiate like a “man”. It gets you more money.

She also mentions that 20% of women don’t even ask for money.

What the hell, ladies?!!

Interviewing: At the end of an interview (Part. 4)

Top 10 Least Stressful Jobs

Top 10 Most Stressful Jobs

If you are reading this on any other blog than Fabulously Broke in the City or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist where I am living with less, but only the best!

Do you live to work or work to live?

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 09:00:38 +0000

Do you live to work or work to live?

Many will quickly say: I work to live! I want to take time off, relax, it’s just a job, it’s just money, and my family matters a lot more

Anyone who says otherwise, that they work to live… can be seen as being workaholics who don’t value their family enough.

I’m here to say that maybe we might want to consider the other side of this story:

There are those of us out there who love our jobs (myself included).

I love what I do, I’m good at it, and it gives me satisfaction. When I am on a contract, I actually bounce out of bed at 5.30 a.m. – 6 a.m., eager to start my day.

They did a number of studies, and found that comparatively speaking, if you work a 60 hour job at something you hate, it feels like an eternity, whereas if you work 100 hours at a job you love, you feel that time flies by.

I am also aware that there are certainly those of us who are true workaholics and cannot think of anything BUT work, to the point where their social and family relationships crumble.

I just think that living to work might not be such a bad thing, if you enjoy it and don’t let it consume you.

If you work to live, it’s seen as being positive, or the “right” way to live by not devoting your life to your job. I’d agree with that sentiment to a certain point because I subscribe to that mentality.

I work to make enough money to cover my needs and wants, and save for the future.

In a different light, it’s a negative feeling if you’re really working to pay for your consumption and lifestyle that you can’t afford, which is exactly why you see your job as a noose around your neck, choking the life out of you.

Everything in moderation

Neither one or the other is “right”, but I think a balance of both, where you are working at a job you very much enjoy but you don’t spend a lot and therefore don’t need to work as much, but choose to, is the best of both worlds.

So do you live to work, or work to live?

Would you choose pay over camaraderie at work?

Had a rough work day, and what did I learn from it?

Work less, get less. France isn’t the solution.

Why do I feel like I don’t do anything at work?

Do those “Apply Online” methods work?

Work appropriate fabrics

If you are reading this on any other blog than Fabulously Broke in the City or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist where I am living with less, but only the best!

Top 10 Least Stressful Jobs

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:00:40 +0000

In case you missed it, here are the Top 10 Most Stressful Jobs.

CNBC also came up with a list of the Top 10 Least Stressful Jobs

What makes a job not stressful?

They are jobs that involve little danger and minimal physical demands.

Plus, they have shorter work weeks, low pressure and little competition.

1. Audiologist

(These are doctors who treat people with hearing disorders.)

Average annual salary: $68,983

2. Dietitian

Average annual salary: $51,470

3. Software engineer

Average annual salary: $65,000

4. Computer programmer

Average annual salary: $60,000

5. Dental hygienist

Average annual salary: $69,000

6. Speech pathologist

Average annual salary: $68,983

7. Philosopher

Average annual salary: $45,000

8. Mathematician

Average annual salary: $107,000

9. Occupational therapist

Average annual salary: $44,000

10. Chiropractor

Average annual salary: $69,910

Top 10 Most Stressful Jobs

Are law schools just a big scam? Students are graduating but not able to find jobs, let alone 6-figure salaries

Interviewing: At the end of an interview (Part. 4)

Chart: Federal versus Private Sector Salary Figures

How to ask your boss for a raise

Saying “No”, even to yourself

If you are reading this on any other blog than Fabulously Broke in the City or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist where I am living with less, but only the best!

Top 10 Most Stressful Jobs

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 09:00:53 +0000

CNBC came up with a list of the top 10 most stressful jobs.

What makes a stressful job?

Factors that weighed into stress include work environment, job competitiveness, physical demands, deadlines, on-the-job dangers and even the job’s growth potential.

1. Commercial Airline Pilot

Average annual salary: $117,060

2. Public Relations Executive

Average annual salary: $101,850

3. Senior Corporate Executive

Average annual salary: $167,280

4. Photojournalist

Average annual salary: $43,270

5. Newscaster

Average annual salary: $43,270

6. Advertising Account Executive

Average annual salary: $97,670

7. Architect

Average annual salary: $78,800

8. Stockbroker

Average annual salary: $85,580

9. Emergency Medical Technician

Average annual salary: $33,020

10. Real Estate Agent

Average annual salary: $53,100

Top 10 Least Stressful Jobs

Are law schools just a big scam? Students are graduating but not able to find jobs, let alone 6-figure salaries

How to leave a job (my story of how I did it)

Interviewing: At the end of an interview (Part. 4)

Chart: Federal versus Private Sector Salary Figures

Skirt Suit vs. Pants Suit for Interviews

If you are reading this on any other blog than Fabulously Broke in the City or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist where I am living with less, but only the best!

Saying “No”, even to yourself

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 09:00:49 +0000

As with everything in life, there are limits.

