💬 Thursday Thread: Have you ever paid a "passion tax"?
And what did you learn from that experience?
On Tuesday, I shared an excerpt from my book, Fired Up, about how women too often pay a “passion tax” personally, professionally and politically. Any time women are passionate about something—their children or an issue or their job—they can be exploited by others who convince them to take on additional responsibilities outside their role, or accept lower or no pay, because “the work is its own reward.”
👉 For today’s Thursday Thread, here’s what I want to know:
Have you ever found yourself paying a “passion tax?”
What did you learn from that experience?
Welcome to the Thursday Threads, a weekly chance for us to connect with one another in the comments. Join me and other readers as we navigate important discussions. And a note: a difference of opinion is always okay, being unkind to one another is not. Let’s keep these conversations respectful.
Join me on my book tour! Get more information and tickets at firedupbook.com
For women ready to stop living on autopilot and playing it small, Fired Up will show you how to shatter your self imposed limitations and unleash your potential so you can finally start living the life you’ve always wanted. Click to order.
Yes. Being a web designer means every school wants a free new site. (And every club, every team, etc.) 🫠
You mean like the entire K-12 education sector?
The sector where a school admin role has 45 bullet points on one job description (versus private sector that has maybe 5-6 bullet points at most, meaning school admin are doing the work of 9 people), the last bullet point being the worst one of all, "other duties as assigned", where we work 12 hour days (open up the building at the crack of dawn and wait until the last child is picked up as the families squeeze free childcare out of us rolling in at 6:30pm when they were supposed to be there by 6pm), we supervise night events, weekend events, summer events, but yet it's still not enough for an American society that is obsessed with treating the female dominated education sector poorly.
Why doesn't society scream out their car windows "I pay your salary" at construction crews on the highway who fail to produce pothole free roads, year after year? Why doesn't their "ineffectiveness" make the evening news, year after year? Why doesn't society ridicule unionized construction workers who continue collecting their handsome checks during a furlough? Why aren't they called "lazy bums" and other ugly language?
Why don't we take away their equipment, make them produce results with just a single hammer and some Elmer's glue and further compromise their morale and their financial wellbeing by disinvesting in their pensions, ensuring their demise into old age? Oh, and why don't we also let armed maniacs open fire onto them and continue to psychologically attack their emotional wellbeing by sensationalizing these attacks for entertainment in movies, TV shows and on social media?
Why do Americans think it's okay to abuse the female dominated education sector?
This is the patriarchy in the flesh.