Oh, gawd, they're still doing this. Of course they are.
In the mid-1980s, I was the first female exempt employee assigned to a weapons testing facility in Nevada. Every Christmas, as a member of management staff, I was hit up for a contribution for a Christmas present for the (all-female) support staff. And every Christmas, I was invited to the support staff Christmas party and got one of the presents. I went to that party every year too, because frankly it was a lot more fun than the management party and I couldn't do my job without the work of all those women, so why not?
But I'd been there two years when the Range manager came up to me and said, "Ashley! We've got a first at TTR! We've hired a female staff member!"
And I said "Say WHAT now?" I was a Member of Administrative Staff, and he knew it. MASs and MTSs were exempt employees, Masters' degrees required. So for him to say he'd just hired the first female staff member was ... several levels of WTF.
And the Range Manager stopped, and looked at me, and the thoughts going through his tiny mind were glowing in neon. But he stammered, "You--you didn't let me finish! I meant to say, 'Staff Member Technical'!"
(The correct term, which the Range Manager sure as holy hell knew, was "Member of Technical Staff." Never "Staff member technical." In more than 31 years of working with tech staff, I never once heard "staff member technical.")
(And speaking of hierarchy: that company would give the Catholic Church a run for it. In fact, I once wrote up an analysis of why tech staff looked down on admin staff in terms of "holy priesthood" and "acolytes" which apparently got rather more circulation than I intended it to...)
no subject
In the mid-1980s, I was the first female exempt employee assigned to a weapons testing facility in Nevada. Every Christmas, as a member of management staff, I was hit up for a contribution for a Christmas present for the (all-female) support staff. And every Christmas, I was invited to the support staff Christmas party and got one of the presents. I went to that party every year too, because frankly it was a lot more fun than the management party and I couldn't do my job without the work of all those women, so why not?
But I'd been there two years when the Range manager came up to me and said, "Ashley! We've got a first at TTR! We've hired a female staff member!"
And I said "Say WHAT now?" I was a Member of Administrative Staff, and he knew it. MASs and MTSs were exempt employees, Masters' degrees required. So for him to say he'd just hired the first female staff member was ... several levels of WTF.
And the Range Manager stopped, and looked at me, and the thoughts going through his tiny mind were glowing in neon. But he stammered, "You--you didn't let me finish! I meant to say, 'Staff Member Technical'!"
(The correct term, which the Range Manager sure as holy hell knew, was "Member of Technical Staff." Never "Staff member technical." In more than 31 years of working with tech staff, I never once heard "staff member technical.")
(And speaking of hierarchy: that company would give the Catholic Church a run for it. In fact, I once wrote up an analysis of why tech staff looked down on admin staff in terms of "holy priesthood" and "acolytes" which apparently got rather more circulation than I intended it to...)