.72 on the 1.00

It seems that lately all I do is whine, whine, whine about how busy I've been.

I don't know why, when someone asks how I've been, I feel compelled to tell them that I am busy. It isn't really something I need to explain given the fact that most of these same people have noticed I'm not emailing back right away, my blog has been neglected for nearly a month, a week goes by between Facebook log-ins, and the best place to reach me between the hours of 8:30 am and 8:00 pm are at my office phone.

I also don't know why I'm whining. The fact is that I'm busy because I love my job and the work that I do and, for the most part, the people that I work with. I'm busy because I choose to be.

That doesn't mean that I haven't had my issues to deal with. A week ago today I got an email which I read, yes on a Sunday, from a colleague who was taking the opportunity to lambast me for not being "a team player." For having an expertise that apparently he doesn't have and he needs in order to win some work and build his practice.

I got mad. But I got mad because I was feeling a little bit guilty because I knew he wanted us to do this and I just DID NOT HAVE TIME to help. I held my tongue.

Then on Monday morning it hit me...how does a Sr. Consultant in Emergency Management NOT have this expertise? In short, knowledge in the area which I had, but apparently he did not, is much like someone who is an expert in Literature being expected to be familiar with Shakespeare. Frankly, it's a given. You have it because you just DO.

On Tuesday I was in a meeting with him and another colleague - a man I find pleasant but not particularly innovative or capable - and I was fighting like mad to get mid-year boosts for 3 folks on my team who have earned it. As a list of all three of our staffs sat in front of us, there - not hidden from view - were our salaries as well.

I know these men make more than I do and usually I'm okay with it. In an economy like this, I like the protection of having high value for dollar. But with recent changes my team is nearly twice the size of both of their's combined and pulls nearly twice as much revenue as well.

And the man who'd decided to rip me a new one on Sunday, it turns out, makes $32K more a year than I do.

Which hit home when my sister, who got a raise this week, told me today that she's trying to make the company take it back because she doesn't want to be priced out of the market. She thinks she's not worth it. And as I lectured her I realized that somehow - maybe because we are women - we are actually "ok" with making less money than our male counterparts. Even when they don't work nearly as hard as we do or contribute nearly as much.

So here's the truth - we shouldn't be making 28 cents per dollar less than our male counterparts. But maybe it isn't that we're underpaying women. Maybe, as is clearly the case of both of these colleagues of mine, we are overpaying some of these men.

Right now it's okay because I am very busy...out performing them 4 to 1. And I like being just that much better than them - because I am a woman and I am ROARING. :)

But maybe something to think about longer term...so that my daughter inherits a better workplace for women than I did.


NL