ECONOMY OR EQUALITY

We all know the economy is on the downfall—even the President said so. If that didn’t give you a clue, the banks that are going “bankrupt” might enlighten you. However, if you get on any job search engine, it seems there are still plenty of jobs out there. This would be an entire discussion by itself, (that I may conquer during the next few blogs,) but right now I wanted to bring up an issue that still presents itself in the present day. Yes, that’s right. It’s October 1, 2008. Should I say that again? October First, Two-thousand-and-Eight-A.D. The reason I exaggerated the year so overtly is because you’d think, years after we’ve established women and minorities in the workplace, that we’d finally have equality in the workplace—and yet during an economic crisis, inequality can be replaced with another name—economy. It’s if sounds like I’m just an irate lethargic working female complaining about not getting a raise let me explain.

I work for a company that yes, is going through down-sizing because of its difficulties of lowered sales—however, due to my position I know who has been fired, hired, given raises, and supposedly, why and why not. The woman I work with, who has basically taught many of the men in our office much of what they know about our department, just had her yearly anniversary and has been ignored by the President to whether or not she will even receive a review—let alone a raise in pay, (this trying to be excused of course given the poor performance of the corporation.)
In contrast, another male member of the company who “supposedly” does the training, (I say supposedly because of the clear lack of which I experience every day,) recently was given a substantial raise even before his yearly anniversary. Also, there are other men at our office who make twice what she and I make even though we monthly and sometimes weekly explain standard procedures to them—such as how to use simple excel formats. (If anyone out there does any form of business, they might agree with me—if you know even the basics about accounting—you should know how to use this program!)

Maybe I am just complaining, or venting, but if you think I’m just being a “b” word hear me this:
Yesterday I tried to explain to a manager I oversee that the employee he supervises does not qualify for a certain benefit that the employee already used. When I transferred the call to the male co-worker/supervisor in my office to again explain the same thing I had, he used much more force, (and well maybe I should have, but you know what would have happened if I did?) and while also using profanity to get the point across, the manager gave in and agreed he was correct.

Okay, so far I have described the issue of women’s equality in the work place. Well it doesn’t stop there. What about racism?
I had an excellent manager. I say excellent, because every time I explained something; he filled out the paperwork, made sure his employees understood, executed the certain terms, met deadlines, was an exceptional communicator, had very congenial personality, etc. Allegedly, he was let go because his work area was not organized, nor were his employees managed properly. This, while the division manager over him constantly ignored (and continues to ignore) filling out certain paperwork and fulfilling regulatory mandates—not to mention is very elementary and immature, most of the time he doesn’t even properly attach a files to his emails. After speaking to the manager who was let go, I found he, who is of white ethnicity, and another man who is African American, were both fired from the location. The person over them is Hispanic. The manager told me he suspected these terminations happened because they both weren’t Hispanic. Yes, this may be heresy, I don’t describe this to offend anyone, but I have dealt with too many situations/people in this company to doubt what he said was true. He didn’t even speak it with any malice or resentment—simply matter of fact. He already has a better job—so maybe it was better he was fired anyway right?

Would Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Abraham Lincoln, or any other great American ever succeeded if they hadn’t faced adversity? What would have driven them forward? What would have given the final thrust of motivation needed to lead them to their destination? To create a beacon of hope to generations after them—because of their own triumph, because of their own struggles they overcame…?

So I have addressed equality, but what of the economy? I think it goes both ways. We cannot allow the economy to be an excuse for inequality, as much as we can allow the inequality to be the excuse for the economy.
What do I mean by the last statement? Yes, injustices happen every day, but we don’t have to let them be the end, or our excuse to idly stand by, or aid to our bitterness and resentment. Like the manager I mentioned. He moved diligently forward and was blessed for his efforts. Like Martin Luther King—his end was indeed not the end. Money isn’t every thing—yes I keep reminding myself that too, (every month on the first believe me!)
I say again, Money isn’t everything, it is only a tool. The sooner we learn that, the sooner equality will enter the 21st century. The sooner we learn that, the sooner the economy will level in all parts of the world.
No excuses.