Chapter 85.5 Intelligent Guessing?
Meanwhile, in Texas
Tank’s POV
(All conversations in Spanish once Hector joins in.)
Little Girl won’t tell us what this survey is about. She just asked us to take it. Bobby’s been grinning all morning; I’m betting he knows.
I finally finish it and I get an email with my results. Damn. I gotta remember Steph is sneaky, but I’m happy I didn’t embarrass myself. 0.87 in Hostile Sexism, 2.42 in Benevolent Sexism. I’m not a sexist but I have some tendencies.
Les pokes his head in. He doesn’t look happy. “How’d you come out?”
I grunt and wave at the chair. He and Bobby walk in. “Clean. 0.87 Hostile, 2.42 Benevolent. I’m not a sexist asshole. You?”
He grimaces. “1.27 Hostile; 2.81 Benevolent.”
We cringe and I look at Bobby. “0.87 Hostile, 2.09 Benevolent.” I nod. My phone rings.
“Yo!”
“Yo! I took Angelita’s survey.” We all look at each other in surprise. Didn’t know Hector was taking it too.
“And?”
“I’m really high in hostile sexism. 0.73.”
“Benevolent?”
“0.55.”
“Shit!” Les says. “Your scores are excellent.”
“Really?” Hector sounds pleased. “You look at the results in RangeWorld?”
“What do you mean?”
“Results around the company are in the top Leadership’s shared space. Angelita made it available for you to see this morning.”
I turn my monitor toward Bobby and Les and surf in. They crowd around and we take note of the results around the company. It’s surprising but not. NYC and Trenton had the best scores. Miami, Charlotte, and Atlanta had the worse. Boston and San Antonio are in the middle of the pack. More interesting were the scores for the leadership at each branch. I expected Armando and Danny to have much better scores but they scored high in benevolent sexism.
The true shocker? Mark and Hal scored lowest of all the XOs in both percentages. I expected Hal to be the clear winner there.
We ponder this. Les sighs. “I’m noticing a pattern. All the Latino men in the company seem to be scoring highly. Well, except Hec.”
“Not good. Why?” Hector asks.
“Cultural?” Bobby asks. We look at him and he shrugs. “Catholic upbringing, Latin machismo, a tendency to see women as wives and mothers first.”
Hec laughs. “Interesting. I don’t see women as solely wives and mothers because I’m not expecting any woman in my life to fulfill that role for me.”
We look at each other in confusion, then grin. “So, the fact that you’re gay is throwing your scores off?”
“I think so. I mean, question one was ‘No matter how accomplished he is, a man is not truly complete as a person unless he has the love of a woman.’ Hmm . . . let me see. As a gay man, how am I going to answer that?”
We laugh. Hec sounds amused by the very thought. I look at the scores for the men in the company I know to be gay. They’re all extremely low.
“Hector brings up a good point. All the gay men in the company have extremely low scores, much better than the rest of us,” Bobby says.
“Makes sense,” Hector replies. “Our view of women is entirely different because I don’t need a woman to adore me. The women closest to me in my life are my cousin, the mother of my son, and Angelita. Two completely different roles in my life. They’re my sisters, not my lovers or my mother.”
I’m impressed by Hector’s explanation.
“So, do you think that’s why you and Tank got off so light?” Hector asks.
“I think so,” Bobby replies. “Our cultural background is different. Between the epidemic of fatherless homes, which leads to strong female counterparts in our lives, and non-Catholic upbringing, we don’t have that ‘wives and mothers’ thing going that Latin men do. We assume we’re marrying a partner, an equal.”
I nod. “Agreed. The adjective most commonly attached to most black women is ‘strong’.” Bobby nods in agreement. “There’s a presumption that a black woman is going to face racism and sexism so women in our culture end up fighting a ‘Superwoman’ myth, the idea that they should be able to handle it all on their own. Makes it hard to really feel like a man because they’re so intent on keeping up the façade that they don’t need you that you start to feel unnecessary.”
I clench my jaw. Lula’s getting to me with that.
Les looks at Bobby. “That’s not your background.”
Bobby shrugs. “Ask my mom how she feels. I can’t answer for her. I might have had the stable, nuclear family, but my mom will be the first to tell you that childcare and household maintenance fell on her. This is after working a full-time job, just like my dad. He finally got the idea when she threatened to leave and leave him with the house and kids.” We smirk but we see the point.
