Act your age

Gloria believes that some companies are looking for mature workers to specifically balance their workforce, and that being the case older women who act and dress ‘young’ are doing themselves a disservice.

“Most workplaces today have an over-abundance of young things and smart companies want some old things to tip the scales a bit,” says Gloria. “And by ‘old’ I mean women who act their age and dress conservatively.”

"Younger workers also appreciate senior workers more if they look and act their age," explains Gloria. "And smart employers understand this."

"If you hold a senior position, or if you are looking for one," advises Gloria, "then it is worth bearing in mind that being proud of your age and your mature 'look' is an admirable quality upon which your earning capacity may depend."

"We should really forget about the wrinkles and sagging skin,” says Gloria. “Instead, we should look and act our age with pride because it took us 40 plus years to achieve that face and the maturity that goes with it."

"Get a plaque that commemorates your age and place it prominently in your workplace,” says Gloria. “Let the young things see that 40 plus is fantastic and you have no desire to look, dress and act like they do. You're all grown up now. Stop trying to be like them and start being yourself."

"In other words play up your age to the hilt," says Gloria. "Shout out from the rooftops that you are 40-plus and proud of it and employers will take notice!”

Read more by Gloria on this issue:

the barbie generation
don’t deny menopause

A glut of older women workers?

The crux of our employment dilemma, according to Beryl, lies in the post-war baby boom phenomenon. There is simply a glut of older women workers in the employment market right now, and where there's a glut of anything the product gets devalued.

"These days, all women, single or married, demand the right to retire at the same age as men – 65+ – but there are simply not enough jobs available for everyone,” says Beryl, “and I feel totally devalued because I am one of far too many older women looking for work or desperately clinging on to the jobs we have.”

"Pushing older women like me out of work, denying us a livelihood, is likely to cause a mammoth social problem - and it's happening already," says Beryl. “Those of us without working partners to financially support us are in real trouble.”

“More and more older women are facing crises in accommodation and health,” sighs Beryl, “and I predict a lot more bag ladies are going to be visible in future.”

"I feel very threatened at work by all the younger women,” says Beryl. “I need to save for the future and if I lose my job I will probably never get another one."

"There are only two other women of my age where I work," says Beryl, "and we stick together like glue because that's where our strength lies. The younger women are less likely to attack us when we provide a united front."

"If it sounds like a war," laughs Beryl, "then that's not too far off the mark."

Read more by Beryl on this issue:

traditional workplaces
empty nest mirrors

The jobs nobody wants to do

Juvena points out that there are some jobs that nobody wants to do in the workplace, but eventually somebody has to do them and if it is your turn to sit at the reception desk, do the mail run, put out the boxes, clean up the coffee-bar or whatever then it is something you would rather nobody saw you do.

"When it comes to these jobs, though, there is a limit to what I would do," says Juvena. "If I were ever asked by my boss - God forbid! - to clean up a mess in the office toilets I would consider that request to be degrading.”

“My boss would have no right to fling at me some ridiculous argument about my having a menial attitude in order to consider that type of work to be beneath my dignity."

"If the mess bothered my boss so much - and he truly believes that there is no such thing as a menial job, just menial attitudes," says Juvena, "then what's to stop him cleaning it up himself?"

"Why would he ask me to do it?"

"Quite simply, if my boss were ever to request such a task of me then it would be only with one design. That design would be to humiliate me and to demonstrate the importance of his power, position, rank and, yes, gender over me."

“Menial jobs are by definition the type of job that nobody in a position of power and rank or with high self-respect would condescend to do,” says Juvena. "That’s why they are called menial jobs!”

“Fortunately, most workplaces these days are fairly egalitarian and everyone pitches in - including management - when 'menial' work has to be done,” says Juvena, “but as a downtrodden single mom I still have an ‘attitude’ about anyone seeing me do these menial tasks.”

Read more by Juvena on this issue:

single moms and menial work

separation and child support woes

Deliberate alienation

When the small accountancy company Vanessa had worked for was taken over by a big corporation she was separated from her former colleagues during the move to the new company and found herself working in alien territory.

"All of my life I’ve felt like I don’t quite fit in with people," explains Vanessa, "so this new situation is the worst possible thing that could happen to me. I am stuck in an open plan office with a team of people doing different work to mine."

"I discussed the problem with my husband, John, and he thinks that my old team has deliberately alienated me," says Vanessa. "His advice is for me to ask for a transfer to the team section in which I am presently situated and to cut ties completely with my former colleagues."

"John feels that if management does not grant me this reasonable request then I should at least be given my own office and secretary and I agree with him," says Vanessa. "It's all very well having more money and staff benefits but if I'm miserable, what's the use of working?"

"Actually, John doesn’t particularly want me to work," laughs Vanessa, "he’d much prefer me to stay home and devote myself to him and the kids - and that’s a great fallback should I be forced to quit this job."

"But I need to be with people," explains Vanessa. "With the kids at school I’d be very lonely being home by myself all day."

“Like most working mothers, I want to work for my own fulfillment as well as for social interaction,” says Vanessa, “and employers really should be more considerate about where they place their new employees - especially those from a take-over and most especially their female staff.”

"I think my situation would be awful for anybody," says Vanessa, "but for someone like me who has been through a lonely childhood being deliberately alienated at work is the sort of stuff from which nightmares are made."

Read more about Vanessa's situation:

A lonely only child

alien territory

Men prefer women team-leaders?

Lily is a team-leader who is absolutely convinced that men prefer having women in charge and work better with a female leader – and the same thing goes for female teams with a guy in charge.

“Before my promotion I was part of a mixed sex team with a man in charge and while I liked having a male leader, the guys didn’t,” says Lily. “I’ve also worked with a female boss and that was a disaster, too.”

“I know it’s not politically correct to segregate the sexes,” says Lily, “but one-sex teams under an opposite sex leader really do seem to work well.”

"Imagine the scenario if a man were in charge here. It just would not work,” says Lily. “My experience shows me that men like having a female supervisor or boss.”

“It’s the natural order,” laughs Lily. “Men do things for a female in charge that they just will not do for a man.”

“And not just any female,” adds Lily. “A woman needs special qualities to appeal to men, and I have those qualities in heaps."

