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 For some of us, the obstacles we face at work are not so lofty as a crystalline glass ceiling. We prowl around hunched over, bonking our heads on a daily basis on the spider ridden floor joists in a glass crawl space. Anyone who has ever been discriminated against can recognize the pattern of the person in power making up extra rules that are only intended to keep you from getting what you deserve.
My mother was told in the 70s that she could not be promoted because she couldn’t attend the Jaycee’s club, which at the time, did not even allow women to join. She took her story to the State of Maryland. Other women took the Jaycee’s club to court, and now that particular excuse is no longer viable. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t people trying to make up new rules all the time that do not actually follow corporate policies, or even the laws of our nation. Just this week, Pizza Hut settled a suit where one of their restaurants had refused to serve a black family after 9 PM, even though they had called in their order ahead of time! Breaking, changing, or enforcing the rules is sometimes the only way to break through. This week’s Llighthearted LlamaLlink™, is the comedy video Working Girl in which Melanie Griffith plays Tess, a smart secretary who is not taken seriously at work. Her male colleagues try to humiliate her by setting her up as a “date” when she thinks she is attending a business meeting. She requests a transfer to a new secretarial job. Tess is relieved to be assigned to a new female boss, Catherine (Sigourney Weaver) who promises to help Tess advance. Tess believes she has finally found the champion and mentor she has long been waiting for. When Tess discovers that Catherine is actually stealing her ideas and representing them as her own, Tess takes matters into her own hands. She takes a big risk to show that she can propel her own business idea forward while Catherine is out with a skiing injury. The real fun of this movie then takes off on a Cinderella pumpkin ride into the stratosphere of mergers and acquisitions. One of the strengths of this movie is in the way that Tess finds her way through all the conflicting messages she gets from her “support” network. The nature of change is very uncomfortable. As Tess affects the balance of power in her life to build her future, she faces a lot of opposition from surprising places. Even her best friends warn her that she is ruining her life. To succeed, Tess discards what doesn’t work for her, including a poofy hair-do, and a cheating self centered boyfriend. By letting go of the saboteurs, Tess allows herself the room she needs to grow into the life she wants. The dramatic tension in this movie is not in the fairy tale plot, but in the prickly moments with well-meaning friends. We know that in our day to day lives, if we aren’t steadfast in our endeavors, we might take that bad advice to “act sensibly”, and miss the gold ring! Tess follows her instincts, and not only lands the deal, but Harrison Ford! Working Girl has a great sound track that fills the role of an unseen fairy god mother humming along in the background. If you need a little hope as you nurse the bruise on your forehead from trying to break through that glass ceiling, make some pop corn, put on your jammies, and put some of the stuffing that got knocked out of you back where it belongs. Then go take a whack at that ceiling again. |
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