“However, it was Tank’s.” We’re silent for a few moments then Bobby shrugs. “I’m no expert. I’m talking out of my ass here. I could be entirely wrong. But it is something we need to start considering. The XOs are talking about bringing women into the company. If the leadership is uncomfortable with their scores, how are women in this company going to feel?”
I start writing some notes. Bobby’s right. I need to do more research. If Steph follows through on her plan to bring in women then we need to make sure they feel the ‘RangeMan brotherhood’ like every man does.
Actually, we need to start on that now.
“We have a problem.” The guys look at me and I’m still staring at my notes. I finally look up. “We’re behind the eight-ball on this one.”
Les slumps. “Yeah. I was just thinking that.”
“How?” Hector says.
“Because we already have women in leadership in this company. Steph, Candy, and Ella are in the top leadership, and we did nothing about a branch we knew had a problem with women until it became personal.”
I sit back and sigh. Les and Bobby are both solemn.
“You know, I’m not taking that,” Bobby says suddenly. “In most situations with an –ism, attitudes don’t really change until it becomes personal and that’s what’s happened here. When Ranger realized Steph would have to deal with Miami at some point, he brought in Ella to run a psyop on them. Now that we’re realizing the extent of the problem and how it affects those we love, we’re trying to figure out how to change it. So I’m not beating myself up for actions in the past. What matters is how we choose to deal with it now.”
“We’ve always known how bad Miami was,” Les says.
Bobby shakes his head. “No, we’ve always joked about how bad Miami was. We knew some people had a problem. We never knew that it wasn’t a case of a few bad apples. We now have proof that it’s the entire bunch.”
“That’s a bullshit argument,” Hector growls.
“You think?” Bobby says, amused. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”
“I don’t know. Who?” Hector asks. “And why are you thinking about dinner right now? It’s barely lunch. Focus on the task at hand, hermano.”
That’s so funny we can’t help but laugh. We finally calm, wiping our eyes.
“No, Hec, I think Bobby means the movie, right?” Les asks, amused, but I immediately see Bobby’s point.
“Yes,” I reply. “Sidney Poitier classic. The Draytons didn’t think of themselves as racist in any way until their daughter made it personal to them. She brought home a black fiancée and that forced them to reexamine their beliefs. Steph being in the company made it personal to Ranger and he did something to counteract the sexism he was seeing in Miami.
Well, Steph’s just handed us the ‘black fiancée’, so to speak, and we have to really take a look at the situation in Miami. It’s not one or two individuals. It’s not even one branch. She’s identified a company-wide issue that we have to address now.” The guys nod. “Trenton has suggested hiring women. We are hiring women, directly into management in this company, but are they going to be respected? Are they going to feel the ‘brotherhood’?”
Hector snickers. “I think step one is finding another term for ‘brotherhood’.”
We all take a moment to laugh at that before sobering. I’m printing off the scores for Bobby and Les. I’m disturbed by almost all of this. This is my area of expertise. This is the ‘men’, so to speak, and I’ll need to take the lead here.
“This is the difference between firing someone you suspect is a racist and firing them for screaming racial epithets at you,” Bobby mutters. He looks disgusted with Atlanta’s scores. “One is a suspicion and if that person is doing all their work, they can keep their thoughts to themselves. Otherwise, you better have cause to defend yourself against the wrongful dismissal lawsuit. The other is proof and gives me a reason to bounce their ass. Think about it. If you were allowed to fire people for their thoughts, no one would ever get hired.”
That’s true.
“Steph’s given us solid proof that we have a company-wide problem with sexism. We need more information on the survey and the scoring mechanism—”
“I have it,” Hector says. “She showed me where to get it so we could build the survey. One minute.”
My email pings and I immediately open and print the information he’s sent over. We all read through it. This is one of about three available surveys out there to test sexism. Not bad. We can use this to test as an indicator but there are others out there. I add a note to find the psychology journal this survey was originally revealed in and read more. I see Les doing the same thing.
