Sept. 17 Class

One of the points that really interested in me in our last class was about being taken seriously in the work place. I typically enjoy being the young and vivacious intern or employee, but sometimes it does not work for my benefit. First, I used to work at the Gap. My manager was a grumpy woman who clearly had to put on a face to help customers. Sometimes, I felt she resented me because I was always so happy to be there and usually seemed like I was having more fun at work than I was supposed to. Therefore, my manager and I continuously had conflicts and she didn't take me seriously even though I was a great salesperson (if I might say so myself).

Secondly, the issue that I will simply have to get used to, is being a young (and social) female in the world of Information Technology. The last two summers I have had internships with a company called VHA and Fidelity Investments in the IT departments. Fidelity was where being a young female really posed a few problems in the workplace. I have come to find out that I am a completely different breed of person than almost all IT people. When I went into the interview, there were four men interviewing me and the look on their faces was priceless. After making them laugh for the entire interview by telling them that my hobbies were riding my purple bike with my best friend, driving my big red pickup with black rims and a flow master, and playing volleyball, I was instantly hired due to my ability to stand out in IT. In this case, my identity helped me to get a well paid internship. However, as the summer went on, my chipper attitude and young face made things complicated. I worked on a team of thirteen guys (all of whom were married). One of my coworkers (age 49, married with 2 girls MY AGE) would actually suggest to me that I shouldn't wear tank tops underneath my low cut shirts and ask me why I wasn't cold when it was cold in the building. While luckily, I am able to ignore the passes, it did make it difficult to be taken seriously.

Throughout the summer, my boss and I became friends and eventually told me that he would probably never have another female intern, not because I didn't do a good job, but because I caused him to worry about his employees getting in trouble. If I wasn't as laid back as I was, some of my coworkers would definitely have gotten in trouble and their jobs would be jeopardized. In the future, I am definitely going to have to really manage my identity so that I can have some legitimacy in my job. Although Fidelity went smoothly, it could have gone very wrong. That means that I can't be completely myself in the workplace, I have to be careful and really manage the way I come across to other people.