helpdesk

CallLoggerSupreme

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I’m a first line IT tech. I’m leaving next week and I won’t be returning to IT as a career. My confidence has been stolen from me by the men that surround me with their ‘I’m alright Jack’ mentality and lack of empathy – ‘well I don’t experience it so it doesn’t happen’ – and the huge cognitive dissonance they go through when confronted with such problems. I have also recently discovered that I am paid an entire pay-band less than the national average and two to thee bands less than my male colleagues. I’ve been introduced as ‘the receptionist’, ‘the girl on the phone’, been told that my job is ‘menial’, that I ‘just log calls and take messages’. I have been left out of meetings. My department director will leave the room if I or my one female colleague (who is permanently stressed out… and is 2nd line tech paid a band less than other 2nd line techs!!) is in and will come in and out until a male appears so he can speak to them… and then they ask me and relay my advice back to him! Myself and my one female colleague have been forced to take entry level IT qualifications – no male staff member has – despite already having equivalent certs. I was the first person in the whole department to become ITIL qualified (all my male colleagues failed the exam) yet a male in the office was chosen to research and administer our new help-desk. I am regularly praised by our end-users (via a ‘click if you’re happy’ system in email that produces reports) for my efficiency and technical ability… but my male colleagues are publicly praised in staff meetings for minor things and I am never mentioned.(Well, most end-users apart from some men who insist on speaking to a male and this is never challenged). I know if I suddenly grew a penis everything would change for me here. A temp came in to cover a leaver – male – and he has been offered training, been taken to lunch etc. I’m so done with this nightmare. They just don’t get it.

Sarah

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Two recent examples of Every Day Sexism: I walk into Next and ask where the suits are (OK, so not everyone has to wear suits to work nowadays, but some of use do) and they direct me to the men’s department! Can understand why the young, female shop assistant is confused as the men’s department has 20 different suits and the women’s only 2. But honestly, do I look like a man? Or is the assumption that I would only be buying a suit for a man? And, Next, please stock more women’s suits – you used to have loads. Secondly, I ring a company about managed ‘executive’ accommodation when working away from home. The guy on the phone says that that they are all men in the building, except one woman, who is the family nanny. When I say I work in IT He says “Do you work on the helpdesk?” “No,” I tell him, “I work as a senior analyst programmer.” OK, so only one out of 10 IT workers are women, and that’s bad enough, but the assumption seems to be that the women who do work in IT must of course work on the Helpdesk. He can stick his executive accommodation.