Les snorts. “Now, the fucked up part of this situation is that we’ve never needed proof to fire. Florida is an at-will state. Damn near every state in this country is at-will and we don’t have a union to deal with at RangeMan. We can fire any of them at any time for any reason under the sun. The only question was whether or not we’d end up paying unemployment and whether we would get sued for wrongful dismissal.
Our standards are so high and so well documented that the men fear getting caught slipping. We’ve never really had discipline problems in this company. Discipline problems were aberrations. That’s why you always want to document misconduct, insubordination, etc. Do that and they can’t file for unemployment benefits. That much I remember Ranger saying when we got started.”
I nod. I remember him saying that too. No unemployment and it screwed any lawsuits if they were fired for cause and it was documented.
“So if we’re looking at Miami, what there?” Hector asks.
Les shrugs, flipping through pages. “OK, my knee jerk reaction is to fire Armando.” I switch to the Miami spreadsheet. “However, he balances overall on the safe side. The Miami leadership, as a whole, is helping to balance the rest of the bad scores. So, Armando is back to being a management issue.” Les sighs. “Steph’s already put him on probation and so far the results are showing that, without his family around, Mando’s back to the man we named XO.” We nod. That’s true.
“Fuck,” Les mutters, looking at the numbers. “On one hand, I don’t want to fire him because it’s Javi all over again. We didn’t support him like we should have and, quite frankly, we let him skate on not firing his cousin forever. We should have fired both of them. We have to own that. On the other hand, it’s hard to retain him knowing that he made business personal. What’s the guarantee he won’t do it again?”
“He won’t,” I state firmly. The guys look at me. “He’s not the same man. There won’t be any going back for him. The man I saw in Charlotte is regaining his balls, making smart calls to build the branch and train the men. Whatever Steph said to him at the shore made the difference. He put his entire family in check.”
Bobby and Les’s jaws drop.
“Yeah. Kicked his mother out”–their eyes widen–”kicked his sister out, told them they would never run his home or life again. His wife is the happiest woman I’ve ever seen and they’re recommitting to their marriage. She won’t allow anyone to challenge him and he’ll never allow anyone to disrespect her. He wants his job and he’s desperate to show Steph that he won’t make the same mistake twice.”
The guys sit back, nodding. I hear Hector mutter, “He grew a pair. Jesus Christ, about time.”
I shift in the chair. “Hindsight is 20-20. We left Miami to Ranger. His home branch, his calls. He didn’t catch the Maria issue until a few months ago because he was finally around long enough to see it. He left Mando in charge of making decisions for his branch, trying not to micromanage, because you know how easy it is for Ranger to slip into micromanaging.”
Les and Bobby both roll their eyes. Ranger will micromanage if given an opportunity. It’s one of the reasons he’s adamant on staying in the field. I hear Hector laugh. Hec is the only person in the company Ranger doesn’t attempt to micromanage. He admits that he doesn’t know shit about tech and has to rely on Hector’s expertise there. We thank God for Hector constantly. Hector’s expertise and viciousness in protecting us has kept us independent of any attempts to manipulate RangeMan into sticky situations. We take the contracts we want, not the contracts someone else attempts to force on us.
“It’s easy for us to sit here now and say shoulda coulda woulda. As Chief XO, I shoulda been in every branch constantly, supporting my XOs and ensuring everything was running right. As Chief Strategist, you shoulda done the same, Les.”
Les winces. Bobby raises a hand and I nod. Yeah, he knows what was coming.
“So really, Steph’s not only highlighted a company-wide issue with sexism. She has, yet again, pointed out that we took our eyes off the ball when it came to the company.” Bobby and Les shift in their seats, embarrassed. I am too. This is fucking insane. “Not only did we not give Javi the help he needed in NYC, we didn’t delve deeply into the financial issues in Atlanta”—Bobby blushes—”we didn’t put Mark in check like we should have”—we each roll our eyes—”and we let Mando skate on not firing his cousin. It was clear he wasn’t going to. We should have fired them both.”
“Jesucristo,” Hector mutters. “You guys navel gazing all this time?”
“Nope,” Les replies. “Trying to keep Steph’s head attached to her fucking shoulders.”
Hector is quiet for a moment. “It took all four of you to do that?” He snorts. “Stupid question. Yes, it took all four of you plus Trenton to do that. No one attracts mayhem like Angelita.”
