I look like Heatmiser and feel like Snowmiser. In my imaginary feminist remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus, I want to have Snowmiser be fat and menopausal and Heatmiser to be a climate change denying politician.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Perimenopause musings
I'm smack dab in the middle of perimenopause. My main symptoms are insomnia and a complete resetting of my internal thermostat. It's not so much hot flashes (although I do get short mild ones) as just a state of permawarm. I'm flying back to Ithaca today and am seriously looking forward to the snow and ice that await me there.
I look like Heatmiser and feel like Snowmiser. In my imaginary feminist remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus, I want to have Snowmiser be fat and menopausal and Heatmiser to be a climate change denying politician.
I look like Heatmiser and feel like Snowmiser. In my imaginary feminist remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus, I want to have Snowmiser be fat and menopausal and Heatmiser to be a climate change denying politician.
WTF, Silicon Valley business wanker edition
This is a very old post that I forgot to publish at the time
Nov. 11, 2019: I'm at the San Jose airport waiting for my flight, which was delayed for 2 hours. I wandered around until a found a quiet work area with tables and lots of outlets. Life was good until a business wanker sat down and proceeded to yap loudly on his cell phone about a promotion decision. From what I could tell they were considering two candidates, a man and a woman. It was a textbook example of unconscious and blatant sexism. Dude candidate was described as being well prepared, and female candidate was described as not having much experience, not in the job long enough, etc. Obviously, I don't know the backstory, so it may be exactly as described, or not, but one thing really stood out. The business wanker was talking about how the reason that the female candidate gave for wanting the promotion were weird, and she didn't mention needing more money. First of all, I am continually surprised how the default state for women is assumed to be NOT wanting more money or a promotion. Let's just assume everyone wants a higher salary and many people want a promotion. This is not rocket science. Second of all, I can pretty much guarantee that if a woman went in and said they were interested in a promotion because they wanted more money, it would not exactly go over well so of course female candidate gave non-monetary reasons. D'uhh.
I dealt with this all the time in industry. Ask for a raise and you get stonewalled. Painstakingly quantify all your achievements in your self-evaluation with the goal of getting a title bump and your boss will act all surprise and say "It sounds like you are looking for a promotion" like this is something shocking. Dudes, it's not difficult. Assume that your female employees want the same raises and promotions that your male employees want and act accordingly.
Fortunately, I have a fancy new pair of noise cancelling headphones and was able to tune out the business wanker for the rest of his conversation.
Nov. 11, 2019: I'm at the San Jose airport waiting for my flight, which was delayed for 2 hours. I wandered around until a found a quiet work area with tables and lots of outlets. Life was good until a business wanker sat down and proceeded to yap loudly on his cell phone about a promotion decision. From what I could tell they were considering two candidates, a man and a woman. It was a textbook example of unconscious and blatant sexism. Dude candidate was described as being well prepared, and female candidate was described as not having much experience, not in the job long enough, etc. Obviously, I don't know the backstory, so it may be exactly as described, or not, but one thing really stood out. The business wanker was talking about how the reason that the female candidate gave for wanting the promotion were weird, and she didn't mention needing more money. First of all, I am continually surprised how the default state for women is assumed to be NOT wanting more money or a promotion. Let's just assume everyone wants a higher salary and many people want a promotion. This is not rocket science. Second of all, I can pretty much guarantee that if a woman went in and said they were interested in a promotion because they wanted more money, it would not exactly go over well so of course female candidate gave non-monetary reasons. D'uhh.
I dealt with this all the time in industry. Ask for a raise and you get stonewalled. Painstakingly quantify all your achievements in your self-evaluation with the goal of getting a title bump and your boss will act all surprise and say "It sounds like you are looking for a promotion" like this is something shocking. Dudes, it's not difficult. Assume that your female employees want the same raises and promotions that your male employees want and act accordingly.
Fortunately, I have a fancy new pair of noise cancelling headphones and was able to tune out the business wanker for the rest of his conversation.
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