"Most of the guys on my team are married and the poor dears don't get much attention from their wives at home,” explains Lily. “I consider myself to be performing a necessary duty when I flirt with them and listen to them.”

"I am their confidant. They tell me everything. They come to me for advice and I dole it out. I have a box of Kleenex on my desk that dries at least one pair of teary eyes every week. And I get to give lots of hugs."

“What man doesn't like to be made a fuss of?"

"If management stepped in tomorrow and moved a bunch of girls into the team, or moved me to another section in the company, I would quit," says Lily. “And the guys wouldn’t like it either and would probably quit, too.”

"I don't believe management would do such a silly thing, though, because I get results out of my guys,” says Lily. “They get on well together and meet targets simply because I am in charge."

Read more by Lily on this issue:


big fish in a small pond

flirting at work

Rolling over the oldies

Geraldine is a fit and healthy 54-year old woman who expected to be in gainful employment until she was at least 65, but she’s seen younger ‘older’ women rolled over in the workplace and she’s fearful of becoming unemployed.

"Forty-up women who are in employment work under a lot of stress these days knowing that they are considered to be hogging jobs that younger workers need," explains Geraldine. "The flimsiest of excuses are given to get rid of older workers, but everyone knows what's really going on."

"Okay," concedes Geraldine, "it may be time to say Roll Over Beethoven for the women in their 60s, and possibly late 50s, too, but where do these women go? How are they supposed to support themselves? How can they be expected to compete for jobs with their children if not their grandchildren?"

"With anything up to 20 years to go before becoming eligible for a pension, women like me are in real trouble," sighs Geraldine. "How are we supposed to support ourselves when nobody is willing to give us jobs?"

"Recently laid-off after many years in the same job, some of these women don't even know what a CV or a resume is," says Geraldine. "A resume, a portfolio of one's work experience and achievements is a 1990s thing, and guess what employers expect to see right at the top of your resume?"

"Your age, of course!" laughs Geraldine.

"No woman in her right mind would want to bring daughters into the world knowing they are going to be washed up at 50, 40 or 35 while men the same age are often just getting started in lucrative careers.”

"When young women refuse to have babies, men take notice," says Geraldine. "That trend is already evident and we're responsible for it."

"We're telling our daughters that the whole Women's Lib Movement was a scam. My generation got sucked in by the equality myth. My daughter's generation won't."

Read more by Geraldine on this issue:

mom's army

Sad sacks at work

As sympathetic as co-workers and supervisors can be, there is a limit to what they can tolerate and having a sad sack or a mad cow in their midst is not good for morale or productivity and Delores, 48, needs to seek medical or psychological help for her problems.

“Right now, I’m going through a difficult separation from an abusive husband – as well as dealing with the menopause,” explains Delores, “and as much as I believe in keeping my professional and personal lives separate, is not always possible to keep quiet about terrible things that are happening in your private life when you have to spend 8 hours with people every day.”

“It just spills over whether you mean it to or not.”

“I did advise my supervisor of my separation before the terrible incident at work happened – when my abusive husband turned up at work and harassed me,” says Delores, “and she was sympathetic, but it was only after the incident happened that I was offered leave from work.”

“In abusive marital situations such as mine it takes more than a few days or a few weeks to sort things out,” sighs Delores. “It takes years. Sometimes it takes a lifetime.”

“If my ex is not going to spend time in prison for his assaults on me, then I will definitely have to seek medical and psychological help for the incredible stress I have to endure from him,” says Delores. “Also, it’s not fair that my co-workers have to be exposed to the troubles in my life - I am sure they have their own problems to deal with.”

Read more by Delores on this situation:

mad cows

a wounded, divided life

menopausal mad cow

mad old cows at work

workplace dinosauresses

Audrey, 45, has reluctantly come to terms with why older women are seen as workplace 'dinosauresses' whereas older men are more likely to be seen as mature, experienced, wise and desirable employees.

"It has a lot to do with women, generally, being employed on looks," says Audrey. "Everyone accepts that a younger woman is more desirable than an older woman, but there’s far more to it than this."

“Adult children in their 20s mostly have mothers in their 40s, and when you put these two age groups together in a workplace with the young ones in positions of power – as they all are these days,” explains Audrey, "what the young people see is their mothers – old women (in their eyes) who potter around the house, wash clothes and dishes, nag them to death and are really, really uncool."

"Now, dads, on the other hand," says Audrey, "have always been remote figures who go to work, come home late at night and are often at conferences or other important functions at weekends.”

“No matter whether the mother works or not, dad's work is always seen as being far more important and as such dad remains the authority figure in the household. More importantly, children never see dad cleaning the toilet, or doing menial work around the house. Dad’s are cool!"

“I believe that older women get less respect than older men from the young things because children have been raised to see their mothers in menial nagging roles at home – their main function, attracting a man and raising children, being over, and that’s why they’re seen as dinosaurs,” explains Audrey. “When this lack of respect for their mothers is carried over to apply to all older women in the workplace, we get a particularly nasty form of ageism directed at women.”

“At 45 I don’t consider myself to be a dinosaur,” sighs Audrey, “but when everyone around you at work is a twenty-something, I guess that’s what I am and I either learn to live with it, or get out and start my own business or find a job in aged-care or something where 45 would be seen as being like a spring chicken.”

Read more by Audrey on this issue:

being old in a young workplace

an age old problem

health and safety madness

Sapphire, 19, is an arts student who works casually in the hospitality industry and believes that draconian health and safety measures are killing off the industry, and jobs, more than the imagined health hazards ever did.

"Every industry has health hazards, some more than others, and some such as hairdressing salons, art workshops and airlines don’t even acknowledge exposure to potentially hazardous substances,” says Sapphire, “and if you're worried about these things causing cancer, heart disease and respiratory illnesses then you go look for another type of job – you don't ban the job or victimize the people who want the product just because you can't handle it."

"Life is about living and having fun and not hurting others," says Sapphire, "and I’m fed up with all the health and safety measures, particularly against smokers, that are killing off the hospitality industry.”

“Japanese tourists are just about non-existent these days because of the ban on smoking,” says Sapphire, “and the whole hospitality industry seems to cater for geriatrics these days, for whom the health and safety measures are intended to protect – but at what cost to the rest of us?”