We smile. Hector loves Steph but he’s clear about her faults and her strengths. He won’t let her skate on anything but he’s the first person to defend her against everyone, even us.
“Right now, I have a Managing Director whose decisions I trust.” I’m looking at the scores again. “She and I are in constant communication about what’s going on, which is good. The men trust her and find her easy to talk to. I back her by ensuring she has whatever she needs to do the job and that’s worked.
She fixed the issues in NYC and Atlanta. Mark understands that he’s as high as he’s gonna go and he’s trying to clean his branch up. She’s put Mando on probation and is forcing him to prove he still wants to be and has the balls to be an XO. I’m going to rely on her assessment of him before I make a decision.”
The guys nod. Les gets up and leaves, returning with a pitcher of water and granola for all of us.
I shrug. “The Miami men are just that. The men of Miami. You know the entire city is like that. You warned Steph about it. The men are a sample of the city they’re from.” I switch spreadsheets. “Atlanta is the next worst set of scores.” Bobby blushes and shifts in his seat. “Why?”
“Southern charm and chivalry?” Bobby says. I stare at the screen. “It’s a thin line between chivalry and sexism.”
I nod. “That would be my guess. What is termed ‘sexist’ in one area is termed ‘polite manners’ in another. Hell, what’s termed ‘sexist’ by one woman could be termed ‘polite manners’ by another. We’ve been around the Atlanta men. They adore Steph. Until an hour ago, would you have put the Atlanta men and the Miami men in the same bucket as sexist?”
“Hell no!” Bobby, Les, and Hector reply.
“And yet, the overall score is only ½ point different and the benevolent sexism score is exactly the same.”
We’re all quiet now. I’m disturbed the more I drill into these numbers.
“Then explain Trenton,” Hector says.
I’m staring at the Trenton and Boston numbers and I can’t explain it. It makes no sense.
“Military?” Les says. We stare at him.
“Are you kidding me?” Bobby snorts. “I’m a proud vet, a proud Ranger, but even I have to admit our military is sexist as all hell. They’re looking at a shit-storm of sexual harassment claims and lawsuits right now. Congress is asking the brass hard questions they don’t want to answer. Hell, Ranger school is closed to women. Why? What is the justification for that?”
We all cringe.
“Make the military argument, Les,” Hector says.
“Well, those locations are full of vets. Women have had to meet the same standards they did and they’ve fought alongside them. That’s why Hal’s and Mark’s scores are so low. There’s more respect for women because they’ve served with them.” Les stares at the screen and shrugs. “It was one of Beautiful’s problems with Boston. The men there know female bounty hunters, according to Susan. They know women who do the job without getting hurt like Steph. They knew women could meet the mark and Steph didn’t.” Les shrugs. “It was the way the Trenton men felt about Steph until they got to know her. They liked and respected Jeanne Ellen way more than they did Steph.”
I have to give Les credit for that argument. Not bad.
“I mean, Mando’s scores are close to the cutoff because he has the Catholic/Latin upbringing influencing him on one side and the military tendency to respect chain of command on the other. He balances right at the middle. That’s why Armando’s scores are low compared to the rest of his branch, as are Diego’s.
Our active duty XOs have a different perspective of women as compared to Javi and Danny. That attitude to women exists in their branches because it exists at the top. Plus”–Les grins at me–”those are the branches staffed by the men who model themselves on the top leadership. You and Ranger.”
I sit back and stare at the results. It’s a good explanation and it makes sense in light of the number. Men with military backgrounds, across the company, have lower sexism scores than anyone else, which seems counter-intuitive on its face.
“So you’re saying that, among the military men, there’s the expectation that women should be equal?”
“I’m saying the military men expect the ladies to pick up their own slack. When the military ethos has been drilled in, and drilled in right, the men see another soldier. Can the soldier fight? Can they shoot? Can they serve? That’s what matters.” Les smiles. “This is where your ability to pick good people really shines, man. You know a good soldier when you see one. You picked men who see ability, not sex, and that shines in Trenton especially.”
I’m trying not to smile. We don’t compliment each other’s strengths as a group (mostly because it’s unnecessary) but when we fling a compliment at a brother, it’s heartfelt and always meant.
“NYC?”
