Guy swaps email signatures with female co-worker, realises sexism is alive & well in the workplace
Writer Martin Schneider from Philadelphia was left shocked and confused when he started getting “rude and dismissive” responses to his emails. It wasn't until several emails later that he realised he had been signing his emails with co-worker Nicole Pieri's name instead, due to their shared inbox.
Martin had previously thought Nicole had been taking longer with clients due to her having less experience than him, but he quickly changed his views after being treated completely differently by clients when they thought he was female. He found the client was not helpful at all and everything Martin asked for was questioned.
After Martin informed the rude client that he wasn't Nicole, the client quickly changed his attitude and became more helpful. Following the incident, Martin decided to switch email signatures with Nicole for two weeks to see if he noticed a pattern in the sexism. Martin said that life was "utter hell" for those two weeks and wrote on twitter:
Everything I asked or suggested was questioned. Clients I could do in my sleep were condescending. One asked if I was single.
I wasn’t any better at the job than she was, I just had this invisible advantage.
For me, this was shocking. For her, she was USED to it. She just figured it was part of her job.
I mean, she knew she was being treated different for being a woman, she’s not dumb. She just took it in stride.
On the flip side, Nicole said that those two weeks signing off as man was “the most productive" stint of her career. She wrote:
I had one of the easiest weeks of my professional life. He… didn’t.
After their little experiment, Martin and Nicole presented their findings to their boss but he didn't believe them. He said that "there are a thousand reasons why the clients could have reacted differently that way. It could be the work, the performance… you have no way of knowing".
Hmm, sounds like another sexiest trying to sweep the issues under the rug to me. Since the experiment, Nicole has since quit her job and started her own business as a freelance writer. Good for her! It's just nuts to think that sexism is still rife in this day and age.