"We don't wake up every morning and take steroids to increase the size of our muscles like the health nuts do, or take vitamins to increase our vitality and extend our lives like the geriatrics do," says Sapphire. "We don't particularly want to live forever, especially if the extra years that being drug free is supposed to give us means extra years in an old folks home with boring old farts."

"No thanks, we live for today and look out for the proverbial bus that's more likely than drugs to end our lives prematurely," says Sapphire. "Given that we represent everything the health and safety nuts hate and envy – and given a choice between joining us or them, the next generation is going to choose us – so all of their missionary zeal is really only making headway with morons and geriatrics."

“Health and safety measures cannot protect us from every conceivable danger at work,” claims Sapphire. “We are much more robust than they want us to believe we are, so leave our jobs alone!”

Read more by Sapphire:

health nuts, geriatrics and smokers

unruly teen alienated by stepfamily

street government

We’re all gonna die!

drugs create genius?

smelly co-workers

Carmel is the only smoker at work and she is annoyed that her co-workers deliberately come up close and smell her for a slight waft of cigarette odor on her clothes and hair after she returns from her lunch break.

"I'm 51 and a long-term smoker and I respect the laws in relation to cigarette smoking and reasonably expect non-smokers to respect my right to do as I please in my own time and space," says Carmel, "but my workplace is run by jackbooted nicotine Nazis who constantly harass me - telling me I stink."

"Sometimes the nicotine Nazis are ex-smokers who, like alcoholics, have a daily battle to abstain from their addiction," explains Carmel. "Some ex-smokers are driven crazy by the faintest whiff of cigarette odor. However, most ex-smokers I know outside of my workplace are very tolerant of smokers."

"The worst type of nicotine Nazi is an older woman who has to deal with a smoking man at home," says Carmel. "This type of woman finds it easier to vent her bile on someone she sees as an easy target at work."

"Non-smokers, especially those who went through the education system in the 1980s, are also tyrants about smoking," sighs Carmel. "They adopt an ‘I am superior to you’ attitude and see smokers as disgusting, weak-willed, stupid and unfit to work alongside them."

"Honestly," sighs Carmen, "if given half a chance the nicotine Nazis would put us all in concentration camps and applaud the smoke that rises from the chimney stacks. Don't kid yourself that we're a civilized society - we're not. Scratch the average Joe or Jane at work and there's a little jackbooted storm-trooper waiting for another Hitler to give sanction to their murderous desires."

"I try my best to ignore them," says Carmel. "What I do in my own time is none of their business. However, if a smoker is stuck in a place where nobody else smokes she will need a really thick hide to cope with being shunned, sneered at and lectured on what a filthy habit she has."

"I didn’t raise smoking as an issue when I was being interviewed for this job," says Carmel, "I didn’t think it was relevant. So, if I have to quit my job because of nicotine Nazi harassment then it's going to be very important for me to speak up at interviews in order to avoid this scene again."

"There must be workplaces out there that are tolerant of smokers and provide pleasant smoking areas for staff outside the building," says Carmel. "It’s just a matter of hunting around and finding them."

Read more by Carmel on this issue:

workplace nicotine nazis

sniffing out smokers

rights and responsibilities

Is smoking a choice or a need?

under surveillance at work

Pauline’s first job pays well and offers plenty of opportunities for advancement but she has to put up with not only having to work under a security camera but also having a supervisor spy on everything she does.

"Not every company discloses to employees that their workplace is under 24-hr surveillance," says Pauline, "and this was my experience."

"Imagine my embarrassment and anger when I discovered that my cubicle was prime viewing for the security guards."

"For weeks I had changed from office clothes to gym clothes every Thursday afternoon in what I presumed was the privacy of my little cubicle at the end of the office," relates Pauline.

"I always wondered why the security guards were sniggering at me," sighs Pauline, "but I put it down to my sensitivity about being in my first job."

"It wasn’t until I saw workmen installing security cameras in the lobby ceiling that I wondered if the ceiling where I worked was bugged - and sure enough it was!"

"The spy camera lens looked like a sprinkler," says Pauline. "No wonder I never noticed it before."

"If you remember reading 1984 and laughing at the prospect of Big Brother," says Pauline, "then laugh no more. He is here and here to stay!"

If being spied on by the security guards wasn’t bad enough, poor Pauline also has the additional indignity of having a supervisor spying on everything she does.

"Supposedly she does this to make sure I'm working rather than painting my nails," says Pauline, "but it's a gross indignity to be spied on and checked."

"Most industrial jobs - also white-collar jobs in publishing and banking - require everything to be checked not once, but twice or even more times," explains Pauline, "but my work is not that important to warrant such spying."

"Quality control is a vital part of ensuring that each little part of a whole is perfect. "says Pauline. "I appreciate that industrial jobs have stringent quality control procedures for workers to follow as often lives depend upon the end product being safe for use or consumption."

"In banks, ledgers must tally and audits must be carried out regularly," adds Pauline, "and in publishing, every word must be perfect."

:In general office-work, which is what I do," says Pauline, "this spying isn't necessary and the teamwork ideal - that everybody should be following the same rules and conforming to company standards - is not only shifting a lot of focus away from individual responsibility towards team responsibility but it's also breeding some petty tyrants."

"The daily checking session at my workplace is nothing more than a nit-picking session where the person responsible for doing the checking refers every tiny error back to me rather than correcting it herself," says Pauline. "And if that isn’t bad enough the supervisor spies on me and hovers around me while I am working."

"I feel like a little school-kid being ticked off by a teacher, who - to make things worse - is not much older than myself," laughs Pauline.

"Honestly," laments Pauline, "the company rules are stupid. I gag every time I must do something that goes against my grain, and when that woman is hovering around me spying on everything I do I could scream!"

"Nobody else is complaining," says Pauline, "so it looks as if this is how things are done around here and I guess I must be temperamentally unsuited for teamwork or something."

"I've thought about leaving and finding a new job," says Pauline, "but I really doubt whether there exists a job these days where someone isn’t putting his or her nose into your work - or up your skirts!"

a joyless, toxic job

When Brenda realized that her health and that of her husband and children was being seriously compromised by her inability to successfully juggle a job, a home and motherhood she decided that her job was to blame - it was joyless and toxic.

