A few months ago appeared on the web Paye ton Taff, a Tumblr that takes up the principle of the famous Paye ta Schnek on street harassment, but which focuses on sexism at work. The phenomenon, which unfortunately does not spare any sector, is minimized or sometimes not even taken seriously by some men, but one of them had the opportunity to realize the reality. Martin Schneider decided to share on Twitter the barely believable experience he had two years ago, which showed him that "it was impossible for women to be treated with the respect that they deserve in the professional environment l”, in his own words. The man, who works in events, begins by describing the tense exchange he had with a client:“I was sending [him] emails about his CV, and he was just unbearable. Rude, condescending and ignoring my questions […]. I was starting to lose patience when I noticed that, because of the mailbox we had in common, I had signed all the messages with “Nicole” .
And this is where it gets interesting:“ It was towards Nicole that he was being unpleasant, not towards me. Out of curiosity, I sent him back "Hello, it's Martin, I'm taking over from Nicole regarding the project ” “, he writes. The change was radical:the client then showed involvement, thanked the employee for his proposals, responded in a flash and became “a model client”. And he insists on the fact that he had not changed anything in his formulations:“my method and my advice have remained the same. The only difference was that I had a man's name ". Stunning… He then suggested a little experiment to his colleague in question (who had in the meantime told him that this kind of situation happened to him frequently):exchange signatures for 2 weeks. “It was hell. Everything I asked or suggested was questioned. Customers with whom I had had no difficulty before were dismissive. One of them asked me if I was single writes Martin Schneider. And to add:“Nicole had the most productive week of her career. I realized that the reason she worked slower was because she had to convince clients that she was qualified .
The experience was a real shock for the young man:“I was not better than her for this job, I just had this invisible advantage. […] For me, it was overwhelming. For her, it was simply her daily life ". It would be good for some to try a similar experience... Hoping that the story will serve to educate as many people as possible!
