boat rockers v job survivors

Yvonne is 52, married with adult children living independently, and she recently quit a job in the telecoms industry requiring staff to take pay cuts. She could afford to do so because she's been a boat rocker since birth and that, perhaps, is the difference between those who do well at work and those who merely survive in their jobs.

"I didn’t see the CEO at my last job taking a pay cut," laughs Yvonne, "and be damned if I was going to be treated as less valuable than he was."

"I found a new job very quickly," says Yvonne, "and while the conveniences at my new workplace are not as good as they were at the old place, the money I’m earning is very good."

"Let’s face it," laughs Yvonne, "My old workplace’s gymnasium was a great convenience for staff, but with the money I’m earning now I can afford to buy my own home gym!"

Yvonne is a careerist as opposed to a job survivor. The difference between her and her co-workers who stayed and took a pay cut is basically that she values herself more than they do.

"Having a second income coming in and kids living independently does help," admits Yvonne, "but I’ve always valued myself highly and demanded high pay and respect. Even when the kids were young and Jack and I were on struggle street, I’d hold out for what I thought I was worth. And I got it!"

"Maybe it has something to do with being the eldest kid in my family," confides Yvonne. "I always took charge and got the first pick of everything. My younger sisters got my hand-me-downs. I just grew up accepting that I deserved the best and maybe that accounts for why I’d never accept less than what I think I’m worth."

Careerists, according to Yvonne, actually make a point to rock the boat at work - it gets them noticed. They are not people pleasers - they please themselves. And because they do rock the boat, and they do please themselves, these women share the typical success traits of men. These traits propel them up the ladder of success, into six-figure incomes, very quickly.

"And I got there not by working harder than anyone else," laughs Yvonne. "I got there by believing I’m worth a six-figure income and by being prepared to risk all if any company I worked for didn’t share my beliefs."

"Basically," says Yvonne, "female careerists take charge of their careers and that means taking risks. Their security needs are not as high as the personal values they place on themselves."

Some of Yvonne’s old co-workers were reasonably wealthy women, or had husbands earning good incomes, but they were more interested in job security than their own personal worth.

"I’ve always been a risk-taker," laughs Yvonne, "and if you don’t put tickets on yourself then nobody is going to put them there for you. You’re only worth as much as you think you are."

"I don’t think anyone can be a careerist without taking risks," explains Yvonne. "If it was job security I wanted, then I’d need to develop job survival skills. I have no job survival skills whatsoever. You would never catch me bowing and kowtowing to anyone."

"I think that even if I were a single mother with half a dozen kids to feed I’d still take risks," says Yvonne, "because that’s how I am. That’s my make-up, my personality."

"I started off at the bottom of the employment ladder as a young girl," admits Yvonne, "but I knew instinctively that successful career women don't stay there any longer than they have to."

"It's nice and safe down there," says Yvonne, "and that's where many women stay and survive in their jobs for years. But it’s not something I can do."

Yvonne concedes that it’s not particularly safe at the top of the employment ladder either, but by using intuition to their advantage, having high self-esteem and by developing superb negotiating skills and being prepared to risk all, she believes that female careerists can go from strength to strength.

"Job security is not high on my list of priorities," confides Yvonne. "Being paid what I’m worth is what it’s all about."

Like men, female careerists judge themselves by the amount of money they earn, and if they don't get regular raises they kick up a fuss. They don’t take pay cuts and they don’t compromise themselves in any way in order to hold on to a job.

The social fabric of the workplace is important to the career women as a tool rather than the crutch it is for the many women who tend to congregate at the lower levels, where camaraderie is high.

"The higher up you travel," says Yvonne, "the less likely you are to enjoy the company of co-workers - but that’s not a problem for me."

Yvonne believes that another fundamental difference between female careerists and job survivors is that careerists don’t go to work to make friends. They work to make money. They are highly competitive women and they use their superlative intuition and negotiating skills to get what they want and to get people to do what they want them to do.

"I’m a believer in karma," admits Yvonne, "so I’ve never resorted to back-stabbing or ratting on people in order to get what I’m worth. But believe me, this sort of evil stuff does go on and those who practice it don’t sleep well at nights, knowing that they have enemies."

"I’m smart enough to know that the place to make friends is outside work," says Yvonne. "I’m not ruthless, greedy or mean to anyone. I work for money and I want to be paid what I’m worth. It’s as simple as that."

Yvonne's story first appeared as value yourself highly and is reprinted with permission.

job competing with daughter

Ingrid, 45, is a single mom with four children who gets by doing temp work. She would love to have a proper job and depairs that her age forces her to compete for jobs with her daughter and girls young enough to be her daughter.