"When what we do for a living ceases to be a joy, an act of creativity and productivity, enriching our lives beyond the walls of where we work - even if we work at home," says Brenda, "those walls fast take on the appearance and feeling of a prison."

"Honestly, my workplace was so much like a prison that I called my boss Colonel Klink!"

"We were all putting on weight because we ate so much fast food," explains Brenda. "I just didn't have time to cook when I got home from work. It was so much easier to stop by a fast food outlet and bring the food home -- no cooking, no washing up!""Some women can make a snap decision to escape their workplace prisons - getting out of the rat race while they have the mental and physical health to get their lives back on track," says Brenda, "but I didn’t have that option.

"By the time I realized that my joyless, toxic job was killing us, my husband, Cory, was out of work and I was the sole breadwinner," explains Brenda. "I saved my sanity by planning for the day I could escape, and during that time Cory and I had lots of fun (not) examining our budget."

"My plan for a slim, happy and healthy life for myself and my family involved simplifying my way out of my prison walls by cutting back all family expenses until they matched the contents of a basic male wage packet," explains Brenda. "And then we just played the waiting game until Cory gained a secure job - and then I resigning my job!"

"I wasn't so much harassed or overworked at my job," says Brenda, "it was just totally joyless and sucked the life out of me."

"I know lots of women get burnt out from constant juggling a job with parenting," says Brenda, "but those who do it successfully have a fun job to do - mine wasn't, and that's why I couldn't cope with it all."

Read more of Brenda's story:

big fat fast food mom

pay secrecy

Jessie is in her first job and while she would never refuse a good job with prospects because it was low paying, she is very upset to learn that she is being paid lower than team members doing similar work and she is especially upset because some of these people lack her educational qualifications.

"Sometimes," says Jessie, "you can be in a job for months if not years before you discover that a team member is earning more than you are and when all things are equal - which they mostly are - you wonder why management allows this unfairness to happen."

How Jessie discovered she was earning less pay than a team member is one of those grey areas that we all wonder about. She didn’t go looking for evidence. She had no idea she was receiving less pay until Fate stepped in her path.

"I accessed the other guy's personal folder on the network to get a document I needed and saw a sub-folder called 'pay slips', explains Jessie. "Okay, it was probably not the right thing to do but it was on a team network, the personal folder was not locked and it contained many documents that needed to be shared."

Jessie felt that something as personal as pay slips shouldn't be on a network shared by all, so she felt that it had fallen into her hands for a reason and sure enough it had!

The other guy was earning $5K more than she was and she was understandably furious because he had no educational qualifications and had started about the same time as she had.

Jessie is aware that when people start jobs there is sometimes a weird clause in their contract stating words to the effect that you are not to discuss your salary with team members.

This is obviously a situation where team members are going to be earning more, or less, than their colleagues doing similar work, and in Jessie’s book of ethics it is a nasty practice.

"I would not have accepted the job had this sort of thing been in my contract," says Jessie.

"I am aware, too, that at interviews some employers will sometimes ask outright: 'What are your salary expectations?' They are perfectly aware of the going rate for your skills, and so are you, and when this happened to me when I was job hunting I refused to play their game."

"I told them that I expect to be paid a salary commensurate with that paid to other members of the team," says Jessie. "In doing so, I made it plain to them that I expect no more or no less than others doing similar work. Also, I am encouraging the employer to be ethical."

To Jessie, companies that enforce 'salary secrecy' clauses in contracts are dividing and conquering the team. Such clauses drive a wedge between team members, negating the whole purpose of putting people in teams.

"I believe in equal pay for equal work, and I do not believe it is ethical for companies to pay workers more, or less, than their colleagues doing equal work depending upon how assertive they are at interviews."

"I believe that people who have spent four year at university gaining qualifications deserve more pay than people who haven't," says Jessie. "But when the work is equal - as in my case - it didn't matter. I was simply angry and humiliated that I was getting less."

At her present workplace, Jessie did not go through that "What are your salary expectations?" question at the interview. The salary for the job was included in the advertisement. It was fixed, and Jessie accepted it as a fair salary.

The guy who was earning more than she was had started on the team a few months earlier, so either he had asked for a higher salary at the interview or it was offered to him.

"No job gets downgraded $5K in three months," says Jessie. "Something very wrong was going on here."

As Jessie points out, workplaces are where you make lifelong friends. You often spend more time with your team than you do your family, and good relations with them are thus imperative.

"If you discover you are earning more than a team member doing equal work," says Jessie, "you may be pleased but you will also feel uneasy wondering whether someone else in the team gets more than you do!"

It is not a good situation to be in. And a far worse situation would be discovering, as Jessie did, that you are earning less than a team member.

Jessie has now been placed in a tricky situation.

If she complains about receiving $5K less than her team member, she will have to admit that she looked at his private file. She does not feel happy about making this admission - but by the same token she feels that she was given the opportunity to look at his personal file for a reason.

That reason, Jessie feels, is to assess whether she wants to stay in her present job knowing that her employer is guilty of treating her unfairly.

Jessie can ask for a $5K raise without mentioning her team member’s salary, or she can look for another job.

"Funny thing," sighs Jessie, "I was perfectly happy with my salary before I discovered I was being paid less than someone else."

read work contract carefully!

Joy is 37, married with three young children, and she earns very good money doing contract work, but much of it involves some pretty toxic jobs.

"Primarily, I'm working for money to put towards my children’s college fund," explains Joy. "I don't want them ending up with an education debt."

"My husband, David, earns good money and doesn't want me to work full-time," explains Joy, "so contract work is a great way for me to make big money as well as keep up with my other duties."

"I put all the money I earn into an education fund," explains Joy. "I don't need anything for myself, David gives me plenty of money."

"I'd like to work for personal fulfillment as well," says Joy, "but I've long given up expecting contract work to be great for my self-esteem and social life."

"When I take on a contract job now all I want to know is exactly how much money I'm going to get and how long I will be required to work."

Joy has become an expert on contracts after the various jobs she has had.

"An unfair work contract," says Joy, "is one in which employers do not state fully all terms and conditions, or go to great lengths to state your responsibilities to them but omit their responsibilities to you."

Joy says that the reason why so many employers do not state fully all terms and conditions in a contract is that they do not wish to be held to anything, or become legally responsible for anything they have promised but have no intention of delivering.

