silliness

Today I recieved a letter in the mail, quite an interesting letter. It seems I am to recieve $141.63 from Walgreens, where I worked over 4 years ago as an assistant manager. You must know, reader, that I only worked there nine months. The letter was in regards to my part of a settlement to females who worked in management positions from 2004 to 2009. Apparently, Walgreens was promoting male managers faster, and paying them more. They are putting out 17 million dollars to settle the suit- which I guess indicates that there was good evidence against the company.

I just started laughing reading the letter. I can tell you absolutely that this lawsuit is entirely believable and deserved. While a few hundred dollars is silly, and I don't care if I get it or not, thinking about working at retail management (when I was 19) in a place like Walgreens just makes shiver. The male managers WERE promoted faster, for several reasons. First, the most successful (profit-wise) Walgreens stores (at least at the time, in Memphis) are in the rougher neighborhoods. I thank God I wasn't shot working for the short time I did, because my store was held up 3 times when I was there, and shots fired each time. The store was burglarized on a grand scale 4 times, at night. The clientele and neighborhood was often less than friendly...I was encouraged to enter and exit the store with another employee only. Male managers are more of a threat, and therefore leave less of a vunerablity for such stores. Second reason male managers were more favored: they were more willing to give up their whole life for a high salary. Most of the managers I knew were alcoholics, and that was the least of their problems. I am not saying all of them, but most. Women, I suppose, aren't as likely to work nonstop at something like that, disregarding the other aspects of their life, like health and family.

I don't have to do anything to recieve a settlement. I don't have to make any statement, just having worked there as a female in management guarantees I recieve a settlement. I wouldn't make a statement if that was required, because honestly I was lucky and the job paid exceedingly more than a 19 year old just starting college should be making. My store manager was a good old guy, better than a lot of them, but he was still a mess. He told me when I quit (to stay home with my first baby which I had just found out I was having) that I was making the biggest mistake of my life. The biggest mistake of my life was quitting college so I could make lots of money at a job I didn't qualify for and have no idea how I got in the first place. He said what he did because I was the youngest female employee in the district, and he had pushed to get me hired and pushed me up for promotion. My pregnancy was unexpected and an annoyance. I endured many "you're ruinging your life" talks my two weeks notice before I quit. I honestly think he thought managing a store that had high profits was a great life accomplishment. He was one of the only managers I met with one wife (not divorced), but he was an alcoholic and had bad heart problems from the stress. Retail management is a nightmare and I am glad (no matter the pay) that I did not take that route in my life.

Go to your local pharmacist. Even if I do have some darn nice coffee mugs from the 1,000th store opening.