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Subject: 
Re: Is this sexism?
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Sat, 30 Jun 2001 07:17:38 GMT
Viewed: 
510 times
  
Daniel Jassim wrote:

What message do we send by rewarding people who have kids on the job, while punishing those who choose not to?  That you're less than others
for not having kids?

I see what you are saying but just because you see it as punishment doesn't
mean everyone else does or should. I am wondering if job and career
satisfaction may have something to do with it. Just curious, are you happy
with your job?

Extremely, or I wouldn't be there.  I could take a higher paying job elsewhere, but I LIKE my job, and that is very important to me.

You don't find very many people that stick in Tech Support for 5 years before burning out.

Whether you like the job or not, I can't see how you CAN'T see it as punishment to give PFT to parents and not to single people.  I just can't
understandd it - try to convince me that it's not a punishement to deny a benefit to others.



If you define pregnancy as a physical ailment then you create a negative
paradigm of something that is completely POSITIVE. Pregnancy is a natural
and normal part of the human life-cycle. It is not an ailment and should not
be referred to as such. As a society, I think our morals on the matter need
fixing otherwise good, hard-working families will suffer and struggle when
they really don't need to. By extending a hand we recoupe the cost in
loyalty and esteem. Isn't that an important, almost intangible ingredient in
any successful organization?

Sure.  But if you don't apply the PTO/PFT to people not having kids, you are damaging loyalty and esteem for those who choose NOT to have
kids.
You're making it seem like it's bad to NOT have kids.  Prove to me otherwise by your statements above.

Okay, then this could be more of an issue of merit pay and companies being
responsive to rewarding employees with outstanding performance (not for just
showing up). If that's the case, it seems like a decent idea and I'm very
much for it. However, I worry about the fairness, or lack thereof, in
recognizing your hard workers because there's always favoritism and
brown-nosing. And what if the supervisor is not observant or a real jerk or
feels threatened by confident, "over-achievers"? I've seen a lot of that. If
you work hard and do a great job, there's always someone who resents you for
it because it makes them "look bad." It's a double whammy if this happens to
be your boss.

I know population growth is a
concern of yours, Tom, so perhaps that contributes to a negative association
with pregnancy?

No.  I have no problem with responsible procreation (I do, however, think that people that spit out kids left and right need a stern talking
to).

I see what you're saying, I also don't think it's responsible to have more
kids than you can properly support as parents. It's seems like it's a bigger
problem of lack of education and guidance on the part of parents and elders.
Kind of a vicious cycle I think.

Why should those that choose NOT to procreate be looked down on?  Your stance seems to be that they should (prove otherwise by your
statements above).

Maybe you are inferring too much, Tom, unless you are suggesting looking up
to those whose who RESPONSIBLY chose parenthood equates looking down on
those who don't have kids at all. So I'll just say here that Dan Jassim
doesn't look down on people who don't procreate-- this statement is my proof.

You're not a woman - ask a woman who has bad PMS if she thinks it serves a positive purpose.  In fact, ask her while she's under the effects
(I have had the misfortune of "discussing" it then - trust me, you DON'T want to).  You'd better be prepared to run FAST.

Well, I am married and we've been together for 11 years and I know it gets
uncomfortable for my wife. But you and I know both know the facts of biology
and how that irritability serves the positive purpose of helping a woman
avoid getting pregnant toward the end of her cycle (unless there are guys
out there who really enjoy a cranky lover). There are so many risks to
having an abnormal baby from a stale egg so nature says "back off."

But here's something interesting: My wife used to use those medications many
years ago but, after learning about the harm these medication do to other
bodily organs, she chose to avoid them outright. By doing so, she helped
build a natural tolerance to the discomfort. It seems that good health
(physical and psychological), fitness and diet may have something to do with
mananging PMS better.

In some cases, yes, in some, no.  If we COULD produce a Miracle Drug that got rid of the bad effects without harm (if you read the entire
thread, you'd see we ARE talking about a Miracle Drug, no side effects from the drug), are you saying we shouldn't?  Seems so.   Better not
say that to a group of women unless you have several fast exits planned out.

I think it's wishful thinking to believe in the idea of a "miracle drug."
There are always side effects which reveal themselves immediately or over
time. We are a pill popping culture. I think we are too quick to treat
nearly everything with drugs. That has become the prevailing paradigm: Got a
headache, take a pill. Got no energy, take a pill. Got bad farts, take a
pill. Can't get it up, take a pill.

That I agree with.  I generally avoid drugs, but it's hard to sometimes, knowing that how crappy I feel can be fixed with a few Motrin.


So of course it seems rational to find a "miracle drug" to treat our
so-called "ailments" (and this is the same thread where pregnancy was
considered an ailment). The mere fact that we have defined and labled
something as PMS immediately creates the false perception that it is an
unnatural, unnecessary condition that requires treatment with drugs. We
forget that nature has built these things our bodies for good reason, and
built in ways to manage it.

Provided that we are healthy, we have more than adequete means of naturally
managing such difficulties, and this includes the foods we eat (chicken
soup, orange juice, etc.). But we take so many drugs for this and that and
we end up losing touch with our bodies. The fact is that we can naturally
heal ourselves over lots of things for which we take pills-- pills that
cause our body's natural mechanisms to shut down and increase dependence on
the man-made chemical. That's my perspective so perhaps that reveals a
little more of what I mean by flexibility and understanding with women's needs.

Dan

--
Tom Stangl
***http://www.vfaq.com/
***DSM Visual FAQ home
***http://ba.dsm.org/
***SF Bay Area DSMs



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Is this sexism?
 
(...) Wow those are long lines. OK, Tom. I personally have been in jobs that I hated and jobs that I liked. This may be quibbling with words but I don't see benefits or the lack of them as "punishment". Punishment is typically something meted out to (...) (23 years ago, 30-Jun-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
  Re: Is this sexism?
 
(...) I guess we just have different views on this subject, that's all. But I don't think "punishment" is the appropriate word here and neither is "reward." Either way, so long as we agree that there are differing views to this subject then it makes (...) (23 years ago, 30-Jun-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Is this sexism?
 
(...) I understood your point perfectly the first time. My concern is the attitude about staying pregnant. I think if a woman has to face loss of pay and possible loss of her job if she chooses to have a child then our society has some serious moral (...) (23 years ago, 30-Jun-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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