Gender Diversity Awareness Topics

Work/Life Balance vs Promotion



Is it right to conclude that someone who elects to work reduced hours is displaying a lack of commitment to their career and so is no longer preferred for promotion?



What are your views or experiences?

I agree with Kate, flexible working/Work-Life balance should be just a "Women's Issue".  Anyone should have equal access to changing work hours.  I do think, based on what I've seen across the organisations I've worked for, that typically women have less issues getting changes to work hours to fit in with caring/family commitments.  I don't think that's much of an advantage in general as it's based in an expectation that if there's any caring to be done then a woman will do it.  I have seen a man who requested reduced hours to be able to look after his children asked "Shouldn't your wife be doing that?"  This was in 2007.



I also agree that it should be results, not how many hours you were seen sat at your desk, that counts.  Unfortunately many managers still see presence and visibility as preferable to ability.  That is a problem for people who need to adjust their working hours and for people who have a preference or need to work non-traditional hours. 

Does anybody else have the experience of visiting sites (in my case it's shipyards) where there are topless pictures of women plastered all over the place? Does anyone address this? 

I find it makes me very uncomfortable - the message it sends about the perceived role of women is not a very forward-thinking one and it gives me the feeling that the men I'm dealing with might have less respect for me than a male colleague.

Also, having a full Playboy centrefold next to me in the canteen puts me off my sandwiches. There's a time and a place.

Opinions welcome.

I've worked on numerous sites where they've had topless pictures displayed, to be honest it doesn't really bother me as I can easily tune it out.  If I was visiting a site I would never ask anyone to remove anything as its not my place of work and from my experience this does not go down well as your seen to be asking for "special" treatment. 



I don't think men having topless pictures has any bearing on their respect for me or how they treat me, they usually try to minimise swearing and apologise if they slip up while I am around which I think shows a level of respect, but I've mostly found that respect is earned from an ability to do your job well regardless of gender. 



I don't think that in putting up posters they are sending a message about the role of women or how they see them, I think they are mostly putting up "pretty" pictures to make an otherwise drab work place a bit more cheery



There are always going to be some men who treat you with less respect than your male colleagues but I've experienced this both on site and in an office environment, I don't think its related to the office "decoration". 



When I worked on the tools I was once given a topless male calender by a supplier which all the men took great offense to!   I offered to remove it if they removed theirs but they declined so they had to put up with it! 

Gosh, I'm really surprised by these answers. 

When I was younger, like a previous poster, I would probably have tuned out topless calendars.  I'd have wanted to fit in and not rock the boat.  Now I'm older the casual objectification of women bothers me more and more and I'm sad that you are made to feel uncomfortable in your workplace.  I'm sure they don't have a lack of respect for you personally but I do think it's a statement about how they see women as a group.



I think tackling this issue is very difficult though especially if you are not permanently based at the place.  I don't know if you know your colleagues well enough to just say you don't like these calendars.  How do you think they'd react if you pointed out they made you feel uncomfortable and unwelcome and are sexist?  What about talking to managers and pointing out that in a modern workplace it's very unprofessional to have such images on show not to mention that if you are feeling uncomfortable then it could be construed as harassment.  If the calendar culture is very embedded in the workplace though prepare to immediately be labelled as a spoilsport feminist with no sense of humour (or worse).



In the past I found a "Hunks doing Housework" calendar led to a sensible compromise.  I also knew someone who went round and tippexed underwear on all the nude women to make a point.  Now, I'm a manager I don't have to worry about tackling such things in a roundabout way.  I'd just tell them to remove the offending item or else.



Alison

I've not really noticed topless calanders on the sites I've visited but if there were I would just ignore them as i'm just there to inspect the electrical installation rather than being there on a daily basis. I don't want to walk into someones workplace and start making demands when I'm just going to be heading off again in a few hours and might not be back again for a month. 



It would be different if it was in my office as I think it would look very unprofessional and I would be embarassed if clients or suppliers were to see but from talking to one of the other engineers here thats what it used to be 20 years ago so I guess some progress has been made.



 

Well it's a relief to see more people who agree with my viewpoint. The issue here is that we're talking about sites that don't belong to my company. Back in the office I would absolutely not accept it. But it's a more grey area when walking into someone else's place of work. I have addressed this with my HR department, who I believe could include a clause about appropriate work environments in our internal policies, so we at least felt we had some back-up on external sites in relation to this matter. However they point blank refused to help me, despite several e-mails back and forth (I even consulted an employment solicitor, through a family connection). Eventually I decided I can't win this particular battle in this particular case. But I absolutely think the displaying of such material sends a clear message about the way women are viewed, and treated, in engineering environments, and is just one example of the kind of attitude that prevents young women from wanting to be involved in engineering.

I'd be interested to hear what people think about team building and work social events when there are only a few ladies in the company. My first job was at a company that had a yearly golf day, but it was men only as the golf club didn't allow women! Not seen anything like that since thankfully. 

Oh yes, the toilets! That's a big problem for me. I usually just avoid drinking water if I know I'm going to a yard with no female toilets. I hate going into ones with unrinals because I don't want to come out of the cubicle and see some man weeing. Eugh.



To the previous poster, Claire, I think that small steps like someone in your position passing comment on inapproriate material could be enough to slowly change the ethos. 



As for social events, well I think if you're the only woman then there's not mcuh you can do about being the only woman at the social events too. Obviously arranging a social event at a venue that doesn't allow women is outrageous if there are any female employees, but other than that I would say it doesn't really matter what the event is; the point is to socialise with your colleagues. In my previous job, we usually just went to the pub. Now we have nibbles in the canteen once a month. And I find the more I get to know people in the office, the more they stop seeing me as 'the only woman' and start seeing me as myself.