Women's Acceptance in the Workplace

This is a subject that I feel isn’t even a part of work culture. We have safe spaces, woke events, alphabet mafia acceptance across all genders or non-genders. We support women having babies, getting married but what about a celebration of losing our womanhood? Workplace acceptance exists in various facets in the corporate world, but I have yet to see anything that is geared towards the challenges we face as we go through the change. We are expected to be the same as we were, but we are not. We don’t think the same. Our emotions get the better of us and we lash out like a knee jerk reaction. God forbid we open our mouths and speak out of turn we are labeled a bitch. It’s hard for us to control the words coming out of our mouths and all we are trying to do is work an honest day without all the internal craziness making us insane. We forget our thoughts, becoming absent minded; brain fog is real. Maybe this is showing we still work in a man’s world, and we must fall in line with our uniqueness where everyone else is accepted for who they are, even celebrated.  Where’s our work resource groups that supports these changes in a woman’s life and how to navigate the corporate world. Seriously, this is only a temporary issue, maybe a decade; does it get better? I suppose I’ll find out…

On another note, during this transition period we practically suffer 24/7 through uncontrollable symptoms that we have zero power over. This shit is no joke and there is no escaping our fate, but in the workplace, there is no leniency. If this company is so damn “woke” where’s our safe place? There is no need to endure this alone and work should be more darn supportive of our craziness. We even have mental illness awareness in our workplaces, and they are supported, even nurtured. Isn’t menopause classified as a mental illness? If not in some medical journal but maybe we agree amongst our female population. Symptoms can be as crippling as any other personal mental condition. The depression alone can be catastrophic, and I feel that this should be a major focus since we encompass about 50% of the human population. Suppression? Nobody cares?

Let me provide some real-world examples: I had a director once tell me that people think of me in a certain way because I stood my ground and asked for what I wanted in my career. The rumor spread that I am a bitch and hard to work with. Thankfully this fell upon deaf ears since I do have a good reputation with the company and that Director was no bottle of sunshine either. (I will admit, yes, I can come off as a bitch and it probably is because of the damn hormones going haywire, generally I am a very witty and funny co-worker but do a damn good job; setting the baseline, I am a ray of fucking sunshine!). 

Another example: I have this coworker, Poppy. She is of a certain age and probably a little more advanced through this journey than I am. She is always confusing information, not remembering correctly, then turns very angry when corrected even if she is wrong. I think she wasn’t aware of what was even happening to her or why. In retrospect, I see that these must be symptoms of the transition to change. How confused she must have been and before I realized this I could not stand the woman. I was angry and frustrated and even lashed out on her (my bad). Knowing now, I should have been more kind and chosen to walk away. Or tried to be supportive. Again, hindsight. So, once I had this realization, I decided I would pay it forward next time a person came across my path that was struggling as well. I’m currently helping a close friend that is really having a hard time and trying to shed light and support while she navigates the rough waters.

Bottom line, I want workplace acceptance for our behavior we cannot control very well. I would like to see awareness and training for employees. Just like there was training provided on how to communicate with Millennials (blasphemy!). Be sensitive to our jurisdiction god-damn-it!  Where’s my flag, my ribbon and my employee resource group? I don’t want people to hate me because someone pissed me off and I walked away, and they got offended. I feel the Poppy’s of the world would greatly appreciate it as well as myself.

#rantover

Song inspo: Tai Verdes - AOK