Ok, for once this has nothing to do with Cancer (Yay!) but it has everything to do with living. Over the last year
feminism has exploded (again) and the response has been huge. From the like it
or loathe it #Metoo to the desperately important #hometovote in Ireland, gun
control protests in the US(wow Emma Gonzales), female marching worldwide, walk-outs on equal pay,
white Wednesdays and roses to finally allowing Saudi women to drive (to drive!
FFS!) Women all over the world are storming.
Why?
Well, dear reader, as most of you are (I
presume) women, the answer is that we are slightly hacked off. Actually, we are
livid. Enough is enough and no amount of M&S lingerie burning is going to
cut the proverbial mustard.
I am very much into all this. I am a feminist
working mother in a land where misogyny is very much commonplace yet I resist
it as much as I can. So imagine my shock when my girlfriend called me in floods
of tears because of a problem at work.
Not just your average coffee shop problem. She
had issues with her boss. Now, some background news:
a)
She loves her Boss. (we all
knew this and thought it was weird, but hey!)
b)
She works far too much (catching
her on a weekend is a minor miracle)
c)
She is totally committed to the
cause, mention her work and she is gushing…
d)
GOD FORBID she meets new people
and they ask “so, what do you do?” down the hatches, we’ll be here ALL NIGHT
LONG.
SO, she realllllyyy loves what she does. On
a scale of 1 to 10 she’s hitting the 100’s. I’ve never met anyone so involved
with what they do for their daily bread. Yet, here she was crying like a baby
down the phone. And about what? Of course on the surface it was about money. On the surface.
She
was being refused a long awaited and (very much) earned bonus. A bonus that she’d
already put into the family budget. A bonus that would mean the difference
between staying at home all summer or taking her child to see his grandparents.
A bonus that had seen her staying up for hours writing, reading, researching,
cancelling dates with friends, not going to her son’s music graduation, missing
family gatherings, putting off doctors’ appointments and the list goes on….
And her Boss said: NO.
Her Boss said NO, “I’m not going to pay you
what I said I would because you earn enough for what you do and I’m happy about
all the extra stuff you do but because I DIDN’T ASK YOU to do it, I’M NOT GOING
TO PAY YOU.”
OH.
MY.. GOD. Apparently they had a
deal that when she went away for work (and she did) she would get 100 euro a
day. This was promised in 2015. And so, what did she do? She tried to get all
the appointments done is as few days as possible because SHE FELT GUILTY about
getting the extra money even if it required her working through the night and
being away at weekends. She tried and worked her ass off and got her bonus…
until
this year.
Aye there’s the rub, she didn’t know her bonus
wasn’t going to be paid until AFTER all her work and AFTER all her days away.
Poor Love. She was so convinced that her Boss was stressed that she didn’t ask.
That’s how nice she is. She didn’t ask until she really had to (trust me, it’s
a big deal for her).
And then she asked.
And he said no.
And then.
She lost her shit. She lost her
shit so much that she shouted at her Boss (we were all cheering from the side-lines)
She totally lost it and called him, to his
face, every name under the sun because at the end of the day:
IT WASN’T ABOUT THE MONEY. It was the
principal. She trusted him and he let her down. She gave and got nothing back
except the ‘count your blessings that I give you a job’ talk.
She was more devastated by this than the
cash owed. He belittled her work and
thus her being.
Dear Reader. She is now looking for a new
job in a country that is hostile towards women who work. So, I am writing for
her and for all the women who don’t have the celebrity status (or any status)
to say “Me Too”. I am writing for the women who have no voice. Who get up every
day and thank God they have a piece of bread on the table, for the women who
want to lose their shit (but can’t) for the women who try, who strive, who
survive. For all the women who have a voice that needs to be heard. I write for
them.
I write for YOU.
Listen and share. Check on your “strong” friend. Stick up for
your work mates because if the Boss can shit on one, he can shit on you all.
Just saying,
Rach