"I really despair of ever reaching the interview stage with any of my job applications," sighs Ingrid. "Sometimes I wonder why I bother, but while there's life there's hope I suppose."

Ingrid has a professionally presented resume and writes fantastic covering letters, but she just cannot score an interview for the type of job she wants.

"My eldest daughter actually applied for one of the dream jobs I applied for, and got it," laughs Ingrid. "That was sufficient evidence for me to accept that it's not my education, experience, location or just too many applicants applying for the same job - it was my age that had disqualified me."

Up until then, Ingrid had considered all the other factors and reasonably expected at least 10 resume rejections before scoring her first interview.

"After 120 resume rejections," says Ingrid, "I've reached that stage where I accept I'm on the wrong track altogether."

Ingrid is now assessing herself and the type of job she's been applying for.

"The right job for me may not be the job I want," explains Ingrid. "Like most things in life, jobs are a two-way street and if the job I want doesn't want me, then I need to move on, change tack."

Ingrid accepts that the type of job she wants has a preferred age range of 21-35. It is never stated in the advertisement, though. For women under 21 it is simply a matter of time before they qualify for these jobs, but for women over 35, like Ingrid, rejection on account of age may not be discrimination, per se, but simply a fact of the job being better suited for a younger person.

A company may want someone without too much experience so that person can adapt easily to the particular management style of the organization.

The job Ingrid's daughter got hired for involves working alongside people under 21. Ingrid would have been out of place in that job. She would not have fitted in.

"Having once worked at a place where I was older than everyone around me, including my boss," laughs Ingrid, "I do appreciate that this is not a good situation for all concerned."

"I came along ten years after my sisters and brothers," explains Ingrid, "so I know what it is like to feel out of place. I was one of those 'accidental' babies and I grew up knowing that I was not planned like my sisters and brothers were."

"My childhood experiences have left me feeling very sensitive about 'belonging' and 'not belonging' and it's just as bad being the oldest person in a job as the youngest person in a family."

Demographers say that the Baby Boom generation (born 1946 to 1955) is the largest age group in the workforce, but from what Ingrid can see it is the children of the Baby Boomers that are not only most predominant, but also most favored in the workplace.

"And that," concedes Ingrid, "is perfectly normal and natural and right and proper."

There is no way Ingrid can overcome her age, and she says there is no reason why she should.

"I wear my age with pride," laughs Ingrid. "But I accept that I do need to come to terms with the fact that the type of job I've been applying for and rejected for is not right for me."

What other alternatives are there?

"Many people change career direction in mid-life," says Ingrid, "and I may decide to enter a new career field - a field in which age is no barrier; or I may start considering self-employment. What? I don't know. But I'm told that there are many opportunities out there."

She is aware that some jobs actually favor mature women. A recent advertisement for a prison guard gained her attention. Her children were horrified that their mother would consider such a job, but if that is the only thing available for mature women then Ingrid is willing to consider it.

"At least I would be working with mature women like myself and I wouldn't feel out of place," explains Ingrid. "But I guess I would feel out of place in a prison!"

What Ingrid will not consider is a new career field that requires qualifications additional to the ones she already has.

"Bearing in mind the intense competition for jobs," says Ingrid, "I have no intention of re-training or joining the thousands of hopefuls trying to gain the highest educational qualifications possible."

"I don't believe that qualifications necessarily guarantee anybody a job," says Ingrid. "My daughter got the job I wanted and she's just left school!"

Ingrid could never be rejected on account of her experience. She has tons of it and in a wide variety of industries, too.

"I was very surprised when my daughter gained the job I wanted," says Ingrid, "because employers generally prefer someone with at least two years of experience in the field, or a related field. Josie had no experience whatsoever so it must have been her youth and looks that got her the job. I'm happy for her, but it's a slap in the face for me nevertheless."

"It just goes to show," says Ingrid, "that no matter what employers state in ads or tell you what they want - they choose candidates primarily on age, and to hell with the rest."

As far as location is concerned, Ingrid lives in a big city and has no transport problems. She is prepared to look further away for a job, but doesn't see why she should have to.

"I live where the jobs are," says Ingrid, "but nobody wants to employ me."

"In the old days when parents were too old to work the children kept them," laughs Ingrid. "I don't see my daughter showing any signs of wanting to keep me now that she's got the job I applied for - even though I would have been keeping her had I won it!"

"It's strange how society changes values in one respect but not in another, isn't it?"