Mental Moment-Life’s Barriers
There were so many articles in this past Sunday’s New York Times related to coping. I was elated to have so much blogging information. I’ve included the link’s to these articles in the header of each paragraph.
Why Women Hide Their Pregnancies
Problem
How can it be that women are still afraid to let employers know that they are pregnant? I sure hope the birth of Yahoo’s Chief Executive Marissa Mayer’s baby changes this. Just after she was hired it certainly caused an initial flurry of news gossip, most of which wasn’t all that positive. Do you wish the best personally and professionally for your wife or partner? If she is or were to be a Chief Executive at a company and was pregnant would you not want her to get the job?
My own pregnant friends tend to cover up, literally and figuratively. Meeting with prospective employers, like law firms and news organizations, they hide their bumps under oversize jackets or slouchy sweaters. At work, her 36-year-old colleague was afraid to get pregnant at all for fear she would not get promoted. These fears are not unreasonable. Claims of discrimination to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from pregnant women are increasing, having risen 23 percent from 2005 to 2011.
Solutions
Of course, employers can be put in a bind when workers take maternity time, and keeping a pregnant woman on the payroll can be an economic drag, especially if companies offer decent paid leaves. We might want to consider easing the burden on employers by offering a tax credit.
But the most important reason to end discrimination against pregnant women has to do with what kind of society we want to live in. We can admit that pregnant workers may be less profitable employees than nonpregnant workers in the short term, yet choose to value aspects of life beyond economic productivity. We may also want to protect pregnant workers simply so we don’t become a culture of deceit in the workplace. Women shouldn’t feel that they have to betray their own ethics and pretend — sometimes for months — that they aren’t pregnant when they are.
In an economy where women now make up half the work force, we’re going to have to address the treatment of pregnant employees more systemically. The passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act would better protect against the discrimination pregnant job seekers face. With luck, one day, women will be able to flaunt their gestational status in a job interview in the same way Claire Danes, in her yellow dress, flaunted it at the Emmys.
They Work Long Hours, but What About Results?
Problem
It’s an unfortunate reality that efficiency often goes unrewarded in the workplace. In some work places the results are secondary to face time. Having your boss see you in the office after 6 pm can account for much more that the quantity or quality of work you’ve gotten done.
Solution
As a former executive I saw this first hand. Fortunately for me, I had very good relationships with my staff. I trusted them and knew if they weren’t there or they needed time off it was for a very good reason and that they would get their work done. My staff were not rewarded for working long hours they were rewarded for being creative and their quality work. As an executive ‘face time’ was very important for certain events but I was an efficient worker and most of my staff were efficient too.
Is America Man Enough to Vote?
Problem
Did you know that men who vote for a losing presidential candidate suffer a big drop in their testosterone after hearing of this defeat? Voters feel significantly more controlled, submissive, unhappy and unpleasant. The testosterone effect was as if they directly engaged head-to-head in a contest for dominance and lost, one researcher told a reporter when the study was published in 2009.
Women had no change in testosterone levels, regardless of whom they voted for. Estrogen was not measured in the study. And women return to the polls more frequently than men.
Is it possible voting makes male voters too vulnerable? Could the unpleasant feelings male voters experience when their candidates lose discourage them from revisiting the polls? No wonder they stop voting. It hurts too much.
Solution
Low turnout should be a concern, and not just because of the inadvertent commentary it supplies on American manhood. The democratic process is our way of resolving conflict. It produces the laws that underpin our society, often in the face of substantial disagreement. Researchers have demonstrated that participants in the democratic process are more likely to comply with its outcomes, even when they disagree. They pay their taxes and obey the speed limit. When fewer people vote, the connection between the people and the laws that govern them grows tenuous.
It’s Not Me, It’s You
Problem
You feel especially smart and funny when talking to a particular person, only to feel hopelessly unintelligent and inarticulate in the presence of another. This article talks about stereotype threat. Being stereotyped because of race and culture but I would extend this to age, gender and sexuality. We’ve known for a long time that children in the class room are stereotyped. Boys are steered toward certain classes and girls others. Standarized exams are written in a language specific to certain cultures.
Solution
I couldn’t have said it any better: this research has important implications for the way we educate our children. For one thing, we should replace high-stakes, one-shot tests with the kind of unobtrusive and ongoing assessments that give teachers and parents a more accurate sense of children’s true abilities. We should also put in place techniques for reducing anxiety and building self-confidence that take advantage of our social natures. And we should ensure that the social climate at our children’s schools is one of warmth and trust, not competition and exclusion.
That is a lot in one paper getting in the way of a person’s ability to prosper. How do people deal with these things and more?
Happy start of your week!
Dr. Michelle
Photo credit: zazzle.com