"I am amazed at the difference between my employment contracts," laughs Joy. "Some are ten pages long setting out everything I needed to know, and some are merely a few sentences in length stating only salary and period of employment."

"For a short-term job of a month's duration," says Joy, "salary and period of employment is probably the only information I need to know, but without something simple as 'hours of work' I am very aware of the fact that I may end up working ten hours a day for the entire period."

"Yes, this happens, " says Joy, "and David was mad with me for working so late. I didn't have a leg to stand on because 'hours of work' were not in my contract."

"Also, because it was a workplace where everyone was expected to work late I didn't feel it was worth complaining about. It was, after all, just a short-term job."

"However, when I was offered a continuing contract I declined to take it up," laughs Joy. "Working ten hours a day was not my idea of a perfect job and my family life was suffering as a result of it."

"For a work contact of three month's duration or more," says Joy, "I really need to have as much information in writing as I can, and I make sure that it is a mutual agreement not one that is heavily slanted in favor of the employer."

"For instance," explains Joy, "it is vitally important to be aware of the terms of termination. In my present contract it states in words to the effect that if the project is completed before the specified date of contract termination then the employer has the right to terminate employment immediately."

"Bearing in mind that the project in question is ongoing, requiring far more than the six month's contract given, I felt that this is unfair and unethical. It means that the employer is asserting the right to determine at which stage the project can be deemed 'completed'."

In other words, Joy would slog her guts out for four months getting the project off the ground, and then the employer would deem the project to be 'completed' and effectively not only deny Joy the right to set the project in motion but also deny her a further two months of employment, pay and entitlements.

"Needless to say," laughs Joy, "under these unfair conditions I am taking my own sweet time on the project and making sure it is nowhere near completed in six months!"

"I am also skeptical about a contract maintaining an employer's right to 'terminate employment immediately' upon what he deems to be a satisfactory stage of project completion, without making this right mutual?"

"If I wanted to finish the project quickly and get home to David and the kids," says Joy, "My employer could deny me that right because my estimation of a 'completed' project may not match his."

Bearing in mind the amazing requirements that employers often demand of us - security checks, confidentiality agreements, declarations of conflict of interest, birth certificate, passports, medical examinations, etc - in addition to signing our lives away for a specified period of time, Joy says it is grossly unfair to be offered a contract that neither fully states all terms and conditions nor takes account of mutual obligations.

For lengthy contract work Joy feels that the following information is necessary in a work contracts: salary, date of commencement and agreed date of termination, hours of employment, length of time allowed for a lunch-break, days of employment (e.g. Monday to Friday), job specification (setting out the precise function and duties of the job), entitlements (e.g. Public holidays, sick pay, holiday pay, superannuation, etc), training (e.g. formal or on-the-job), employer occupational health and safety compliance, performance review (stating when and how your work will be assessed), termination (setting out the precise period of notice both you and the employer need to give, and variations depending upon precise breaches of contract by either you or the employer).

Joy says that if a contract does not contain this basic information and she suspects that an employer is taking unfair advantage of her, she then seeks clarification in writing of the information omitted in her contract.

"If a reasonable request for further detail is refused," explains Joy, "then I refuse to take the job on the basis that I risk being miserable in it and would end up having to seek legal advice in order to get out of the contract."

"In a very early contract job I had," laughs Joy, "I hated it and I had to pay a lawyer more than I earned in order to break the contract."

"I feel very sorry for women who do contract work out of necessity," sighs Joy. "I don't have to work, and that's why I can pick and choose the jobs I do - and when I get into trouble I can afford to pay the lawyers!"


This story first appeared as unfair work contracts

old dogs and young bosses

When Rowena, 48, heard her young boss using the 'you can't teach old dogs new tricks' cliché she saw red.

"Firstly, it was derogatory to refer to senior women workers as dogs," says Rowena, "and secondly it was ridiculous that anyone could put forward the notion that only young people have the capacity to learn. What a load of crap!"

When employers or recruiters use this cliché, Rowena feels that what they really mean is that senior workers cannot look young.

Rowena believes that in a culture increasingly dominated by youth, anything - even worn out old clichés - that can be used to discriminate against older workers will be flogged to death.

"The truth is," says Rowena, "that older women workers have a lot more going for them than younger workers. Experience is something that only age can confer upon people."

She feels that younger workers, even her young bosses, basically feel inferior to senior workers.

"Deep down in their psyche they know that they will have to live for at least thirty years before they have a clue what it's all about," says Rowena, "so they use what they do have at their disposal to try to get an advantage - even if it means stooping to dirty tricks."

What young workers do have going for them is youth, and that’s all.

Rowena believes that most of the new ideas they come up with are nothing more than old ideas dressed up to look new.

"They even take the music of my generation and dress it up to make it sound like their music," laughs Rowena. "It is so pathetic, and sometimes I feel sorry for them because it must be mortifying to be young and have to admit that a geriatric group like the Rolling Stones is better than any group of their age."

"Being good at something has nothing to do with age," says Rowena, "and I really resent my age being used unfairly against me."

"I can't sing so I won't try to compete against anyone - young or old - for a spot in a group," says Rowena, "but I'm very good at what I do and I believe that the best person should be given preference, not the youngest person."

"Give a new trick to a senior worker and a younger worker," says Rowena, "and generally there is very little difference in the time both will take to figure it out."

If, however, the new trick involves knowledge of another new trick that the younger worker knows, and the senior worker doesn't, then the senior worker is at a clear disadvantage.

It is this sort of trickery that Rowena abhors.

When senior workers are proved to be less capable of learning new tricks she believes that a disadvantage was built into the experiment.

For instance, in the computer world a new program is developed every few months if not every day. A clever way for recruiters and companies to opt out of promoting or hiring older women is to require previous working experience with a particular program.

"Naturally," says Rowena, "even younger workers would not have the luxury of that type of experience, but nobody notices that."

When Rowena was transferred to a branch office position she was confronted by a totally new application. She felt awful because the younger woman who was transferred with her had worked with that particular special application before.

Because the other woman was younger, she was deemed to be smarter than Rowena.

"Hey," laughs Rowena, "the shoe could just have easily been on the other foot, but nobody notices that, either."

