 |
||||
On the Clock Are ‘Mr.’ and ‘Mrs.' too antiquated for the workplace? Plus: are working moms held to a higher standard? 
Employees often get stuck in conversational “black holes” when they are expected to call superiors by their first names, says a Penn State researcher writing in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology. So they resort to calling superiors nothing at all. In a study of 74 master’s degree students, Dr. David Morand, a Penn management professor, found that despite how egalitarian companies try to be today, employees often get flummoxed then addressing superiors, especially their boss’ boss or the CEO of a company. But they don’t want to resort to using “Mr.” or “Mrs.” because that sounds too familiar. “We hypothesized that females, due to socialization patterns and their tendency to rank lower in the organizational chain of command, would be more apt than males to report using name avoidance toward their boss’ boss,” says Morand, who notes that his theory was confirmed. But avoiding using a person’s name is not the solution to all this awkwardness, says Morand, who insists workers muster the courage to use first names or call their superior by their last name as a way of indicating they are not comfortable using first names. Working Moms Held to Higher Standards If you’re a mom with a day job, you’ve got your work cut out for you, says a study published in the Journal of Social Issues. Young adults naturally assume mothers are not as committed to their jobs because they are more wedded to their duties as parents, explains Kathleen Fuegen, a study co-author who teaches psychology at the University of Ohio. “Even today, mothers are still expected to be caregivers first and fathers are still seen as the main breadwinners, and this affects how mothers and fathers are viewed in the workplace.” Two groups of students, 108 from the Midwest and 85 from the East, were asked to evaluate job candidates for an entry-level job as an immigration lawyer, the study says. Applicants were rated on competence, job commitment and availability while on the job. Study participants were also asked if they would consider the candidates for a promotion. While mothers were deemed less committed, fathers were given more slack. Men, including fathers, were held to lower hiring standards than mothers. “Even though gender stereotypes are not as overt as they were 20 to 50 years ago, there are still ways in which they are manifested, and evaluations of mothers at work are one good example,” Fuegen says. |
||||
|
||||
