The Mythmaker: A Critical Analysis of Penelope Trunk's Article "The Five Biggest Workplace Myths"

I was preparing my morning coffee and reviewing the headlines on Yahoo! just the other day when I came across an article by Penelope Trunk entitled The Five Biggest Workplace Myths. I love a good myth busting article because I have an almost unnatural aversion to popularly circulated myths. Everything from "eating a poppy seed bagel will cause a false positive on a drug test" to "service members who get severe sunburn can be charged with destruction of government property" irks me to no end and I love to see people approach these subjects with reason, rather than the easier approach of perpetuating these myths.

When I read the article, however, I was mortified that this passed muster and was published for all to see. Specifically, I was concerned by who might be affected by such an article that sets out to debunks myths, but serves only to start new ones in their place.

Myth 1
Promotions are good

Here, Penelope Trunk tackles the tradition of desiring a promotion, arguing that most people who are good at their job do not excel as leaders. Coupled with the fact that the average increase in salary is about 4%, there is little reason to hope for a promotion and one would be better served pursuing continued training instead.

I will be the first to admit that not everybody is suited for leadership. Some of the finest employees turn out to be some of the worst leaders when placed in that role. However, this argument does not work as a blanket statement. For starters, many companies are adopting "Team Leader" models which place a higher emphasis on technical expertise than nitty gritty management tasks. In such a model, a company might take a group of, let's say, graphic designers. Of this group, the most skilled graphic designer is taken and placed in a senior position and is overall in charge of directing a project, but lacks some of the management responsibilities that typically fell upon the front line supervisor such as payroll, time off requests and the like. Under such a model, expertise in one's field is essential to success in the promoted position and enables one to pick up and develop other helpful skills as well.

Myth 2
Sexual Harassment laws protect you.

Here the argument is that reporting sexual harassment will most likely result in your own termination as retaliation. While Penelope Trunk does address the darker side of corporate life, namely, not everyone plays by the rules. It is socially irresponsible to make the claim that reporting sexual harassment will result in your own termination and one would be better served in simply avoiding the harasser. First of all, distinctions must be made. If the harasser is a co-worker, then the first step is to first talk to the harasser. If this should fail, one ought go to the immediate supervisor. Supervisors have a rough life full of deadlines, quotas, employee complaints, call offs and endless swarms of vacation requests. Top that off with the possibility of losing your job because you failed to properly handle a sexual harassment claim and you see that the supervisor is often in a tough spot. I have never known a supervisor who was willing to completely overlook an incident of sexual harassment, however, I have known many whose handling of the situation may seem like a complete write-off of the whole situation. If the immediate supervisor fails to act, then go one up in your company chain-of-command. The words "Sexual Harassment" send a chill up most people's spines, particularly those who work in management. Improper handling can be a career killer. Taking a situation with a co-worker through your direct chain-of-command is the quickest and easiest way to resolve the matter.

The biggest mistake that employees make at this point is going directly to Human Resources to make their complaint. Human Resources is outside your normal management chain. When dealing with any unpleasant situation, the objective should be to resolve the matter at the lowest level possible. By going to Human Resources, the complaint circumvents your immediate supervisor and goes right to your Department Manager via the HR office. The result is that those supervisors who were cut out of the process get hammered by their boss for not handling a situation that was not even brought to them. This is sure to ruffle some feathers and stir some anger.

If the harasser is a supervisor the same rules as above apply. Step one is to confront the harasser, this need not involve threats. Simply telling the person you are uncomfortable with their words or actions should be enough. What you perceive as sexual harassment may be, in the mind of your harasser, harmless fun or a veiled expression of physical attraction. Seeing that their actions are unwanted, many will stop. If your supervisor fails to stop, the next step is your supervisor's immediate supervisor or manager. If I am running a department and one of my supervisors is sexually harassing an employee, I would much prefer I hear about it from the employee than from Human Resources.

It is very important to note that one should not threaten with physical or legal force. Keep your cool and remain a professional. If the situation cannot be resolved consider requesting a transfer or seeking alternate employment. If you do take your case to Human Resources and in the end, you are terminated, this by no means you are "unemployable" as Penelope Trunk states. Instead, you join the millions of Americans who lose their jobs for a variety of reasons. By law your company cannot release any information to prospective employers except to verify your position and dates of employment.

Myth 3
Your first job out of college matters a lot.

This particular myth just ties all of the confusion together for me. This myth includes the claim that most people have 8 jobs before they turn 30 and that is OK. With the average college graduate leaving school at 22 (with a Bachelors Degree), this means that "most people" have an average of one job per year until they are 30. Unless all of these jobs contribute to increasing one's skill set, I would say this results in 8 years of wasted time. If I am hiring for a company and have a 30 year old come in with 8 previous employers, in 8 different fields, where they worked 8 very different jobs, I see no motivation to hire this person. College is a great experience, but it is by no means High School. When going into college one should be keeping in mind what exactly they want to be doing when they graduate and, courtesy of internships and work-study programs, should be discerning whether their professional goals mesh well with their personalities. Eight different jobs over an eight year span fails to show any form of stability. While the days of working for one company your whole life are over, that doesn't mean that companies would prefer to hire employees they could not expect to stay longer than 9 months to 1 year.

Additionally, if one takes 8 years to "find themselves" then you are damning yourself to 8 years of entry level positions at entry level wages.

Alternatively, one could listen to Penelope Trunk and become a sexually harassed entry level employee with a scattered job history.