General Discussion

Hey MMORPG,

I'm only 17 and i work Part time at Walmart. I switched a shift of mine (i work in foods) with a girl who works in another department. My manager told me i can't do that because "girls cant lift" (you generally need to stock milk/eggs)

I thought of this as sexist and innapropriate.

What does MMORPG think? and should i do anything about it?

I'm not too sure about this one. But if a requirement of a job is to be able to do heavy lifting, and said person can't lift anything heavy then no, I don't think it's sexist or inappropriate.

And when you say "Should I do anything about it?"... what would you do?

Originally posted by Slythe

I'm not too sure about this one. But if a requirement of a job is to be able to do heavy lifting, and said person can't lift anything heavy then no, I don't think it's sexist or inappropriate.

And when you say "Should I do anything about it?"... what would you do?

Well maybe i meant more "Say" then "do".

I find the remark itself ("girls can't lift") a sweeping generalisation not benefitting either men or women. However, if per an individual basis the girl really had some sort of problem that might have made her less able to lift heavy weights, sure. But letting you do work you don't like on the generalisations that 'girls can't lift' (leaving the matter of it being an advantage or disadvantage to her aside), I find to be a tad on the sexist side, yes.

Mind, if I find many things sexist so you maybe shouldn't see me as objective. News statements like "x killed, among which y women" in the most random situations, annoy me to an enormous extend. Both because it depicts women as more incapable of defending themselves (even while their job is, say, police or military), but also because it depicts men's lives as less valuable.

I think they should have atleast tested to make sure.  It is sexist and a possible liability that most employers don't want to deal with.  However, in my experience girls typically have not been able to lift what needs to be lifted in a wharehouse setting.  Which is a hindarance to the working environment.  Also men naturally are stronger then women.

Well first off...is it some lightweight teenage girl that you are switching with? Does your job require lifting full milk crates that wiegh in at 40-50 pounds? Not to be sexist myself but from years of RL experience women can't generally do the same lifting work as men. Not unless they train to do so on a regular basis. Possibly the manager knows that she can't do the job reqired so he simply stated it. Just because there are some strenious jobs out there that a woman may find it difficult, moreso than a man, to do...doesn't make it sexist...just the way men n woman were designed.

This reminds me of physical training tests for my command in the Navy. The women would have to do about half the push-ups , sit-ups and running of the men. They get paid the same mind you, but dont do shit as far as I can tell. I got stuck on a 12 hour post one time because the girl that was to relieve me was on the rag. I know the same things happen in the civilian world; women allways crying for equality but they dont want to do the hard work. "This does not apply to all women, but I see it far to much."

Well I know that a form I filled out asked if I could do heavy-lifting, so that may be how the manager knew without having to ask. It is a terrible idea to have women do consistent heavy-lifting, especially young women, for a variety of reasons like doing permanent damage to our backs.

Originally posted by Balter

Hey MMORPG,

I'm only 17 and i work Part time at Walmart. I switched a shift of mine (i work in foods) with a girl who works in another department. My manager told me i can't do that because "girls cant lift" (you generally need to stock milk/eggs)

I thought of this as sexist and innapropriate.

What does MMORPG think? and should i do anything about it?

I think he's right. That's not sexist, that's smart management. Just like I wouldn't put a male in customer service. Women are more understanding to customer needs and friendly. Just the way it is. There is nothing wrong with that.

I worked a crappy part-time job last year, I was the only male. I don't mind helping people at all but I felt that I was taken advantage of by female employees. I mean, some of the things they wanted me to lift or carry was the weight of a gallon of milk. Surely they buy milk, do they ask for help with that too?