HR Advice

[dfrecore]

I think we just might have different experiences and that's totally ok.     I've seen so much sexist behavior towards female sales reps and I have yet to see anyone I have worked with over the past 15 years actually cry discrimination.   I've seen more women lose power within an organization because they weren't "playing ball" with the people propositioning them.  I've seen women quit high-paying jobs and change fields out of desperation because there was nowhere to run and no one to tell about the bad situation.

So I don't feel like crying discrimination would be inaccurate.   But I really haven't seen anyone do it and I've also never seen any repercussions for these sleazeball guys.   I'm just glad that there are fewer and fewer of them, but they definitely still exist. I'm not sure what a woman "should" do in some of these situations because running to HR would be career-ending, and giving in to pressure would be morally devastating.  

I didn't really want to turn this thread into a #metoo sort of thing.   That's totally not where I'm going.  I'm just saying that in my experience, saleswomen who travel are a target for both sleazeballs within the company and sleazeball clients.  I even think that the company often knows.  I mean why is it that there are a larger than average number of attractive women in sales?   It's kind of disgusting when you think about it.  

So again, this is why I have never ever played the female card.  I have fought my way to the position I'm in now and proud of it. But from the horrible situations I have seen, I can't fault anyone for doing it.  But in reality, the vast majority women in my field just suck it up or quit.

I was mostly responding to the earlier post where the person was basically saying there was discrimination going on, and that you should play the card.  I was saying that it's a bad card to play, in a whole hand of bad cards.

I agree that there's almost no win in the situation.  You either deal with it, or you leave.  There just aren't any good options other than that.  The best you can hope for is to work for a good company that understands, and has some things in place to help you cope with it (i.e. pairing you with a male support person who can "protect" you with his presence if necessary).  Yes, it sucks that it needs to be that way.  I totally agree.  I just don't know that you can do anything except to keep doing what you're doing.