“Wall Street. Women are just as brutal as men there. Single women hitting NYC today? They’ve learned all the tricks of the trade men always knew. They’re politicking and power lunching like the men to get the Goldman Sachs corner office.” We snicker. “So, NYC is higher in hostile sexism than most of the company because I’m betting the Wall Street men are influencing that number.
They’ve had to compete with women in an area that is and continues to be mostly male dominated. Women who survive in NYC survive because they accept no shit. They’re tough. They assume they’re being condescended to because NYC is a brutal place if you aren’t ambitious. You have to be ambitious, regardless of the industry, to survive and climb there. Lots of hopefuls, few slots.” Les snickers. “As Mack would say, ‘Gotta be hungry and have pointy elbows’.”
We crack up at that. The entire damn company seems to be taking on ‘Mack-isms’. We sober and continue to stare at the numbers for a little longer before I make a decision.
“So, if I had to sum it up, Trenton’s scores are what they are because of Steph. Boston’s because the men expect the ladies to be able to pick up their own slack, which is why they had a problem with Steph. NYC because the men know the ladies can be just as scheming as they are in order to climb the ladder.”
Bobby sighs. “They’re also our northern branches. I think there’s a point to be made about a fine line between chivalry and sexism. Chivalry has its historical background in sexism, the idea that women are the weaker creatures and have to be coddled. There’s a strong sense of ‘chivalry’ in the South that doesn’t exist in the North.”
We nod and stare at the numbers.
I finally make up my mind on which direction I want to take, at least for the moment. I think I need to talk to Steph. “OK, here’s what I think. First, I’m going to be very careful with these numbers. This measures feelings and there are no right or wrong answers. We have a cutoff score that indicates sexism, so I’m going to do more research on this scale and this theory. I need to know more if we’re going to use it as a measure going forward.”
The guys nod. There’s no way to get a perfect score on this so we have to be careful, but I don’t want to abandon this. It’s useful as an indicator.
“I’m going to look at these scores in combination with management reviews and job performance to determine what to do outside Miami.” The guys nod. “Now, the hostile sexism scores are what concern me most right now. That’s what I’m going to term the ‘clear and present danger’, not just to women in our company, but to the company as a whole. Men with that kind of disregard for women are not men I want representing RangeMan.”
“That means Miami and NYC are about to be under close scrutiny, right?” Hector says. Les slumps, looking concerned.
“Right. Now, inside Miami, hostile sexism scores over 3.0 are fireable. I want to see what decision Armando makes, but that’s mine.” The guys nod. “In NYC I’m going to hold off, Les.” Les nods, grateful. “Those men are new and transferring into a new corporate culture. We need to make it clear that hostility to women in this company is a fireable offense. Once they’ve been warned and had time to make the transition, then we’ll look at retention.”
“Thanks,” Les says quietly. “I don’t want to fire men coming from a culture where that was a situational issue without giving them a chance.”
“Explain that, Les,” Hector says.
“Well, if you’re hostile to women because you just left Wall Street, where you had to compete against 30 women and 30 men for 10 slots, then I don’t want to fire you for your feelings. You’re probably hostile to everyone right now, but this survey only measures your feelings about women, not the asshole who undercut the presentation that would have gotten you your promotion.” Bobby and I nod.
“At RangeMan, you aren’t competing against someone else to get hired. You’re hired on your own merits, your own strengths. If you just left one job, bitter against everyone there, then get hired here and we gave you this test from jump and you score high in sexism, that’s testing you at that particular moment. Is that who you’ll be six months from now when you’ve transitioned into RangeMan culture? That’s why Tank is being careful with these numbers. This is a snapshot in time.”
I nod. “Exactly. I’m willing to do that because NYC leadership is not going to accept that attitude. Between Javi, Jorge, Mack, and Drake, it will be deemed completely unacceptable. After all, Mack’s fucking up Miami left, right, and center for disrespecting Steph.”
We laugh. Bobby’s call over the weekend, to tell Mack to back off, had us rolling. Diego reports that Miami knows Mack loves the CO. He made it clear the first day that he wouldn’t tolerate disrespect of her.
“Around the rest of the company, you may have one or two individuals per branch with high hostile sexism scores, so I need to investigate what’s going on.”
“Right. Divorce, custody battle, fight with a girlfriend, anything could be skewing that number right now,” Bobby says.
