All boys or all girls? May 9, 2013

 

 

It’s amazing. In the space of six months, our staff has gone from all women and one man (the man being me) to all men and one woman, and since the boss does all the hiring, you have to wonder if this was intentional.

The boss, who has been out on two maternity leaves, has manipulated behind the scenes to keep her position during the first one, and sabotaged her temporary replacement during the second.

This boss also seems to be aware of our male owner’s relationship with our former female reporter (the poet) as well as possible relations with other female members of the staff over the years, and seemed bound and determine to eliminate potential competition in the future.

The boss seems to have sensed that our former employee’s moves to trickle up may well have been a threat to become a boss in the future since there are too few power positions in our office in the first place.

Management may well have had good reason for firing one of the female reporters (not a good writer etc.), her staunch stand against older men hitting on her may well have worked against her in an atmosphere where women are supposed to be compliant.

She either missed or ignored signals that might have allowed her to save her job since far less competent workers – some who got high or drunk on the job – retained their employment when this poor woman could not.

 Our office has a long history of such abuses going back to the previous owner, who apparently allowed such hanky-panky to go on, and may well have used his position running affordable housing as a platform for his own.

The boss seemed particularly aware of the favors our poet friend seemed to get from the owner, and the potential for eventual advancement that might eventually push our boss out of her corner office.

The boss seemed to catch onto something during the issue with the pipe line photos. Although at that time, she had already hired a male writer to replace our poet, she was poised to hire other writers, and seemed determined to hire males.

This must have frustrated our male owner, who appears to have used his position of power to get a little something on the side.

This owner is not stupid. If he is involved with some of his female employees, he would make certain he got the right signal from them before he made any advance.

The firing of our one female writer may have come because she gave exactly the wrong signal, and part of the reason I volunteered to pick up part of her beat was due to my admiration for her personal ethics. She might be playing in a boy’s game, but she doesn’t have to be a victim.

The sudden shift to all male writers may well spoil the owner’s game a bit – at least in the short term.

 

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