Queen Bee

No, not Beyonce.  I saw this segment on the Today Show this morning and it got me to thinking about some of the people I've worked for.  I realized, more often than not, my female bosses haven't been the most supportive of the women that work under them.  I worked at a coffee shop when I was 15, and after taking a few days off to drop my sister off at college, she conveniently "forgot" to put me back on the work schedule...forever.  And then when I was lifeguarding, there was a horrible Miss Trunchbull-esque woman who forced us to swim laps every day, do in-sevice training when it was freezing rain, and scrub the pool deck with pure chlorine.  Ok, so in hindsight, the laps made sense, but pure chlorine?  We reported her to OSHA. 



Miss Trunchbull

I've worked for various other women who have not been supportive of me or the people under them, who have tried to find ways to make me feel inadequate, and who have put on an air that they are better than me.  the article says that 95% of women have felt undermined at some point by another woman in the workplace.  Why is it that women are so competitive with each other?  Is it the only way they feel they can keep their place once they're higher up on the ladder?  Do they feel so threatened that they need to discourage younger women?  I would think you would want to mentor and support someone-- especially another woman-- to follow in your footsteps. 

The way I've learned--and am still learning-- to deal with it is to try to not take things as personally.  It's too exhausting to constantly compare and compete with one another.  I try to remind myself that someday there will be someone under me, and to take these experiences as a chance to learn how not to act in a similar situation.  I have many things I aspire to accomplish... becoming Miss Trunchbull is not one of them.