“Exactly. Isolated incidents I’ll investigate. Branch-wide problems get close scrutiny. Miami needs to see some firings.”
“Benevolent sexism?”
I sigh. “No idea there. Atlanta, Miami, and San Antonio have the highest numbers there. Atlanta I know is Southern chivalry.” Bobby nods. I look at the clock. The XOs are all meeting to discuss this.
“Let’s see what the XOs have decided. Let’s listen in.”
I dial the conference number and the code.
“Well, let’s not jump there first,” Mark says. “Let’s remain objective. First things first. Armando, do you accept that the assessment was conducted fairly?”
Les, Bobby and I roll our eyes. Exactly how did Mark end up with the lowest scores?
The XO discussion ends and I look at Les and Bobby, smirking.
“OK, that seems pretty clear. Armando Cortes has his balls back,” Hector says.
We laugh. I have to admit, I was concerned about it. Hearing him make decisive decisions for the branch was good. Even better, all the XOs immediately jumped in to help him. They did a good job. Steph’s done a great job with each of the top management groups. They get together to solve problems.
And, although it annoys me to have to do this, I’m going to call Mark after this call. For the first time, I saw him being completely supportive and not trying to take over. Bobby, Les and I looked at each other in surprise numerous times during that call.
“Seems we have the right person in charge of HR too,” Les says, sitting back. “I like her solutions and ideas.”
Hector chuckles. “And she was right about Edna.”
We nod. “I never thought of Edna Mazur as a weapon against sexism but she was absolutely right. Edna is hell,” Bobby says, a wry smile on his face. “I just thought she was just a dirty old lady.”
Hector laughs. “Which is why none of you were able to control her.”
We look at the phone in slowly dawning awareness. “What did you do to her?” Les says, grinning.
“Offered to give her the ride of her life. She couldn’t back away fast enough.”
We fall out laughing. Ches knocks then sticks his head in the door in concern. I shake my head and he leaves.
“I got Edna under control fast because I needed her to understand that every time she did that, she put her granddaughter’s life in danger.” We sober and stare at each other. “She got the point but I decided not to take away all her fun. I restricted her from touching RangeMan Trenton men.”
“How kind of you. Every time a new man visited Trenton and Hal took them to the Plums, he was just delivering her a new bum to pinch,” Bobby says, wiping away tears.
“Exactly.”
We fall out again. We’ll need to toast Hal’s balls. The boy is sneaky. I’m proud as hell. We sit around smiling until Bobby’s smile drops and he leans forward.
“Now, I’m going to back up to Maria. I talked this one over with my Dad this weekend, so this is a hell of a time for all these issues to come up.”
“Pere?” Les grins. Bobby flips him off.
“Yeah, Pere. I thought about what Lula told her the day before they left. I was trying to get a legal opinion on our status if Maria ever decided to sue. Anyway, he told me something I just started considering watching her out in Texas. I described the Miami situation with Maria to him and he told me it didn’t strictly meet the threshold required to call it workplace harassment.”
I’m sure my eyes are wide. Is he fucking kidding? Les looks stunned and confused too.
“What? Are you kidding me? That place—”
“Pere said Miami was a case of intense bullying until Maria was trained. Workplace harassment, strictly defined, connotes a hostile work environment and sexual misconduct.”
“So Lula was right?” Damn, my fiancée needs to get that degree soon. I might be able to read people but she can reach them.
“Yeah.” Bobby fishes a piece of paper from his pocket. “Workplace bullying is repeated mistreatment of one or more persons by one or more perpetrators that takes one or more of the following forms: verbal abuse, offensive conduct/behaviors (including nonverbal) which are threatening, humiliating, or intimidating, and work interference which prevents work from getting done. It’s driven by perpetrators’ need to control the targeted individual(s)”–Les and I nod–”is initiated by bullies who choose their targets, timing, location, and methods, requires consequences for the targeted individual, escalates to involve others who side with the bully, either voluntarily or through coercion, and undermines legitimate business interests when bullies’ personal agendas take precedence over work itself.”
Bobby hands me the sheet of paper and sits back. “According to Pere, she was bullied, not harassed. She was never made to feel her employment at RangeMan was due to her willingness or unwillingness to perform sexual favors. They simply bullied her into doing what they wanted until she was trained.