"All they notice is your age," laughs Rowena.

"I sometimes wonder whether any of these young things have a conscience," says Rowena. "I wonder whether they sleep well at night, and I wonder whether they worry like crazy that one day some young thing is going to pull the same dirty tricks on them."

"To be fair," adds Rowena, "it's not just the young things who pull dirty tricks on older women workers. There are a lot of old guys in positions of power who want us replaced with younger women and are not beneath playing dirtier tricks to make us look incompetent and stupid."

"I hope they get their just desserts, too," laughs Rowena.

"Right now, though," says Rowena, "I'm stuck in this branch office with a bunch of kids and even though I've learned the new application in probably half the time the younger woman learned it, I've been branded as an old fool."

"Well, if nothing else," laughs Rowena, "I have shown them that an old dog can learn new tricks!"

"I know I shouldn't treat this matter lightly," says Rowena, "but sometimes I feel an overwhelming urge to show them how pathetic they are - maybe I should buy myself a studded collar and some dog food and go in one day to do some barking and growling at them!"

This story first appeared as
old dogs and new tricks

monday morning meetings

Penny is a team leader and quite apart from the bitchiness and prejudices that run rife in team environments, just about everyone, including Penny, is in agreement about hating team meetings.

"There are two types of team meetings at my workplace," says Penny. "One is the department team meeting which I run myself and wish I didn't have to, and the other is the management meeting which I hate with every fibre in my body."

"The management team meetings are dreaded enough," says Penny, "but holding them on the first Monday of every month at 8am makes them absolutely miserable."

"Who is at their best on a Monday?" asks Penny. "I am most certainly not - and especially not at 8am. I don't come alive until Wednesdays - and 8pm - and judging by the amount of participation in the monthly Monday management team meetings at my workplace I am not alone in my misery."

"I'm not sure whether the CEO's predilection for early morning Monday meetings is a trait that separates the wheat from the chaff, or the CEO from us."

"One of these days I am going to move a motion at the monthly management meetings to hold them on a Friday afternoon at 4pm when everyone is alive and excitedly looking forward to the weekend," says Penny, "and see what happens."

"Let's face it, even though our minds would be more on the impending weekend frivolities than whatever the CEO has to say, surely he would appreciate a more lively gathering of staff than what he gets on Mondays at 8am?"

"But then, of course," adds Penny, "our CEO is no fool. You see, I've figured out that the object of these monthly 8am Monday management team meetings is for us to be seen and not heard."

"Only one person gets to be heard, and that's the CEO. Choosing Mondays at 8am for the meetings was his way to make sure that nobody has a brighter thought than he does!"

"Our CEO is a Monday person and looking at dead early Monday morning bodies must make him feel superior."

"Okay," concedes Penny, "in the company hierarchy he is superior to us but in real life he's just a bag of skin and bones like everybody else. Actually, he has a lot more skin and bones than everyone else but that's another story!"

"Anyway, what's the point of having management team meetings at a time when very few people feel inclined to put in their two cent's worth? Is it just a head count?"

"At the department team meetings that I run, they are haphazard get togethers of team members and whoever feels like participating or opting out can do so," says Penny. "There is usually a lot of noise and bickering and sometimes agreement is reached on some change that needs to be made but mostly it's not."

"My job as a team leader is to make decisions when agreement cannot be reached," says Penny. "I try to be democratic but when things get out of hand I end the meeting and lay down the law."

"In stark contrast to my department meetings," says Penny, "the tone of the monthly CEO team meetings is stern and foreboding but the outcome is invariably the same. An awful lot of company time is wasted doing absolutely nothing constructive!"

"At these meetings the CEO praises us on targets reached and encourages us to push our teams harder and harder, and generally waxes lyrical about future growth and expansion."

"At the end of the presentation, there is a call for questions and any issues that need to be raised."

"A few brave souls try to make out they understood what the presentation was all about," says Penny, "but they always make fools of themselves by showing they have not."

"Mainly, everybody just sits there like stunned Monday mullets."

"Given half a chance I could probably run the place more efficiently than the CEO," says Penny, "but I wouldn't want the responsibility. I have a life outside of work, being a team leader is stressful enough and, as mentioned before, I am not a Monday person."

"My job as a team leader is stressful because the nature of the work my team does requires a high level of individualism and creativity," says Penny. "My guys are not subservient team players who bow and kowtow to me and I have to deal with a lot of clashing egos.

"Similarly, I'm not a subservient team player either," says Penny," so I hate it when our CEO herds us like sheep into those awful early morning monthly team meetings."

"In this respect, the guys on my team have a far easier existence than I do," sighs Penny. "I may get paid more than they do, but whenever the CEO meetings loom ahead I often ask myself whether it's worth being a team leader to have to put up with what I have to put up with."

winners and losers at work

Television shows like Survivor turn Cassidy, 24, cold because they promote conniving, brutal and judgmental people as winners and honest, caring and tolerant people as losers, and carried into the workplace this sort of behavior causes unecessary stress and discord.

"I realize that the promoters of these shows feel that they're only showing what goes on in real life, and in that respect they may think they're helping everyone become a winner," says Cassidy, "but nobody is a real winner in these shows and anyone who thinks that real life is about lying, cheating, backstabbing and making and breaking alliances is really, really stupid."

"In a real life and death survival situation co-operation would be absolutely paramount," says Cassidy, "and in real life, on everyday mundane levels, you can't get by without co-operation either."

"If you want to end up like a solitary Robinson Crusoe on your island," laughs Cassidy, "kicking people off so you can hog all the food and goodies is the way to go. But anyone who has read that wonderful book, or seen the film, knows that what Robinson Crusoe yearned for most on his island wasn't a million dollars."

"He wanted human company, someone to share his thoughts, someone to reflect back at him who he was."

"My parents raised me to be an honest, caring and tolerant person," says Cassidy, "and now that I've left home to make my own way in the world I'm becoming appalled at the many people who are being sucked in by the crass values portrayed in these sort of television shows."

"At work, people are actually following the tactics of the players in Survivor in order to get ahead," laughs Cassidy. "They form alliances and conspire to discredit or get rid of someone they see as a threat."

"I stay completely out of their silly games because they're just that - silly!"

