04.27.09
I Cannot Believe You Asked Me That
I have heard you speak on several occasions and you never seem to be embarrassed regardless of the topic. You cannot be that cool. Tell us something that has embarrassed you.
Unbelievable
Dear Unbelieving,
A number of years ago, I was at a corporate seminar on political correctness and the glass ceiling. One man and one women were selected for an exercise. The winner of which would get a major promotion. They had a line of 25 middle-aged, overweight men bending over and dropping their pants to present their rumps for kissing. The winner was the one who got furthest down the line without quitting. At this point the woman quickly organized a committee to talk about the hindrances of the glass ceiling and the obstacles placed in their way. Meanwhile the man is half way down the line, kissing every cheek and slipping his business card in every crack. Now I do not know if I was embarrassed or just full of testosterone laden pride but I was certainly red faced. A few years later a survey showed that all of the major promotions went to men. The conclusion was that discrimination prevented women from climbing the corporate ladder. I blame this whole glass-ceiling problem on the practice of door holding. Women are used to having doors held open, they get served first at restaurants, they get to leave elevators first. It’s hard to move from that mind-set to kissing a huge line of old asses to get the promotion. By contrast, men are holding the doors and getting served last. Its not a big step then to drop and pucker, so men are more conditioned for managerial success.
On second thought I may have been suffering from sunburn from spending to much time on the golf course sucking up to the boss.