He said legally, if he had to rule on the case, we’d end up in the clear because it wasn’t harassment. Now, another jurist might deem it sexual harassment because Maria is a woman, but since her HR representative, meaning Armando, wasn’t formally informed and didn’t have a chance to respond to the complaints, it would still be tossed out.”
Les and I have slack jaws. This is insane. Great for the company, but insane that Maria isn’t protected by law either.
“Lula was right. Bullying is not illegal, just despicable. Workplace bullying has a lot of characteristics of harassment but they aren’t the same. Maria started off in grief but he advised me to have her evaluated for PTSD.”
Everyone is quiet.
“Now, when I consider that definition in conjunction with the markers of hostile sexism . . . “
My eyes widen. Holy hell. I see his point.
“Are they trying that with Angelita?” Hector growls. I can feel his fury through the phone. Hector will be on the road to Miami in minutes, regardless of the police attention, if Steph might be in danger inside the building.
“They can’t. Bomber has too much protection around her for them to try. Miami leadership is beating the shit out of them for disrespect to the CO, and Steph took one to the mats herself to make him an example. They can’t bully her. Insult and demean her? Yeah. Bully? No. That’s the difference in Steph and Maria. Maria was alone down there and they kept at her until she was trained.”
That makes my mind up. “Maria comes to San Antonio.”
The guys nod. “Steph says she’s leaning that way,” Les says. “She misses being here and she wants to help Lula. Besides, Steph doesn’t believe they deserve a housekeeper.”
“What about NYC? Is Lucia OK up there?” I ask Les. He nods.
“Lucia won’t take it. She’ll put them back in their places but, oddly enough, Javi mentioned something in our weekly call a few weeks ago that had me laughing but I’m thinking about it a bit more now. He said that Maria snapped Tater into his place when she was there. Former Wall Street man,” he says to Bobby, who looks confused. Bobby nods, a half smile on his face.
“So there we are. Someone with a 2.85 hostile sexism score who was popped back into his place by the housekeeper. I asked Lucia about Tater when she returned to NYC. Javi’s watching him like a hawk for any more outbreaks of ‘temper'”—Les finger quotes—”but he says Tater got the idea. He’s one of the biggest supporters of the housekeeper now.”
The room quiets, then “Ranger’s screwed,” Hector says.
We look at each other and chuckle. “Agreed,” I reply. “Ranger is definitely going to score high in benevolent sexism. Perhaps even hostile.”
“You think so?” Les says, astonished. Bobby and I smirk and I quickly pick out a few questions that will touch a nerve with Ranger.
“‘Most women fail to appreciate fully all that men do for them’.” Les cringes. “‘Once a woman gets a man to commit to her, she usually tries to put him on a tight leash’. ‘Men should be willing to sacrifice their own well-being in order to provide financially for the women in their lives’.” I look up at the paper at Les. “Well, that’s at least three questions where we have a good idea how he might answer. Two are directly correlated to Steph and the other is his relationship with Rachel.”
Les slumps but perks up. “That’s 3 out of 22. Not enough to call one way or another.”
“Fine,” Hector says. “Let’s do the survey as Ranger, substituting our best guess, and see what we come up with.”
I look over but Ranger’s score pops up at that very moment. “She made him take it.” I look at the score in surprise. “He’s clean. 1.12 hostile, 2.26 benevolent. He’s definitely in the safe zone.”
We’re stunned but Les is grinning. “Told you. His scores are better than mine. Three out of 22 responses he might have a strong opinion about, but otherwise? Ranger is respectful of women, just emotionally stunted. Besides, he’s always supported Steph professionally. He’s just been too scared to put himself out there.”
We snicker. Les is right. This should not be a problem Steph and Ranger face.
We have bigger problems on our plate now.
A/N: Geek moment: In An Ambivalent Alliance, in the February 2001 edition of American Psychologist, a study from the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology was cited that showed that the country with the highest benevolent sexism score (at that time) was . . . Cuba.
Now, I wrote this chapter months ago (like, May), so I find it incredibly interesting that one of the stories dominating the news right now is the alleged workplace bullying going on among the Miami Dolphins. Another male-dominated culture dealing with some of the same issues as RangeMan. Life imitates art?
