Employee Decries Company For Calling “Woman Only” Meeting And Telling Them They’re Not Ambitious Enough

It’s never been easy being a working mother and yes, women have taken on a lot of the load for many years!

And though there was a lot of bad about the pandemic, a lot of women really enjoyed the working-from-home model because it offered a much better work-life balance.

However, more and more offices are forcing workers back in and some are stating that it’s full-time in or you just don’t fit!

@swasey shared a video on TikTok of her experience when a room full of female employees at her company were brought in and told they needed to return to work.

@swasey said: “I had to attend a mandatory company meeting last week. And I have never been more rageful after a meeting than after this one. It was women only. In person. Mandatory. I work for a consulting company that supports multiple companies across the world. There was supposedly four agenda points for this meeting. But we only ever talked about one. So for this hour long meeting, The entire meeting was about being in the office five days a week, eight hour days.”

And then the company says something completely expected…

“And it begins with Covid is over. So, we’re all good now. The word ambitious was overused to a ridiculous degree. As women, if we are ambitious, we will be in the office. If we grow our relationships in the office, there will be better notice for promotion opportunities.”

Yikes.

She continued: “The woman leading the meeting continued with these 50 sayings about ambition…and then asked for comments. Of course nobody spoke up because we were not feeling the same vibes. So, then she began to call on people specifically by name, that she had recognized and seen in the office frequently.”

This is definitely weird…

She added more: “Anyone who spoke up about their specific circumstance, not being more productive or being more productive at home, was told to have more ambition. And that intention is important. Not to mention, at least a quarter of us, myself included, originally were told we did not need a badge to get to the office because we don’t work from that office, we learn work from the client location that we’re assigned to.”

So why only women?

The boss explained, “I specifically called out, it’s a global concern. Or is this a message that’s being presented to women for some specific reason. She said that it’s everybody but she likes to have quarterly women meetings.”

Hmmm… that doesn’t really pass the smell test, does it?

And now comes the really bad part… “She said women seek ambition until they have a family and then they stop seeking ambition. And jobs become less important. So, we need to ensure women are in the office to keep their ambition up and keep growing their careers.”

Ouch.

She concluded, “So not considering for a minute that it’s really difficult to maintain ambition and continue your career when you’re required to be in the office five days a week full-time for jobs that can be very easily – and have been for the last three to four years – done as work from home where people can also take care of their children, get them to school and continue working…”

Yah, this boss doesn’t sound like she was getting this point.

Watch the full video here for more information on this take:

@swasey

I get the “We have buildings we pay for, so get back in the office” convo. This was not that. This was an hour of professional women being talked down to. #povwomeninit #misogynyintheworkplace #misogynymonday

♬ Cinderella Snapped – Jax

Here’s people’s view on the back to the office order for women!

Ouch – so they need the skills not the wfhers!

Run as fast as you can, some folk think.

Aaaaah, what is WRONG with some managers – work + work-life balance = better worker!

Why can’t companies just accept that some people work better from home?

Rolling all of that back just seems pointless.

Ugh!

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.