Forgive me, but hey it’s my blog – turn away now.

I cannot believe we are still arguing about equal pay for women. A long time ago – a quarter of a century – I worked in a different industry and 1/3 of my job was a traditionally male role – insofar as there was any tradition in a new field. I was the IT guy, called upon to get the computers up and running and keep them that way.  Most of the fixes could be done by phone, the few where something hardware was needed – a Cheerwine or potted plant in the keyboard – I called a very trusted and competent outsource to head over and take care of it.

But the company decided they needed someone on staff with a penis to handle that 1/3 of my job. They hired someone with that credential and I trained him, I assisted him, I proofed and rewrote his reports and as he became comfortable in the position, I covered for him because he never seemed to return to work after lunch.

Then he left his pay stub out on his desk and when I returned a corrected report, I saw that for the ability to pee standing up, he was being paid ½ again more than I was for a 1/3 of my job! I felt the loyalty to the company (where I had worked for more than a decade) go up in flames. I couldn’t even mention it because discussing or even speculating on salaries was a firing offense. So I kept my mouth shut and quit doing his job.

I didn’t rewrite his reports, I said I was sorry that he wasn’t answering his beeper and I hadn’t seen him since he went to lunch and he didn’t last a month without me doing the job. They fired him, but they didn’t give me any more money. They just found another penis to handle the job. So I trained that one too, but I never picked up the slack or felt any loyalty again. It cost the company a lot more than paying me for doing the job I was already doing would have cost them.

Okay, move along, nothing more to see….