Story 337

I worked at Wells Fargo for 27 years. I left much earlier than planned, because I could no longer tolerate being overworked, under-recognized, and treated as the woman who could carry everything while our only male team member was valued above everyone else, even though his contribution was laughable.

I saved Wells Fargo more than $9 million from unique cost-saving projects I created myself basically out of thin air and some mad Excel skills. I worked on this during slow times – on top of my assigned work. For that, I received piddly annual bonus, no promotion, and eventually a modest trip award that my manager later told me she had to fight three years to get approved (after every man in our department had already gone).

Meanwhile, the one man in our department had the higher title, better pay, the full-time work-from-home arrangement, the drastically lighter workload which allowed him time to build his resume, and gain a promotion apparently unavailable to the female employees.

That is what gender discrimination looked like in my department.

He was recognized and promoted. I was ignored, underrecognized, and handed more work. And then more. And more.

The $9 million matters because it was not a small contribution. I estimate that my cost savings covered the salaries of my entire department for about a DECADE. I was not only working basically for FREE, but I was carrying the entire department on my back. But when I asked for a promotion, they literally laughed at me.

Our department had five people: four women and one man. The work was nowhere close to evenly distributed. The guy had approximately 5% of the work. I handled about 45% by choice because I was experienced, efficient, and good at the job. The remaining 50% was split among the other three women.

Then one of the women began experiencing a serious mental health crisis. Instead of supporting her, Wells Fargo callously eliminated her position and then dumped her entire workload on me. Now I had 60% of the department workload. There was no question of handing anything off to the Golden Boy.

His actual assigned work probably took fewer than 10 hours per month. Meanwhile, I was managing millions of dollars in spend and working frantically through every accounting cycle.

The contrast was impossible to ignore.

He had the higher title, pay, and recognition. I had the heavier workload.

He had full-time work-from-home. I had a cubicle I was required to sit in 4 days per week, even on days when my work was done by 9 AM.

He had time to pursue a Black Belt Six Sigma certification while I was covering everyone’s salary with my “side projects”.

I have often wondered what that $9 million would have been worth if I had been a VP or senior manager who delivered $9 million in savings. That would have received a serious executive bonus. Plus, a lot of recognition and encouragement.

Then came the breaking point.

Our group was assigned a new responsibility involving international accounts. The work was tedious, complex, and difficult because of the currency conversions. My supervisor told me he was assigning it to me – on top of my regular work, on top of my co-worker’s workload, and on top of my “side projects”.

At that point, I was doing more work than anyone had ever done in the history of the Department, and I was balancing on the edge of burnout.

I said NO in clear and certain terms. It needed to go to the man because the other two women did not have the skills or training for the task.

My supervisor refused. His reason was that the man had a higher title, so it “wouldn’t be appropriate” to assign that work to him.

That sentence told me everything I needed to know.

Apparently, it was appropriate for me to carry the department.

It was appropriate for me to absorb a laid-off coworker’s work.

It was appropriate for me to manage millions of dollars in spend.

It was appropriate for me to generate more than $9 million in savings without meaningful reward.

It was appropriate for me to sit in a cubicle for no reason while the man worked from home full-time.

But it was not appropriate to assign difficult work to the man with the higher title.

I pushed back as hard as I could, but they wouldn’t budge. But I was proud of myself. I’d stood up for myself without giving into the drama or creating an embarrassing scene.

A month later, I quietly gave my notice that I’d be taking my VERY early retirement. I was only 58 and the primary breadwinner for my family, so it was a precarious position as I was 5 long years away from being able to access my 401(k) funds or file for Social Security. But it was the right thing to do.

But here’s what he didn’t know. I’d been quietly building a successful side business for the last six years and I’d been weighing the numbers for when I could manage it as a full-time business. It meant a lot of 12- and 14-hour days to build it, but it paid off. Well, mostly paid off because I ended up with at least a 30% cut in pay and benefits, which became even more serious because I had a major medical issue in my near future. But I managed.

Here’s the big punchline – they had to replace me with THREE FTE’s. That’s ironic because if they had paid me that amount instead in salary and incentives, I’d have stayed….

I left because I finally understood that no amount of work, skill, loyalty, or value creation was going to make them see my value compared to someone who was basically a dead weight on the department. Nothing is worth that, and working for myself, even for less money makes me SO much happier than the headaches of Corporate life.