Southern California Job Market : Band-Aids : Valuing Housework as a Way to Help Women
Washing the dishes, making the beds and caring for children are worth big money. Even though housework usually is done for free, its estimated value to the world economy is more than $4 trillion a year.
But because governments don’t officially place any value on housework, the people who do that unpaid work--mostly women--get a raw deal when it comes to divorce, Social Security and legislation affecting their interests, say women’s rights advocates.
To get homemakers their due, Rep. Barbara-Rose Collins (D-Mich.) has sponsored the Unremunerated Work Act. It would make the federal government place a value on the work that women and men do in the home and include that figure in the gross national product.
The bill is languishing in committee, and some economists would be happy to see it die, contending that the proposal would hopelessly muddle U.S. economic statistics.
Joyce P. Jacobsen, a specialist in gender economics at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tenn., says “there’s no question” housework should be included in the GNP “to determine how well off we are, but the tricky thing is to figure out how to do it.”
Office Romance Is Still Among the Last Taboos
America’s sexual revolution has loosened a lot of inhibitions, but dating co-workers remains one of the last taboos.
Men and women increasingly work side by side, but in a survey last December of 692 working adults, only 3% said they were dating a co-worker.
Of course, many people aren’t courting co-workers because they already have a partner. The government says 40% of adult workers are married, a point the survey didn’t address. All the same, executives at the temporary-help firm Accountants on Call, which commissioned the poll, were puzzled by the lack of workplace romance.
Sexual harassment aside, it’s not that people disapprove of the practice in principle; an earlier survey found that 57% of Americans say it’s OK, and 37% have dated a co-worker at some point in their lives. Still, why are many people so shy of office romance?
The recession could be one reason, says Debbie Buchsbaum, a vice president with Accountants on Call. Employees, she speculated, “are reluctant to do anything that might put their jobs in jeopardy.”
But Buchsbaum herself admitted that in the several years she worked full-time before marrying 10 years ago, she never dated a co-worker. “I wouldn’t have wanted to jeopardize my career” she says, adding that she “wanted to keep things professional with co-workers.”
Indiscretion on the job can indeed be a career killer, says industrial psychologist Andrew DuBrin, author of “Your Own Worst Enemy: How to Overcome Career Self-Sabotage.” Still, he says it’s a shame that co-workers don’t date more; the secret, he says, is to be discreet.
Imagine If They Were This Clever At Doing Their Job
As any employee will tell you, nearly all bosses know how to drive their subordinates crazy. But some bosses are more creative than others.
Men’s Health magazine polled 6,000 people to determine their supervisors’ most annoying habits. Among the strangest: mooning employees and then denying it; imitating Mr. Magoo; trimming nails with a jumbo clipper during meetings, and failing to turn on the exhaust fan in the bathroom.
“There’s a certain mind-set when people become bosses,” says Michael Lafavore, executive editor of Men’s Health. “They think the rules of etiquette and civil behavior no longer apply to them. They fail to see the people who work with them as human beings.”
The poll established this Top 10 list of complaints about bosses:
1. Poor communication
2. Lying
3. Indecisiveness
4. Favoring “suck-ups”
5. Not listening
6. Procrastination
7. Forgetfulness
8. Withholding information
9. Publicly belittling employees
10. Too talkative (especially, it appears, when it comes to belittling employees).
“The real question is what happens to someone when they become a boss,” Lafavore says. “It definitely changes you.”
Of course, many employees’ concerns go beyond mere rudeness. Many bosses have felt driven by the competitive business climate--and fear for their own jobs--to get as much out of workers as possible. Managers are under pressure too.
And bosses sometimes take advantage of the recession to play hardball with workers, who have less leverage when jobs are scarce.
Many companies are chopping health benefits for employees and even retirees. In Southern California’s garment industry, impoverished sewing machine operators even complain of physical abuse at the hands of some of their employers.
Spied a Great Job? Just Hold On a Sec
Nothing is more crucial to getting hired than getting an interview. So when you spy the perfect job in the want ads, put your resume away. That’s the unorthodox advice of Murray Axmith, a veteran Toronto outplacement consultant.
“If you send too much information, they’ll have a reason to screen you out,” says Axmith, who urges:
* Call the company for more information about the advertised job, such as the name of the person responsible for filling it.
* Take a deep breath and do nothing. Let the avalanche of responses subside. Job openings aren’t filled instantly. So wait a week; you’ll stand out.
* Then write a short letter that clearly states how your skills fit the job. Do not give your salary requirements or your references. And hold the resume. Don’t give them any reason not to see you.
* Be a little daring; consider sending your letter as a telegram, for example. But don’t fax it; you’ll just be part of the crowd.
These Buzz Words Imply a Buzz Saw
For headquarters types, getting the first whiff of a layoff is easy, according to Stanley Bing, Esquire’s pseudonymous columnist on corporate life.
Beginning in April or May, before annual budgets are written, start listening closely to upper management. Bing says pink slips are on their way if you hear any of the following buzz words:
* The new reality of doing business.
* Operational synergies.
* Compound structures that contain the word size, e.g., right-size, downsize, outsize.
* References to body mass, such as leanness, or fighting weight.
* Sports metaphors such as sideline or benched.
* Automotive images such as check under the hood, shift gears or put the brakes on.
