Women shouldn’t be nice, or let others be nice

27
Aug

Women shouldn’t be nice, or let others be nice

Gals! Time to be obnoxious at work; and what ever you do, don’t let men be pleasant to you when you’re on the job.

I know, I’m promoting a decline of civility but that’s what two recent studies have found.

Women who are disagreeable earn more money than those who just go along. And allowing guys to open the door when you go into work in the morning is actually bad for gals in terms of how competent they’re perceived at work.

Now, don’t think being a bitch is going to get you as much money as it does bitchy men, but hey, we get the short end of the stick at work no matter what we do. A study by the University of Notre Dame lends further credence to the notion that being a good girl gets you little when you’re trying to further your bank account or career but don’t expect as much as your male counterparts.

Timothy Judge, a management professor at Notre Dame who conducted the study believes it’s “your stereotypical double standard.”

“If you’re a disagreeable man, you’re considered a tough negotiator,” he explained. “But, the perception is that if a woman is agreeable, she gets taken advantage of, and if she is disagreeable, she’s considered a control freak or ‘the B-word.’”

But not being a ‘B’ isn’t a good idea either.

“..disagreeable women earn more than agreeable women,” he noted, “but the ‘disagreeableness premium’ is much smaller for women—on average about 20% as large as for men. For example, in one study, disagreeable men made $11,000 more per year, whereas disagreeable women only made $2,000 more per year.”

Hey, even a little bit more is better than less, right?

As for allowing those guys — who are mainly the ones deciding what we gals get paid — to pull a chair out for us in the cafeteria is also as dumb as being delightful on the job; that is, if you want respect.

A series of studies by Julia Becker, a psychologist and researcher at Philipps University in Germany, looked at how women are perceived when they accept such kind acts from men.

The research found that women are “caught in a double-bind. Women who accept help from a man are seen as warmer, but less competent. Women who reject help are seen as more competent, but cold.”

It may all come down to how you want to be perceived at work and the job you want. The studies found that:

If the woman rejected the offer she was rated as more competent, but less warm (compared to a story version in which her reply wasn’t revealed). If she accepted the offer, she was judged as more warm, but less competent. These effects also influenced the participants’ decisions over her job suitability. If she rejected the offer of help she was judged less suitable for a care-home job that depends on emotional skills. If she accepted the offer then she was judged less suitable for a managerial position.

So I guess women should base their bitchiness level on the job they want not the job they have.

What’s your take?

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