If you or someone you know is a woman or a visible minority, you might be familiar with a term that only goes by one name: The Glass Ceiling. Having a Fear of the Glass Ceiling can also inhabit the lives of men, but that’s less common due to a little something called a double-standard. It’s a Fear that pushes people to an extreme, and then ultimately comes to an abrupt halt because society says so.
Imprisoned by a Fear of the Glass Ceiling
Fear of the Glass Ceiling refers to a metaphorical barrier in the workplace that prevents women and minorities from achieving a higher role in a company despite their overwhelming qualifications. No matter how qualified they might be, the promotion will inevitably go to a white male that shows up late, has poor manners, and always has a stain on his clothing in a really uncomfortable spot. I mean, you want to point it out to the guy because he has an important meeting that he’s probably not aware of, but it’s like asking a woman if she’s pregnant when she really just had a big breakfast. Not to mention the guy is 18 and never actually graduated from high school. You don’t want to fill his head with the complexities of being an adult. Besides, his most recent promotion means he is now your boss.
Let’s paint a picture with words: You are a young, ambitious female who just graduated from a prestigious program from an equally prestigious school. You graduated top of your class with a 4.1 GPA (not bad), your professors recommended you to every connection in the industry they had, you were the valedictorian of your entire college/university, and you recently tried sun-dried tomatoes for the first time since you were younger and thought it was okay. Your qualifications are alarmingly strong and any CEO would be fortunate to have your expertise. So you start working night shifts as the janitor for a major corporation that will go unnamed for the sake of privacy reasons. You know that it’s just the start; you will move up the corporate ladder and eventually have a job that you can tell your friends about. That was 40 years ago. Since then, the only promotion you received was a company phone. It was a BlackBerry.
Breaking Through Your Fear of the Glass Ceiling
This Fear can have several critical impacts on someone’s life. For example: they might Fear going to work at all. Or they might Fear that by speaking up they will lose their parking spot right next to the elevator. I mean, that’s pretty sweet. Granted, the elevator has been out of service since the late 90’s, but still. You might feel trapped or terrified that your life is falling apart or that you will never meet the reasonable expectations you set for yourself. You might spend every waking moment at work sweating while you sit in your computer chair. Your hands trembling as you slowly take a sip from your coffee. You look around the office nervously and see that you’re completely alone because the entire staff got the memo that it was a day off work. Everyone except for you.
It is an unfortunate situation, but it is one that we still face today. It’s also one of the leading causes of stress in the workplace. Hopefully there was enough sarcasm in this post to open the eyes of at least one person out there to try to make a change.
