Speaking of sexism

Nowaday, if the ladies are still talking about sexism, I really don't know what to say to them. Even though I am from a culture in which males dominate (In fact, my dad favors me so much more than my sister, but my mom is fair), I am determined to be a non-sexist person because first i know the damage it does to women and second my sister yells at me when my dad favors me overly (:P). However non-sexist I try to be or am, I am not into the feminist furor (again, due to my sister's semi-feminist ferver). Therefore, I can only say that I am neutral. I am not a sexist, but I am not a feminist. However, maybe because of my neutrality and, persumably, my good pesonality, girls take advantage of me. First my sister and more evidently, the females workers yesterday at work.

I work at Friendly's, a low class American restaurant, where the food is dirty but the ice cream is yummy (because I make the ice-cream :) ). Today, I reported to work at 6:30. Then I saw my female coworker talking to other workers, not working. After a minute or so, she left without coming back the whole night again. I thought, "maybe she is just getting off from work." I did not put much thought and started working. There is another female coworker working with me.

While I was working, the female coworker constantly left her post and talked to the chef, the dish-washer, etc. I did not care much since it was raining (no one eats icem cream when it rains) and my manager (male) was helping me sometimes, besides feeling stressed from time to time.

Later on, I realized that one person was not at work (that's why I was stressed). There were originally three people working. Well, as i last counted, there were only two (me and the coworker). I finally knew why around 10 when my manager told me that the third worker wasn't able to work today and the girl who was gone at 6:30 was supposed to work for him.. Ouch, she just left without telling the manager. What is more angering was that she was supposed to close. With her gone, I, who got off the latest, had to close. However, the manager assured me that the female coworker who was working would help me do part of the job.

Speaking is always easy, and actual doing is hard. The girl knew that she neded to help me. But she didn't. I told her to refill the candies and nuts, and she told me, "Well, I have allegy to nuts." I thought "if you do, why are you working at icecream stand." I knew it was obviously a lie, but i sucked it up because the manager, who was nearby, did not say much. I told her to wipe the stand, which she did, for 5 seconds. Then she yelled, "The manager told me I could leave now." She then clocked out, at 10:45, when she was supposed to have stayed till 11:00.

The manager heard all that, and he did not approve that she leave early. Well, fortunately for me, he would share the work with me. And I did get to leave by 11:30.

As I am blogging this, my anger has abated. Friendly's is a dirty place, and there is no question about it. The girls, with their polished nails and shinny hairdo, of course do not want to do the cleaning when they barely want to do the ice-cream making. But hey, you are a worker here. so get to work. If you are getting paid, do something, at least work. I can't accept the behavior of the worker that left when she found out she had to close. She was covering for someone, and she could not suddenly leave. I know she likes to be clean, well, me too.... I am sure if she just told me, I could do some of the cleaning for her. She didn't, and she left the responsbility to me when the shop was extremely busy yesterday night (Friday is always busy)

The second worker was also so wrong. Sometimes, she left her station and left me completely by myself, with icecream to make. She had worked there for a while, so she knew all the rules at Friendly's and liked to chatter with others and got by the rules. Come on, I wanted to just chatter and make money at the same time too. And she did not do her share of work while the manager was watching her.

The ultimate problem is that all of the managers, except the one who was there last night, are females. And most of the workers there (at least for the ice cream section) are also females, social and talkative. Eventually, what happens is that they bullshit their way out of everything. They chatter and cajole the mangers when they are supposed to be working. Therefore, they gain favors, come late and leave early as they please, and leave the dirty work to the guys.....

In my opinion, they can't just say they are girls and they need to be clean and get out of every work. The place is dirty. and as a worker, suck that up. They got away because I did all the work without much complaint, since they still help me from time to time. However, tonight, the manager, who happens to be male, saw all this and decided to punish both of them. For the one who left without any notice, cleaning for tonight is her job.... for the other one, the manager will report her honestly. Gosh, I feel so much better after all those unfair working. :D