Discrimination In The Workplace
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- mmeblueberry
- Authoress
- davo
- davo
- Moreau
- Sandy56
- proud2bcpa
- stejan
- presactly
- sophiekbarnett
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» mmeblueberry - Discrimination in the Workplace
Unfortunately, I believe there's also a social discrimination CFers are subject to, in the workplace and elsewhere. Many CFers have bosses with children, or have performance reviews dependent on the good press of co-workers with children.It's difficult to establish even a casual social connection with a boss who has kids, particularly a female. Only through a great deal of feigned interest in the pursuits and bodily functions of children have I been successful in creating a tenuous friendliness between myself and employers who have young kids. That's hard work in itself.
Ordinarily, I'd just stick with my own kind, but I find my performance reviews are much more accurate, comprehensive and fair when I'm on good social terms with the boss.
And unfortunately, being on good social terms with most parents means never, ever letting them know your true feelings about their sense of parental entitlement and the family-oriented perks they receive at work.
-- posted by mmeblueberry
» davo - Work Harder?
Obviously doing well Mmeblueberry, Lovely name by the way, I'm struggling with this bloody keyboard!What makes us laugh, is when the usual baby photos are produced at my wife's work place, the camera is invariably out of focus, the camera's flash reflects back from the eyes of an unstructured face. Like red currants! in a blancmange! Accompanied by the inevitable 'Tut tut tuts' of approval.
You got to love 'em, we do, We're sure they love us , it's taken time!
Love from Aussie. H'roo
-- posted by davo
» Moreau - Workplace problems between parents and CFers
The relationship between perents and non-parents in all levels (at my job) is totally strained. At the front-end, they're one store manager and three other assistants, in which I'm at the low-end of the assistants. Out of the management crew, I'm the only one who is ChildFree and it really puts a strain on me. I usually work 25-30 hours a week because I'm also a full-time student in college. However, lately I've been working anywhere from 35-45 hours because they claim that they didn't have the time to spent time with their kids. So as the result, I had to pick up the slack for them. What also really frustrates me is, I'm the only one in manageement that has to work a 13-hour day this Thanksgiving. I asked my store manager why I have to work all day, and his response was, "Because we have a family, and you don't...." I begged him to at least cut it down to 8 hours, he refused. In fact, all the cashiers that'll be working Thanksgiving don't have children.I really believe that parents do give an unfair advantage in the workplace (and in life in general), than we childfree-ers do.
-- posted by Moreau
» Sandy56 - Re: Workplace problems between parents and CFers
In response to message posted by Moreau:I am proud of the decision, I made in life about not having children and loving pets. I don't mind buying the cookies at work to help parents out. But I do agree, that there are still some people who are very narrow minded at work or in our communities that feel that they must punish us in whatever way, for choosing to be a married child free couple.
-- posted by Sandy56
» proud2bcpa - Re: Workplace problems between parents and CFers
In response to message posted by Moreau:Yup, I hear you. Sometimes it seems to me that once people have kids, they lose their minds of reasoning and senses of logics. Just because we don't have kids, that doesn't mean we don't have a life outside the workplace. In fact, I know some people use their kids as excuses for not working hard or taking time off from work to their very own benefits. If I have a manager like yours and when I get pushed to the edge, I'd tell him "FYI, I do have a life outside this building (or office or store) although it might be different than yours"; if he wouldn't budge, I'd get another job before I quit. Another thing I am thinking is if things get too out of hand, I believe there is a case for workplace discrimination.
Sometimes I even suspect jealousy especially when the parents are stressed out or frustrated with their "kidding" lifestyles, which might creates some resentment against CFers in a way.
-- posted by proud2bcpa
» stejan - Life without kids, no kidding!
Try telling your "boss" that you want to spend time with your husband in this day and age. He replied, "I never see my kids." (What happened to caring about seeing his wife?) I guess that is why there are so many unhappy or single parents and why we are happily married and child free. (You can have everything, just not at the same time). Happy Thanksgiving!!!-- posted by stejan
» presactly - Work overload
What gets me is that if you're young and don't have kids everyone else at work assumes that you'll pick up the slack - 'cause you'll get all the perks later, when you have kids! Well, there ain't gonna be no 'later' for me.And have you noticed in the past few years, anything companies provide as a benefit to their employees is 'family friendly'. Sorry, but none of it is going to motivate me 'cause it's never going to apply to me.
Anyway, I quit over all the bullshit & went travelling for 3 years. No point staying where you're not appreciated, right? 
-- posted by presactly
» sophiekbarnett - Childfree Dissertation
Hello,My name is Sophie Barnett and I am 3rd year Broadcast Journalism student at Nottingham Trent University. I recently read Child Free and Loving It by Nicki Defago and was so interested by the topic that I've decided to use it for my dissertation.
I am looking at why more and more women are making the choice to remain childfree and how they are being discriminated against by society, family and friends, in the work place and religion. I am filming a 10 minute feature and am keen to interview anyone who may have suffered any form of discrimination from their choice not to reproduce.
My teacher (who has 2 children herself!!) said it's a risky topic to do as it will be difficult to get an audience to empathise with childfree women, however I have gone ahead with it as I believe I can make a strong case.
So, if anybody feels they may be able to help me, I would truly appreciate it as I feel that its an issue of growing importance, and one that many people still don't understand.
Many Thanks
Sophie Barnett
-- posted by sophiekbarnett
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