Obsession

I don’t get it. I just don’t understand women’s obsession with shoes. Two weeks ago we were celebrating a staff member's birthday with coffee and cake for morning tea when I happened to notice the birthday card she had been given by staff – all covered in shiny shoes. This piqued my interest and so I enquired of the birthday girl, who shall remain nameless, [Sharmila], how many pairs of shoes do you own? Not counting sports shoes, thongs, sandals or Ugg boots, Sharmila, who was celebrating her 28^th birthday, owns more than 200 pairs of shoes! They all have names reflecting their individual personalities and each lives in a separate shoe box, in a specially designed boarding house, [closet], for shoes!

The ratio of female to male staff at Status is around 3:1 and so it was on this occasion that there were 11 females and 3 males enjoying morning tea - and the banter about to erupt. Enquiring of each of the female staff present, individual responses ranged from 10 to 50 pairs of shoes owned, totalling more than 400 pairs, compared with the three men present who had just 12 pairs between them!

“So Sharmila, why do you have so many pairs of shoes, you can’t live in them, [not unless you live in a nursery rhyme I thought], and the cost of 200 pairs of shoes would have nearly paid for a house – and how do you feed this obsession anyway”? Sharmila, I was soon to learn, has a second job - in a shoe store no less - which provides her with the opportunity to be the first to touch, smell and drool over the latest styles before they hit the market and yes, to spend her entire salary from this second job on the purchase of shoes at wholesale prices! But why 200 pairs – you may well ask. Well, apparently, according to Sharmila, feet are ugly and shoes have a “transmutation” quality about them, which renders the “unsightly plates of meat” at the end of your legs infinitely more beautiful. Oh, now I understand and am so much more enlightened for having had this discourse – not – I thought.

Which reminds me, in issue 5 of Status e News I wrote about attending the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra plays Deep Purple at the Festival Centre. Fronted by Deep Purple’s original keyboardist and composer, Jon Lord, the first half of the performance was devoted to his Concerto for Group and Orchestra, written in 1969. He of the ponytail coiffure and resonant voice commanded our attention as he introduced each of the three movements in this epic composition, and the aging “rockers’” present in the audience did not disappoint in expressing their appreciation for this lesser known, yet equally dynamic fusion of rock and symphony.

The second half of the performance was given over to Adelaide’s own band of nostalgic brilliance, The Zep Boys, who worked through all of the Deep Purple classics – Speed King, Woman from Tokyo, Space Trucking, Black Knight, Strange Kinda Woman, Highway Star, Child in Time and, the immortal, Smoke on the Water – and were once again, just outstanding.

Fronting the band, Vince Contarino, gave another powerhouse performance. Dressed in impossibly tight white jeans, naked torso exposing impossibly chiselled “abs” and, impossibly curled locks hanging all the way down to the small of his back, Contarino belted out hit after hit showcasing his impossible vocal range, and all belying his 50 [approx] years. No, I’m not obsessed, a little envious perhaps but not obsessed.

As fate would have it, we were seated next to the mother of the Zep Boy’s lead guitarist, Steve Williams, who has also played guitar with The Party Boys, Richard Clapton, The Choirboys, The Rocky Horror Show, Elvis the Musical and Lee Kernighan to name a few. At some point during the performance, my companion for the evening, [Julie] leaned over to Steve’s Mum next to her and enquired “You must be very proud of your Grandson”? To which the unabashed Mrs Williams retorted, “I’m his Mother not his Grandmother and, I’m not that old”.

And herein lays the truth about woman’s obsession with shoes. Shoes provide a distraction, something to enjoy and behold especially at times when she puts her foot in her mouth! Oh I can hear the howls of protest already but I bet nobody present on the night, ASO played Deep Purple, can remember what shoes Vince Contarino was wearing. Transmutation personified but sorry fella’s, it doesn’t apply to you, so don’t waste your money buying them, they’ll never make you perform like Vince!

In this week’s edition of Status e News, we take a brief look at the 2008 EOWA Employer Choice Awards and consider what Working Women want in an employment relationship. We also introduce two new “Employee Hot Prospects”, which can be accessed from the “hot chilli” link at right and, announce the winner of our Round 4 Footy Tipping Competition.

Last month, the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, [EOWA], released the list of the 99 organisations that made its’ 2008 EOWA Employer of Choice for Women List.

The citations are only available to non-government organisations that have at least 80 employees and, are only awarded to those businesses with demonstrated policies and practices that support women across the organisation, which have led to positive outcomes for both women and the business. Interestingly, only six South Australian companies featured on this list and of these, four were educational institutions. This will change rapidly as the expansion of the South Australian economy continues to gain momentum and employers compete to attract the best candidates from an aging labour market, which is under enormous pressure to meet the challenges of the global resources boom.

Putting the labour squeeze aside, it is certainly true that Australian businesses and employers have come a long way from the time when women were expected to resign from the workplace as soon as they married. Yet according to EOWA, there are still a number of issues such as equal pay, which are yet to be resolved. Businesses listed on EOWA’s Employer of Choice for Women, have, according to EOWA, moved beyond simply writing policies and providing basic flexibility. For these organisations, creating equity is about changing culture, expectations and the stereotypes surrounding women in the workplace. Specifically, personal qualities and competencies and leadership capacities are respected, regardless of age, stage of their career, whether working full or part time, in the ‘office” or remotely from home, the objective being to achieve a system of employee relations where engagement and advancement is based purely on merit.

So what do women want? Well according to EOWA, each of the 99 organisations listed have:

• analysed the gender pay paradigm and the “gap”, if any, is less than the industry average and furthermore, these employers continue to work assiduously to address any gap identified
• demonstrated that their recruitment and promotion processes are merit based and transparent
• provided training to all staff about preventing sexual harassment in the workplace
• on average, paid maternity leave of at least 12 weeks, which is double the minimum requirement

On this last point, there is no doubt that paid maternity leave will eventually be introduced as a component of the “modernised” award system and that the National Employment Standards will eventually include paid maternity leave for all women in the workforce, probably to be funded through a superannuation style of investment.

Regardless of the size of your workforce, all employers should use the EOWA Employer of Choice for Women requirements to benchmark their policies and workplace environment because, the future existence of your business irrefutably depends upon it and, you ignore it at your own peril.

Anthony Spadavecchia
with Status’ Business Development Consultant-
Rudy Nath