Hey Edsters,
Yesterday, I received my mom’s monthly magazine package in
the mail. The package is my lifeline: My mom graciously forwards me 7 pounds
worth of magazines every month so I can keep up with my 10 different
subscriptions that are each equally necessary to my growth as a savvy magazine
industry individual (despite everyone else’s addiction suspicions).
I cracked open Marie
Claire and flipped through to my favorite section, Marie Claire @ Work, when a particular headline stopped my flipping
fingers dead in their tracks. It was an article on the “latest type of
workforce discrimination;” apparently, single girls are finding it harder to
retain a work-life balance then the married-with-kids set. Work is getting
delegated to the single people who are assumed to have more time to toss around
at the office, while parents are rigidly retaining a 9-5 work schedule.
I’m not sure how valid the argument is, because I know that
if I was a working parent, I would be a whole lot more likely to lay down rules
about when I can and can’t be in the office vs. if I’m single and looking to
work my way up the ladder. As a non-married person, I’m probably much more
likely to take up extra work, whether I need to or not, because I don’t have
the same commitments and I’m eager to show how much chutzpah I’ve got. What
struck me most in the article was what one woman said who was countering the
discrimination argument. “No one respects people who are slaves to the job.
Build the muscle to say ‘no.’”
