I’m not one for burning bridges, so I will name no names. If anyone from my past reads this and recognise themselves, I hope it makes them think a little and maybe, just maybe, question their behaviour: what they think is normal, is pretty damaging.
A job ad on LinkedIn went viral a couple of days ago. A Canadian company advertised for Content Writers, requesting that candidates spoke Russian, had strong linguistic abilities, a wide knowledge of SEO and a bunch of other skills. The really interesting bit came at the end: “Please note the Position requires filling in the responsibilities of a receptionist, so female candidates are preferred.”
The ad was spotted by several media outlets after it was shared and retweeted countless times and, unsurprisingly, it was finally removed. The Pool has featured a brilliant article written by Marisa Bate and I beg you all to go read it if you want some extra reading on the topic.
Weirdly, I wasn’t shocked about the ad, nor I was outraged. The fact that looking good as a receptionist trumps education and experience practically meant nothing to me, why? Because I worked at a job like that for an entire year.
An office run by men, in which men held the managerial positions and repeatedly hired girl after girl like me, with languages, degrees and exceptional computer skills. Why young women? Because they also wanted us to cover reception duties.
During my time at that company, I was asked to drop any writing work if reception had to be covered. Texts I had been working on for days were taken from me so I could order cabs for the managers, translations I excelled at were re-assigned, so I could make my male bosses coffee.
Whenever I asked for a rearranging of my hours, to be changed to a shift in which more content writing was available, or to be allowed to work remotely once a week, the answer was no: “we won’t have you here in case we need someone to cover reception” When I enquired why they wanted me to focus on phone duties instead of getting more content writing done, all I got was shrugged shoulders.
It didn’t matter that I had postgraduate studies, that I wrote and spoke several languages, and that my experience in the field of content writing mounted to more than 10 years. A decade of experience was hardly important. The salary reflected it and the hours I spent at reception being told to “smile more” reminded me every day that they didn’t care.
I did try to speak up -politely- and tried to change things -professionally organising meetings with my manager-, but nothing ever evolved. In an office created by men and controlled by men, the voice of a woman was easily replaced by another. After a year, I left.
This is what happens when you don’t let multilingual content writers do their job
That Canadian company should be deeply embarrassed. Not only are they stuck in the past but, like many, are perpetuating a vision of life that will justify every single word of disrespect their daughters, nieces, sisters and wives will hear, limiting them for the rest of their lives.
To my former bosses and those behind the Canadian company: content writing is sex-less, receptionist duties should be sex-less too. Yes you may have a penis but you also have hands, so make your own coffee and stretch your narrow minded heads to hire people because of what they can do, not what they look like.
fashionlimbo 