WHY DO I LOVE YOU?

Sometimes you just can't win for losing. This yarn describes a personnel issue I had with a young girl. 03/10/2016

WHY DO I LOVE YOU?

The provisions of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) regarding women’s rights in the workplace got my approval. With a family that included four daughters, and a wife who had been an Executive Secretary, I had ample reason to support it. My track record proved I had no gender bias in my makeup. In 1967, I hired a forty-three years old woman to fill a secretarial position in the Purchasing Division. Tests proved she could take shorthand and type faster than other candidates.

Some years later, I had to fill two salaried Buyer’s positions. Applicants came from a number or Material Control clerks, members of the IBEW union and whose wages were governed by collective bargaining. I chose to promote a male to fill the first job, rejecting a female, telling her I thought she would be better suited to fill the other Buyer position. When she bid for that job, I promoted her, the first female in company history to hold such a position.

She rewarded my decision by lodging two EEOC claims against me. Her first suit alleged gender discrimination because she didn’t get the first job. Her second suit claimed pay discrimination, having learned his starting pay exceeded hers by her starting salary by twenty bucks a month. 

I provided our Law Department ample documentation to prove his education; skills and experience exceeded hers for that particular buying position.

I explain the disparity in starting pay levels. I raised them each ten percent higher than their current union wage. Their new starting salaries exceed the entry level amount established for this job classification. It seemed fair to me. The disparity arose because his hourly job rate happened to be slightly higher than hers at the time. I asked, “How could an identical percentage raise be deemed discriminatory, when each now earned more than the minimum for their new job?”

Much to my surprise and great dissatisfaction, SRP’s Law Department sided with her. They said, “This issue is too petty to fight.” We settled by increasing her pay to match his, back dated to when he became a Buyer.

Years later, this female married an SRP employee and resigned. In her exit interview, she handed a letter to a Human Resources staff member. In it, she accused me of numerous mismanagement actions or inactions. My boss read it to me and asked if any of her claims were true.

“No.” 

“Case closed.”  He put the letter in his file drawer and never mentioned it again.

I encountered this lady at a funeral five years later. She greeted me in the friendliest way you could imagine.

“Hi Joe,” she said with a smile, walking toward me, arms apart, ready to hug.

“Oh, hi,” I mumbled while turning away in total disbelief. Had she forgotten the past or just forgiven me for my sins? She had done her best to kick me in the teeth when all I wanted to do was improve her lot by promoting her to a position in which she stood the best chance of succeeding.

Women should be seen and not heard, right?

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