Article published by Energy Pulse
TYPE E2 Woman…Marriage Between a Woman and A Career in Energy

Type E women are often seen as “everything to everybody”. Marry the Type E woman to an energy career and you get a Type E2 woman. Back in the late 80’s the Type A personality was “understood to be a man’s adaptation—albeit self-destructive—to the high-speed, high-tech, high-information, high-compensation society of late-twentieth-century America. While Type E stress encompasses some of the same high-pressure characteristics of Type A, women’s adaptation to their socio-cultural circumstances has been different from men’s.

Women have not only had to adapt to the rate of change, they have been exposed to a vastly different set of social and cultural stressors. While men have obviously been affected by the changes that women have undergone in the last decade or so, the changes after all, have happened to the women. So Type E stress can be viewed as the female adaptation to the awkward period of social-historical change of late-twentieth-century America. Type E stress is the psychological price that contemporary high-achieving women are paying for equal opportunity before society has worked out the details. Ironically, the consequences may be equal rights to ulcers, coronaries, high blood pressure, and a host of other stress-related maladies.”1 As of last week when researching this very issue, women are dying of heart attacks, coronary incidences, at the same rate or even a smidge faster than men. Heart scans are pain free and many corporate entities are demanding it of their prospective employees prior to an offer being extended.

Talking with a vast amount of professionals in the energy arena led this article to be factual in reference primarily to demographics in the surrounding Houston, Texas area. Some of the professionals polled regarding this article were male and female Human Resource leaders, engineers, attorneys, accountants, bankers, educators, information technology experts, search firm, recruiting entities, governmental organizations, and specific industry related associations. Statistics compiled were targeted specifically for women in energy. When polled the statistics revealed that 45-49% of all energy jobs in Houston, Texas were held by women. The jobs were in petrochemicals, exploration, upstream, midstream, downstream, banking, credit unions, public accounting, legal, technology, retail, utilities, and sundry of positions that were touched by energy in some form. Out of the 45-49%, only 1% of those positions were rated high level, i.e. CFO, CEO, CIO, COO, 14% were seen as decision making managers, and the rest ascribed to administrative, support staff, clerical.

Human Resource professionals are noted as the least interested in sharing statistics regarding promotions, flexibility of work schedules, discussing issues of diversity, etc. Possibly part of the lack of interest may be attributed to the fact that HR has seen somewhat of a backlash from employees that do not need a “family-friendly” policy and resent their co-workers that participate in flextime, day-care centers, telecommuting opportunities, child-care reimbursement. Since a large amount of the talent pool is comprised of women the problems lie not in the benefits of a “family-friendly” work environment, but possibly within the implementation that management grapples with, and stumbles through at times. It’s noted that some HR professionals will make “under the table” deals with high performing individuals in giving them flex hours, etc. because the value of that professional adds a lot to the health of the department/division.

“Joan Williams, Director of the Program on Gender, Work and Family and a professor at American University’s Washington College of Law, wrote the book Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About it. To avoid ill will, companies can institute a formal application process available to all employees, whether they want the time to take a yoga class, play golf, or attend junior’s soccer game. At Deloitte & Touche, parental status is “irrelevant,” says Stan Smith, national director of the company’s Employer of Choice-Next Generation Initiatives. Employees who request a flexible work arrangement are not asked to state their marital/family status or explain why they are making the request.

The professionals we spoke with said they had left their old jobs and were lured to new ones for the very fact they could choose to spend time with family,volunteer opportunities, MBA programs, etc., in an effort to not necessarily “balance” their lives, but to ensure that their career goals were aligned with their value systems, in and out of the office. These professionals were in managerial positions and could make the decisions much more easily than those that had not attained management ranks. It was so noted that women and men both agreed to the fact that it took a woman anywhere from 5-8 years longer to obtain a promotion to a like position that their male counterpart held. Diverse factors played into this observation, notwithstanding politics, women saw that equal amounts of experience, education, were being honored in promotions but still not up to speed at the level men were promoted. The majority of women did agree that within the last 20 years significant strides had been made, and that was attributable to education of the masses.
Women indicated that when it became obvious that their positions were in peril they were much quicker to tap into their networking mode, and thus saw that factor was a plus above what their male counterparts found when they received pink slips. Scores of women polled attended scrambles on the golf course at 50% less than their male counterparts; overall the women attended 2-6 networking events per month casting a wider networking net than men. This known fact results in women locating new positions oftentimes much quicker than their male counterparts. The ugly head of salary disparity still is a serious factor they contend with. When men found new positions most of them still received 29-33% more compensation (money and benefits) than their female counterparts. The only county in America where women earn more than their male counterparts is Glasscock County, Texas, and that is due to the rural nature of agriculture and ranching. Surprisingly enough the bastions of gender enlightenment in these rural areas have no complaints with the women earning more.

This is in part due to that women have not historically negotiated their compensation package in as strong a manner as their male counterparts. “One of the strengths women bring to negotiating is their ability to develop relationships. Used properly, relationships can facilitate effective negotiating. Women often have difficulty saying no; particularly when they’re dealing with someone they care about. Because women place a high value on relationships, they’re more hesitant about saying no. They want to keep everyone happy.” Be Your Own Therapist”, Patricia Farrell, author.

As women seek assistance from professionals that specialize in negotiations, and the training of same will enable them to become adept at the negotiation table. Currently some women, specifically ones that are not in managerial positions, will comment to us that asking for what they deserve in the compensation arena is too bold. Education can forever even the playing field regarding this concern.