"I'm just new here so I'm no threat to anyone," laughs Cassidy, "but there'll probably come a time when they'll want to get rid of me, too."

"With a game that requires lying, cheating, backstabbing and making and breaking alliances there is absolutely no trust, no real friendship, no sense of camaraderie and no real productivity in this workplace."

"Everyone is watching their backs, wearing two faces and acting like they're on a survival mission rather than enjoying their time together."

"What's smart about this sort of existence?" asks Cassidy.

"What's worse is that management seems to encourage the Survivor game being played out at work. I guess they think that they'll end up with the best workers, but in actuality they'll just end up with the worst workers!"

"There are other television shows besides Survivor that promote ridiculous behavior," says Cassidy, "and I see it all being played out at work and in social situations."

"There's a girl at work who thinks she's a witch and can put spells on people," laughs Cassidy, "and it's so pathetic watching her trying to manipulate people by witchcraft. She's basically a nice girl and if she'd only switch off television and read some decent books she'd be fine."

"I think that my generation was raised in front of a television and not everyone had parents like I did who monitored what we watched and how much time we spent being mesmerized by the small screen."

"When you've grown up with a television as your babysitter and your only source of entertainment and learning," says Cassidy, "I guess your reality is what you absorb through the television. It's more powerful than anything else."

"I don't suppose there's any profit for television producers to screen shows where the winners are honest, caring and tolerant people," sighs Cassidy. "A re-run of Little House on the Prairie is hardly likely to rake in as much money as the so-called reality shows!"

"But these shows are not reality as far as I'm concerned," says Cassidy, "and I resent television producers shaping our society in the irresponsible way they do."

"There are enough conniving, brutal and judgmental people in the world without these shows encouraging more of them," says Cassidy. "The real winners of this world are always going to be honest, caring and tolerant people and if the Survivor show cared to compare the real lives of it's so-called winners and losers it would undoubtedly prove my point."

"No, I'm not a meak, mild Jesus freak or anything like that," laughs Cassidy. "I just hate it when people at work feel a need to cheat and mistreat others in order to get ahead. Shows like Survivor are doing more to divide us than bring us together and not even 9/11 woke us up to how much we to need to cooperate with each other in order to really survive."

Cassidy's story first appeared as tv survivor at work and is reprinted with permission.

facing the facts

Naomi is 58, a fine arts graduate who can't get a job in her field of expertise and has had to take a menial job with a corporate giant where she’s the oldest person on the payroll -- subordinate to people young enough to be her grandchildren -- but she survives in the job by facing the facts, and sketching them!

She’s a very friendly lady, very easy to talk to - a typical people pleaser - and she’s very philosophical about young people taking over the workplace at a time in her life when she would have been enjoying seniority and a good income under the old system.

"Yes," says Naomi, "when I started work at 15 the pecking order was by age. It still is, but the age of seniority is now reversed!"

"Some of the young managers at my workplace are often brash and brusque with me," says Naomi, "but I forgive them all. I remember what youth was like and these young things are going to be horribly burnt out by the time they're my age. It's wrong, I think, to put heavy responsibilities on young shoulders, but who am I to argue with the new world order!"

"I must admit, though, that the youth of today is remarkable," says Naomi, "they have so much drive and ambition and confidence, and they come from all over the world."

"Actually," admits Naomi, "if it were not for all the new people I get to rub shoulders with at work I would have retired long ago and learned to live happily with my husband in retired poverty."

"You see, I survive in the job by reading faces and sketching them from memory," smiles Naomi. "Yes, reading faces!"

"I suppose it's may way of asserting who I am and venting my frustration," says Naomi. "Just by observing people I get a clear picture of who they are inside and some of my sketches are really cute pictures but others, of course, are nasty as befitting the person I've sketched."

Her workplace, like most places run by young people, is extremely stressful.

"Everyone wants everything right now," says Naomi, "and nobody takes any notice of normal work hours."

"There's always a constant stream of new faces at work," says Naomi, "and that's the one bright light in a job that is otherwise hellish. All of the people are very young, mostly ordinary but some have extraordinary faces. Some may be staff members from head office or branch offices doing training, or temporary workers from overseas or out of town, or tradesmen or technicians coming to fix things that the good thump I gave them won't fix."

"Every new face becomes the subject of one of my cute pencil sketches," says Naomi, "and just about everyone here has a sketch of mine pinned up on the walls where they work."

"No," says Naomi, "I would not say that I am a ‘people’ person in the traditional sense of the word, but I am definitely more interested in the human side of work than anything else."

"And, no," says Naomi, "I don’t deliberately go out of my way to talk to the new faces at work. Some I must necessarily brief on what to do and where to go, but generally I prefer to observe them from a distance."

"And, yes," says Naomi, "I am the stereotypical sketcher who carries around a small sketchpad, but frankly I do most of my sketches from memory."

"I am blessed with an incredible memory for faces," says Naomi. "I can sketch from memory the people I saw at a training session at work last month - with 30 people seated exactly where they were around the room - and I can do the same for a similar scene that happened ten years ago."

It is sad -- and shows an incredible lack of staff talent spotting by her global giant employer -- that her remarkable memory for faces, and her considerable artistic talent, have been completely overlooked and not put to good use."

Naomi admits that very few people notice her. She tries to pretend that it does not bother her that few of the people she works with will remember her, but deep down it must hurt her.

"At 58 I'm considered to be an old woman who should be retired in a rocking chair," laughs Naomi. "And, with so many beautiful young things for others to notice in the workplace, why would anyone remember me? I am philosophical about being part of the furniture around here."

For all her apparent invisibility, someone up high must notice the bright smile on Naomi's face and the pleasant way she interacts with people because, let's face it, there's no way someone her age could have survived in such a youth orientated workplace without being noticed by someone who counts.

Naomi's story first appeared as surviving as the oldest employee and is reprinted with permission.

the workplace ogre

Jin and her husband, Rick, were both out of work and she was thrilled to find another job before their money ran out -  until she discovered, among other things, that she has to work with a really nasty and abusive co-worker. A real ogre!

"I want to quit this job immediately, and find another job while my self-esteem is still high," explains Jan, "but Rick urged me to stick it out."

