How to advocate for yourself
At my first advertising job, I had to take on receptionist duties on top of copywriting while a male designer my age, with the same experience level, got to sit amongst the senior creatives and focus solely on designing.
After a few weeks of this, I realized that this didn’t bother anyone else.
Everyone’s preoccupied with their own work and problems.
So I finally spoke up to my manager about it. A self-identified feminist, she immediately took action to get me my own seat and reduce my secretarial duties.
From this, I realize that I have to advocate for myself, because no one else is going to do it for me. If I don’t flag something as an issue, no one will think it is, but if I do flag it, then change can be possible.
Yimin Peng is a New Yorker who writes for (Mad) Men by day, and for herself by night. Her claim to fame is an ice cream blog featured in her college paper.
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