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If I Work Hard and Do Well, I Will Be Recognized and Promoted - Not

The door has been unlocked. There are morewhere we are, before we will consider a
women than ever in high-paying jobs. Yet mostpromotion. "I'm not ready to move on, I
working women, even those in management, arehaven't done everything I want to with this
clustered into predominately female jobs anddepartment." What's the difference how we
career paths. These women are almost alwaysleave things? As soon as we're gone, things
lower-paid than men and women who work inwill change, no matter what we have
male-dominated positions. None of us canaccomplished. We need to point out our
single-handedly change the way things operateaccomplishments and our ability to learn and
in corporate America. But, we can changeexpand. We need to move on, leaving
jobs. If we want to earn more money, the mostunfinished  work  behind.
assured way is to do the jobs which pay more.
You are much more prepared to do this thanWomen are more likely to leave our jobs and
you may think. Awareness is the first step.careers in the hands of others. We let
Many of us need to see the workplace as itsomeone else decide what we can do and can't
really  is.do, or when we are ready to move on. They're
waiting for us to speak up. They decide we
If I work hard and do well, I will beare happy where we are. We are seen as
recognized  and  promoted  -  Not"patient and cooperative." While these may be
nice attributes to have, they usually do
An executive told Working Woman Magazinenothing to increase our incomes. We need to
"Women are the best bargains around... Theytake charge of our own careers and lives.
think if they work harder, they'll beThings won't turn out exactly as we plan, but
recognized." Do we really want to be known asit is a great improvement over leaving it up
"the best bargains around?" While weto  others.
faithfully execute the job at hand, people
around us are promoted to higher-payingThe way we work causes us to appear
positions. I believe there are severalunqualified for other kinds of positions.
factors which contribute to thisWomen are more likely to be task-oriented,
misconception. Women are more likely to valuerather than results-oriented. We pride
modesty, and we are cautious not toourselves on our ability to get a lot done
over-state our abilities. We prefer to haveand check off long lists of duties. We are
our work speak for itself, rather thanmore often comfortable taking orders,
pointing out our accomplishments to anyone.preferring to understand exactly how we are
Meanwhile, our savvy colleagues have learnedexpected to perform a job. We want to be
to speak up for themselves, perhaps even takemeasured on how hard we work, what long hours
credit for others' efforts, and ask forwe  put  in,  and  how  accurate our work is.
(sometimes demand) more responsibility and
pay. Everyone is so busy doing their own job,The jobs in American business which pay more
they don't recognize our achievements the wayare much more likely to be results-oriented.
we think they will. We are left with the jobsThey require the individual to focus on the
we have. Perhaps we decide that someone elseend result; profit, profit margin, expense
was more "qualified." Perhaps we decide thatreduction. Tasks often have to be
things were done unfairly this time, but thatabbreviated, delegated, or abandoned, if they
things will change. We hold tight to ourdon't directly contribute to the end result.
fantasy and to our current position with itsIn fact, the higher paid the position, the
corresponding  pay.more likely that the goal will be defined,
but the job will not. "Increase new business
Because we may define competency differentlyby $400,000, reduce the reject rate to .03%,
than men (see; Women in Those High Payingincrease productivity by 20%," are goals
Positions Have Something I Don't Have, bywhich might define a position. The process
Patricia Smith) we may tend to over-emphasizefor achieving these goals is as least partly
our mistakes, and under-emphasize ourundefined and must be authored by the person
achievements. We are convinced that anyonedoing the job. To do the jobs which pay more,
who has performed less than 100% perfectly,women must learn to live with these job
accurately, completely, 100% of the time isdescriptions. We must learn to work toward
not yet ready for another assignment. We stayaccomplishing goals. Many, many women have
in the same position longer. We convincelearned to live with these undefined
ourselves that we will speak up and speak outpositions,  so  can  we.
as soon as we have earned that right. We
watch others around us move into high-payingAwareness is the first step. Small
positions and wonder why such incomplete,adjustments can make a big difference. This
shoddy  work  is  rewarded.is a process, we don't have to be perfect at
the game of business, no one is. We just have
We are more likely to want to perfect thingsto be better.



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