"If you are forced to spend eight hours with a person, day in day out," says Jin, "you want that person to be civil. I put up with years of abuse from my brothers and sisters because I was the baby of the family, and I’m not going to put up with this sort of behavior from co-workers. I couldn’t quit my family, but I can quit this lousy job - but I'm torn between my feelings and what Rick wants!"

"It's often only when you actually start a job and get to know everyone that you realize there’s a problem," says Jin. "Like most job applicants, I wasn’t given an opportunity to meet my prospective co-workers at the interview stage, but even if I had been given that opportunity they would probably have been on their best behavior."

"My interview was conducted solely via the HR Department," says Jin, "and I’m now wise to what this means."

 It means a veritable ogre is waiting for you!"

"There is no clause in my work contract upholding my right to a safe, harmonious working environment," says Jin. "Nevertheless, I feel that the company still has a duty of care to provide such for me."

"I am being constantly harassed, abused and belittled by a co-worker and I feel that my employer is in breach of some sort of duty towards me under occupational health and safety compliance laws."

"I’m not going to bother lodging an official complaint," says Jin. "Complaining got me nowhere as a kid, and it won’t get me anywhere at work either. In fact, it will make matters worse. It will become part of my work history and will jeopardize my future career."

"When employment gurus and all the ‘how to’ books out there maintain that the only acceptable reason for resigning a job is a desire to expand one's horizons, having achieved all one is capable of doing in one's present job and being regretful that one must leave such a wonderful job with a wonderful boss, manager and co-workers, people like me are too scared to complain and as a consequence bullying continues to flourish in workplaces."

"My co-workers are fully aware of what is going on," says Jin, "but just like people do not want to interfere in marital difficulties, people do not want to get involved in workplace difficulties either."

"They expect me to deal with it without complaining. That’s the culture to which I is expected to conform. And, having no support from my husband makes my situation even more miserable."

"There are always other factors involved in the decision to quit besides an abusive or hostile workplace," says Jin, "but it’s generally accepted that conflict with a boss, manager or co-worker underlies most resignations. I could put up with it - I think - from a boss or manager because they are not in my face all the time, but this ogre sits right next to me and I can't get away from her."

Read more of Jin's story:

marriage, a supportive partnership

replaceable teamwork cogs

In her new workplace, Janice's greatest woe is excessive teamwork where nobody is indispensable and everybody is required to be able to do everybody else's work.

"I couldn't believe that I had no work that I could claim as my own," says Janice, "but job rotation or whatever they call it seems to be the new big thing in workplaces these days and as such it's pointless moaning about it or trying to find a position where I can have total control over what I do."

"Women who really hate the teamwork principle should start their own business - if they can - or change their attitude," advises Janice. "The rise of rotating teamwork and the fall of 'individuality ' seems to be a plain fact of working life these days."

"It has always been part of certain occupations - particularly the military - but now that management gurus have adopted it as the perfect way to run a commercial organization I suppose it is difficult to find a company that does not run on teamwork principles."

"While teamwork is absolutely necessary in occupations that require relying on another person for your life, such as space exploration," says Janice, "I am not so sure that it is the perfect way to run a commercial organization - but that's the way things are and I am coping with it as best I can."

"The theory behind teamwork - as applied to organizations - is that nobody is indispensable," explains Janice. "We are all cogs in a machine, and as such we are replaceable."

"Being considered replaceable means that we are unlikely to be given an area of work over which we have total control. No work will be identifiably ours."

"The advantage for management in having an organization run on these principles is clear," adds Janice. "If one person needs to be dropped from the team, the others can take over the workload."

Janice sees the whole purpose of teamwork as an attempt to take control away from individuals.

"You are expected to be versatile, capable of filling-in for anybody in your team," says Janice. "Decisions are made by team consultation, and tasks are rotated in order to ensure that nobody 'hogs' any particular job."

"With high staff turnover in workplaces it is vital that the show continues without interruption - and teamwork is how management ensures that the show does go on, with or without you."

"The disadvantage for management in having an organization run on excessive teamwork -- like the place I'm working in," says Janice, "is that very little gets done and what does get done is often shoddy. Nobody takes personal responsibility for anything they do. The old adage 'too many cooks spoil the broth' applies tenfold."

"I believe that when staff members do not have work that is identifiably theirs for which they are totally responsible they are not committed to the job, they are not interested in doing a good job and they will dump work on others without caring."

"Sure, working in a teamwork environment means that you get to pick up a lot of skills," says Janice. "This is a decided plus in an age where jobs might only last a very short time. The more skills you have, the more employable you become."

"If you are naturally versatile, like I am, then you will enjoy multiple tasks. If you aren't - and you are slow at learning new skills - then you will find it very difficult to fit in with a team."

With decisions being made by team consultation, Janice warns that you will find yourself attending a never-ending sessions of meetings, at the end of which nobody is really sure what the outcome was.

"If you are a go-getter, like I am," says Janice, "teamwork has the disadvantage in that it holds me back. It slows me down."

"Also, if you have a brilliant idea, and it is put into practice, you will not get credit for it. It is a team effort, remember?"

"Funnily enough, though," adds Janice, "when a mistake is found it is always sheeted home to one person - usually the fall guy in the team - whether or not he or she made the mistake."

"With teamwork there will always be one or more person who slacks, and there will always be one or more person who does twice as much as anybody else," sighs Janice. "And that person always seems to be me because I am a fast worker and believe in putting in a day's work for a day's pay."

Janice is convinced that most people are temperamentally unsuited for teamwork.

"Some people work better alone, some people enjoy doing their own work within a team structure and some people need the group dynamics to get them in a mood for work," explains Janice.

"It defies logic why a management system that suits only a small percentage of individuals is now in vogue in just about every organization worldwide," laughs Janice, "but since businesses are run to make a profit - not to suit the temperament of workers then I accept that it makes sense."

"Our task is to cope as best we can with a system of working together that may not come naturally to us," says Janice, "and if workplaces are becoming a nest of vipers, gossips, back-stabbers and slackers then we only have the misguided philosophy of teamwork to thank for this."

"While I appreciate that 21st century management prefers short-term employment contracts and favors staff that are versatile, highly skilled in many areas and totally replaceable," sighs Janice, "I still believe that there is nothing to compare with dedicated people doing one particular job that is identifiably theirs."