Bank accounts have a limit of how much you can withdraw based on how much you actually have.

Credit cards and lines of credit have limits on how much you can borrow.

Your time is no different, and no less precious.

As a freelancer, it can be very difficult to say “No” to anything that involves earning money, only because you’re scared there won’t be a chance to say “No” in the future, when there’s a lull in work.

You wonder if you are able to take on just another project on the side, or save money on one hotel room night by working a compressed 4-day workweek, that consists of 10 hours a day.

The end result is you are stressed out, frustrated, disappointed and not quite on the ball.

You start snapping at people, feeling fatigued, unhappy when you can’t go out for an impromptu event, and your work suffers.

So the question to ask is: Is it really worth this extra money, or savings?

For me, it wasn’t.

I had tried to save a night of travel expenses by working a 4-day workweek while commuting to another city, and at the end of the mere 2 months, I was burned out.

(That, and the work environment at my client was really toxic and stressful).

Now that I’m on a 5-day workweek (a personal decision), where I have time in the morning to wake up, do some yoga and watch a video or two, I’m a lot happier.

The savings were not worth it in the end, because it caused me a lot of stress.

Sometimes you just need to say “No”, even if it’s to yourself.

If you are reading this on any other blog than Fabulously Broke in the City or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist where I am living with less, but only the best!

Do salaries plateau at the age of 40?

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:00:44 +0000

Penelope Trunk (whom I read on occasion) wrote an interesting post about why salaries plateau at the age of 40.

Reading both the article and the comments are highly recommended.

Her points:

Go where the men are, like in male-dominated industries.
Rewrite your resume (too much experience is just as bad as too little).
Be a lawyer.
Specialize.
Buy a house assuming you’ll never get a raise ever again.
Recognize your limitations.
Focus on maintenance

With the exception of #3 because I am not a lawyer, and #2 because I am fairly young in terms of experience, I’d agree with almost everything, only because my career has reflected that.

WOMEN, GO WHERE THE MEN ARE

My first focus is on #1 “Go where the men are”, Penelope writes:

Pay tops out at age 38 for women ($61K) and age 45 for men ($95K).

But the difference, according to PayScale data, is not due to unequal pay for equal work.

Rather, the difference is that women choose lower paying careers, and women are more likely to take time out of the workforce for kids.

So the first thing you can do to prevent your salary from flat-lining is choose a career that men dominate.

But it’s not just about industry—it is also about influence.

Stick to line-management positions rather than support roles.

For example, skip human resources and go to supply chain management.

A woman wrote in heatedly about not agreeing that the difference was due to unequal pay for equal work:

I absolutely agree that women simply don’t ask for more money.

We simply DON’T, and it SUCKS.

Companies generally offer EVERYONE (man or woman) a lowball starting offer, and it is up to the individual to negotiate that offer or to take it.

What I disagree with, is calling that unequal pay.

Playing the devil’s advocate, is it really unequal pay if it is the woman who doesn’t negotiate?

It’s not that the company REFUSES to give women more money when they ask for it, it’s that we just don’t ask for it to begin with.

So it is our fault or the company’s fault?

I also think that assuming the data Penelope referenced took into account that it was the same job, industry, role, experience and set of duties, then the other factors as to why women get paid less all boil down to them not negotiating at all (and taking time off for kids as well).

I don’t think Payscale data takes all of the above into account, but let’s take a sales clerk role as an example.

But if we start looking at the one role, the duties, experience and job are the same, but depending on the company, you could be paid more or less.

See, some companies have special systems or special company-specific knowledge that can’t be taught over night, so if it takes 5 years to learn that knowledge, wouldn’t it make sense that they would be paid more than a clerk who can learn another industry’s sales job in a day?

A sales clerk job is not just as simple as taking a sales order for a customer. If you have to use a system, some are simpler than others, like paper-based or excel-based rather than systems-based.

I’m generalizing here, but I think with my above example, becomes less of a matter of men versus women, and more of nuances in each company, and what they value each role to be worth.

While women may do the same job as a man in another area, it isn’t really the same knowledge in either job, even though their job roles may seem like it.

WHAT ABOUT COASTING AT THE AGE OF 40?

Do people coast?

I don’t know, I’m not 40 yet, but when you come to think of it, don’t companies tend to look down on people past a certain age?

It’s funny, really.

When you are too young, you don’t have enough experience.

When you are too old, you have too much damn experience.

Companies seem to like fresher, hungrier (cheaper) graduates, so I guess by the age of 40, your earnings would seemingly plateau while you coast into the golden years.

I think 40 is still plenty young. Even 50 is young.

I know people at 55 who are sharper and more quick witted than I can ever hope to be! It seems like a darn shame to shuffle them off into the retirement pile so soon.

The good news, is that if my earnings really do peak at 40, then I have some solid years ahead of me, approximately 15 years of premium wage-earning on the horizon.

That is experience depicted in that photo up there, not age

I can just imagine the father having done the same thing at this young buck’s age, hahaha!