Speaking with professionals that had made it to the 1% area, a valid and unspoken concern was succession planning for their company. More men were vocal on this subject in somewhat of a negative frame of reference as they have become addicted to their perks, the adulation, and the attention. Some of these executives have had to battle their way to the top, and with their voracious need for control, they are not prepared for the career curtain to descend. With plummeting stock prices, and more organizations deleting specific perks, stock options, medical care, country club memberships or merging with the competition, these leaders are screaming all the way to their financial planner’s offices. William C. Byham, co-author of Grow Your Own Leaders, and CEO of Development Dimensions International states that 50% of those hired outside the organization for senior management positions do not work out, whereas 65% of those internally promoted are successful. Unfortunately those on the inside that are groomed for the leadership role are usually not well deserving women. Women that have the same experience, tenure with the company, have not received the fair plays in this process, for many reason, the most blatant reason for this is usually a poor decision made by the CEO to feather his nest a little deeper parlays a poor pick who ends up “cooking the books” and assisting an avalanche of ill will among employees, a possible talent exodus, not to mention disgruntled shareholders.

Recently we have seen in the Houston marketplace high ranking technology positions in the energy sector outweighing all other managerial positions for women in the energy sector. One such example of a woman being honored for her contributions is Kandy Lukats VP Exploration and Development, Landmark Graphics for her pioneering the first workflow consulting project which created a new business line for Landmark.

Law firms specializing in energy have few female partners even though law schools graduate at least 50% females. The good news is women that have authority are becoming more progressive in setting requirements for their service providers-that they have diversity action plans, not only in number, but are showing women/minorities in positions of authority. Numbers are stark in measuring the growth for women in careers in law, specifically in energy; this might indicate that innocuous traces of positive attitude are appearing on the horizon, ever so slowly.

Several years ago Mobil attempted to move more women and minorities up the career path but by the mid 80s the corporation stopped asking people if they were satisfied with the process and started asking is your job interesting? Is it a stepping stone to advancing your aspirations? These types of questions started predicting an environment whereby the employees no longer worried about getting laid off and the product of this behavior resulted in upper management being more motivated which certainly bode well with the balance sheet, it was a win-win for all parties.

“Kodak is doing some very interesting things” to open up the process and allay the concerns of women and people of color who often feel shut out of promotion opportunities. In 2000, the company’s Leadership Assessment and Development Center began a four-tier, open-door program to groom anyone who wanted to be considered for supervisory positions. The program attracted more than 1,000 potential leaders. After attending the introductory course, “So You Want to Be a Leader?, “ about 25 percent of the participants “deselect” themselves. Another 25 percent drop out after the second course, which gives instruction on how to handle supervisory duties such as budgeting, staffing and production. At a time when the economy is uncertain, it’s not only lonely at the top. It’s also a precarious perch.”

There are a plethora of organizations assisting women in developing their leadership and professional skills in Houston, and in the State of Texas. Leadership Houston, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Women’s Energy Network Houston, The Houston Business Forum, Texas Executive Women, Leadership Texas, WITI is glimpse of a snapshot of a diverse panolopy of organizations. These groups encourage professionals in the Houston workforce to tap into areas that will strengthen leadership skills and enable proactive professionals to become more aware of the processes involved in a good succession plan. These plans will spell out ways to get on the company’s roster of sterling candidates to be viewed for key positions. Women until now have not had a multitude of female role models in the energy sector to view successful

We know that when opportunities fail to prove upward mobility that women in Houston are leaving their corporate employers twice the rate of men. Houston ranks #6 in the nation for woman owned firms. Within the next 24 to 36 months over 40% of all firms in the Houston area will be owned by women…less than 10% of those firms will be energy related.

Most women in energy are not agog with thoughts that the market will be bright for their careers for at least 10-15 more years, but they do want to ensure a legacy for those that follow them. By educating others, specifically the remnants of the “good old boys mentality” substantial strides can be made in the workplace. The most common thread throughout the research of this paper is that women embrace change and they want to be supported in the workplace in an effort to advance and move ahead. They demonstrate that they can more than work the long hours in and out of the home, many travel around the world while juggling their career, their children’s school activities, their social calendar and their volunteer activities. They carry a Blackberry along with their Evian water and never miss a beat.

One of the countless comments made repeatedly specifically endemic to the energy arena is the varied types of harassment women experience, i.e. via email jokes. A lot of employers do not know that gender-related comments of jokes in the workplace are illegal harassment. This plays out in current updated policies, consistent training and education coupled with supervisors being trained in the areas of harassment. Training for all is the key in staying out of the courtroom. Women want to respect their co-workers and vice versa, calling someone a “boy” might be how one guy relates, but if someone does not like it, it’s a problem. In the workplace employees and employers don’t have First Amendment rights to talk disrespectful to one another; this issue is going to take years to resolve specifically in the oil patch.

A kinder, gentler EEOC is chaired by Cari M. Donminguez who inspires others instead of planting fear. She does not see herself as the job police but she did take in 84,442 new allegations of discrimination last year and expected an increase of 6% in 2003, that will be 6% more added on to the $310.5 million paid out last year in settlements. Knowing that some women in the energy field have language barriers, cultural differences, it goes back to education and communication to be vigilant in efforts to ensure all employees have the tools to be propelled in their careers.

With the “demand more” slogan that Carly Fiorina preaches at HP we will see a re-birth of the same high standards that she subscribes to in the energy sector. Primarily because women in the energy zone will be demanding more, and that assists all their co-workers to have a better workplace environment, which translates into less absenteeism and a higher productivity level and in these fragile economic times all parties seek an enjoyable workplace environment/incubator to grow their careers in.

Women realize that this is not the age of Cinderella. As they continue to be called on to move to higher levels within their organizations women are persevering in embracing constructive criticism, enduring to hang in there when times are tough, and the acknowledging that comic relief is a lifesaver. The art of laughter solves many a problem and sets an example for those who follow…the glass ceiling is still a reality but relationship building across the globe is being done right now, right here in Houston, Texas.