The Girls in the Office -- la deuxième partie

Sadly, women don't always play nice together. Specifically, I’m talking about the working world. Even more precisely, I’m talking about the print industry. To get right to it, I’m talking about what I’ve witnessed and the experiences of some friends and acquaintances.

Here’s one instance.

Print World is a male dominated and, often enough, pretty damned sexist industry. I mentioned in a prior post that I worked the longest for a company that was very much not the industry norm. There were women holding management positions on all levels—in pre-press, the pressrooms, sales, in the retail outlets, copy rooms, human resources, delivery departments and more.

The company changed hands with new owner interviewing and signing on all female type additions to the sales force. One hire was a bit surprising—a young woman fresh out of college. She was the BFF of another woman who’d recently been hired to do web builds. We all figured her pal must be a capable cookie too.

Though Jane toted a featherweight, scrawny resume, she seemed eager. When introduced around she was warm, friendly, sported the conservative grey biz suit and shook hands with all. My thought was, with a lot of training and time in the field, she could be a fab sales rep, a siren, a rainmaker even. She knew nothing about printing or, presumably, professional sales but the new owner was taking her under his wing.

Sadly, Jane was all surface—underneath her good looks, the suit, the eager beaver mien, there was a definite lack of intellectual curiosity and almost zero work ethic (unless the boss was watching). It didn’t take long for her to show her true face. After the first week, her smiles and charm were present only when she was chatting with management types or when the owner was sitting with her, teaching her all about the world of printing and sales.

Us non-executive, worker bee peons only saw the happy faced ‘charisma’ when she needed something. God help us if we approached her to extend a helping hand or advise her when she’d made an error (one that could effect the customer’s product, thus, her commission). What we got in return was a sneer that def looked better when Joan Jett was rockin’ it.

Were we—me and my long time, knowledgeable, print industry cohorts—dickwads in our attempts to assist this young, print and sales newbie? Fuck no! The company culture was generous and accommodating. We could count on our co-workers to fill in our gaps in understanding and expertise—to have each other's backs.

Gotta say, it was stunning as all hell to have this rookie treat me like I was a Renfield who had the intemperate balls to attempt to speak to her.

After this, in my role as Preflighter, I put all my questions, my requests for more info and work order clarifications in email. I went into DEFCON 1 diplomacy mode.

Jane was definitely nicer and more able to take advise and knowledge from men versus women. At the same time she was fairly democratic in her derisive snobbery toward all us peasants who fell below management level. Why was she like this? Who knows.

Eventually her dearth of smarts became clear even to the owner who adored her. She became, essentially, a product demonstrator. A Carol Merrill, a Vanna White.

She could have been so much more. Maybe she will be one day.