AGE & YEARS ARE NOT THE SAME AS EXPERIENCE

Okay, so this is going to sound vain, but I really think that in the past 5 years, I have learned so much more than what my years might indicate.

Before you chuck rotten tomatoes at me and brush me off for being boastful, please understand that I am trying to be as tactful and diplomatic about it as possible.

I am not trying to put down anyone, I’m just trying to (as objectively as possible) say that age and years have nothing to do with experience.

Here are the reasons why I think that:

I was lucky to be put on REALLY difficult projects early on in my career
…and not for duties that weren’t part of my actual job, like fetching coffee
I’ve consistently had awesome, high-curve learning projects in a row
I actually want to grow, so I learn stuff I’m not supposed to really care about
I didn’t just do a support role for companies — I am on actual projects

There are about 3 other people I know who have about the same experience as I do.

When I work with them, I could immediately see that they didn’t know as much as I did, simply because they hadn’t been on projects where they were forced to learn quickly and fall flat on their face repeatedly from the high learning curve (yes, that’s me!).

They were the ones who fetched coffee and weren’t allowed to learn how to do their job, so to speak.

So yes, they can put on their resume that they have the same experience as me, but it simply isn’t true.

Then I look at 2 other folks who have been in my job for about 8 years now.

They have been doing support for one client, and therefore haven’t actually been on any projects!!

Those people can say that they have more experience than me, but it simply isn’t true either; now all they know is that one client’s business, and when you don’t go on different projects you don’t remember or learn anything new, which is really boring and stifling.

It is also somewhat easier to support something that is already in place, tested and worked out, than something that is brand new and has never-been-done-before.

So even though I only have 5 years, I feel like the amount of knowledge in those 5 years spans closer to 8 or 10 of equivalent experience. Being forced into senior roles early on made me advance farther in my career, making all the mistakes (and still more to come) as a result.

That does it for my commentary.

It was a really interesting article for me, and the comments even more so. I highly recommend it.

What do you think about any of the above?

Do women need to negotiate more?

Do age/years really equal actual experience?

When your skills don’t seem to be in demand any longer and past salaries are not a factor

Are law schools just a big scam? Students are graduating but not able to find jobs, let alone 6-figure salaries

Negotiating: Why you can only win when you ask for money

Consulting: The quick and dirty FAQ from my perspective

You can’t just up and quit, conflict is a part of life

Had a rough work day, and what did I learn from it?

If you are reading this on any other blog than Fabulously Broke in the City or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.

You can contact me here or find me on Twitter via @brokeinthecity.

Come and visit my other blog: The Everyday Minimalist where I am living with less, but only the best!

Fabulously Broke in the City » Career

The tension between working classes: Blue Collar vs. White Collar

SO WHY DO BLUE COLLAR JOBS GET A BAD RAP?

SIMILARLY, WHY DO WHITE COLLAR JOBS GET A BAD RAP?

Without one, the other doesn’t exist.

Nice guys (and girls) make less money

READ:

Are women burning out by the age of 30?

‘CALCULATED LAZINESS’

(It was a very dismal 62/100, if any of you were wondering)

OVERACHIEVING, PERFECTION-DRIVEN BURNOUTS

SO WHAT ABOUT THE GUYS?

SO WHAT DOES CONFIDENCE HAVE TO DO WITH BURNING OUT?

What do you think?

Are you, a millennial (man or woman) burning out by the age of 30?

Does any of my rambling about ‘marketing’ and ‘confidence’ between genders make sense?

Related Posts

Invest in your appearance

Investing in your appearance can grab you between 10-12 percent more than your dowdier colleagues for both men and women.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

So. Do you invest in your appearance?

Wage Gaps between Genders: Who’s responsibility is it to fix it?

Learn the game

Every job seeker should do their legwork

It’s a two-way street

It’s your call

EXTRA READING:

Related Posts

Do you live to work or work to live?

Everything in moderation

So do you live to work, or work to live?

Related Posts

Top 10 Least Stressful Jobs

1. Audiologist

2. Dietitian

3. Software engineer

4. Computer programmer

5. Dental hygienist

6. Speech pathologist

7. Philosopher

8. Mathematician

9. Occupational therapist

10. Chiropractor

Related Posts

Top 10 Most Stressful Jobs

1. Commercial Airline Pilot

2. Public Relations Executive

3. Senior Corporate Executive

4. Photojournalist

5. Newscaster

6. Advertising Account Executive

7. Architect

8. Stockbroker

9. Emergency Medical Technician

10. Real Estate Agent

Related Posts

Saying “No”, even to yourself

Sometimes you just need to say “No”, even if it’s to yourself.

Do salaries plateau at the age of 40?

WOMEN, GO WHERE THE MEN ARE

WHAT ABOUT COASTING AT THE AGE OF 40?

That is experience depicted in that photo up there, not age

I can just imagine the father having done the same thing at this young buck’s age, hahaha!

AGE & YEARS ARE NOT THE SAME AS EXPERIENCE

What do you think about any of the above?

Do women need to negotiate more?

Do age/years really equal actual experience?

Related Posts