The following was originally written in 2011 and posted on the Women of HR site here: http://womenofhr.com/bride-to-be-discouraged-employee/
As I prepare for a program on harassment and discrimination to be delivered at the Danville Community College later this month, I was reminded of this post and thought I would share again here. From the archives (although updated slightly with number of years married, etc.
By Donna Rogers, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
Last week (in 2011), I was teaching a two-day Certified Public Manager
session for a group of association members.
The session was called Human Resources: Productivity and Quality. During one of our discussions regarding
compliance related issues we covered the process of an HR Audit which included
as one of many tasks, a review of posters that need to be posted at work
sites. One participant mentioned a
poster that drew quite a stir when it first came out, which I personally was
not aware of, pictured to the left here.
I asked her to send it to me and we later got into a discussion that
this situation reminded me of during my early working years before my HR
career.
At 23 years old, just after graduating from ISU with my
undergrad in public relations, I obtained my first marketing director position
officially after having been doing the job during my internship when two of our
marketing directors moved on (all during one semester). Of course at that age, I was all gung ho
about moving up the ladder in the mall management business. So I worked very hard for another two years and
was pleasantly surprised with the prospect of promotion. Life was really going well because my
boyfriend of 5 years (now my husband of 27 years) had just proposed and I
accepted. Unfortunately, life took an
unexpected turn for the worse when I went to work to share the news with the
office.
Much to my surprise my boss (a female mall manager)
suggested that I do not share the news with anyone else in the office and
especially not her boss, the regional mall manager. Still a bit naive of the ways of work for
women, I asked why. She proceeded to
tell me that she thought it would hurt my chances of a promotion within the
industry because Marketing Directors were expected to travel around the country
moving from small to larger malls. The
idea of a female Marketing Director being married and possibly planning a
family would not go well. So I basically
had to hide my engagement (and put the ring in a drawer when I went to work)
for six months. I was then promoted to a
mall two levels above normal. There were
four levels of malls based on square footage and sales. As a new Marketing Director, I would have
been expected to start at a level one mall first.
However, the promotion offer was for a level
two mall. I turned it down because that
was not the company I wished to work for any longer. The point is I had no idea I was being
discriminated against (at least not from the same lens I look at the situation
now). The bottom line is harassment&
discrimination comes in all shapes & sizes.
Be aware and try not to get discouraged.
Engagement is a time to celebrate!
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