I would like to compare and contrast two #jobs here in the UK. They happen to be my job and my wife's job.

My job first. I work on a small part of a global manufacturing giant's website. I basically tweak it to add tiny improvements in style or the display of data. I can honestly say I have not done any work in the last 6 months that would generate income for my employers equal to what I am paid. I am literally wasting money for them. I get paid very handsomely to do this.

My job adds precisely fuck all to society as a whole. It only "benefits" the company I work for. I guess a proportion of the tax I pay goes to making the world better through funding the NHS etc.

My wife works in a council run day centre for people with all kinds of disabilities and additional needs. They play games, do arts and crafts, sing, go out for trips, provide access to the internet and more. My wife's job is basically to make people happy. To give them meaning in their lives and to give them something to look forward to. In doing that she takes pressure off the NHS, the police and more. She makes the world a better place.

The council had to wait for the governments last update to minimum wage as they worried that if they set their pay rate it would wind up being below minimum wage.

The whole system is crazy.

@robcornelius part of this is that you are doing a job traditionally done by men, and your wife a "female" job.

@Actionreplay

Of course that is a huge part of it. It shouldn't be but it just is.

All the women on my current team are in testing jobs... not coding or management. All the junior devs are in India. All the senior devs / team leads are in the UK

Its not as bad as one place I worked where the CTO/MD congratulated me one the day I started as I was "The only white guy who applied". They had 400 or so people in the offices. Not one black or brown person there. True story.

@robcornelius wow. I was used to being the only woman on tech teams before I retired. There were quite a few female project managers though as there were many female business analysts and that was a promotion stream.

I went back to being a contractor when I realised I was being judged on how amenable I was and the men were not in assessment for promotion. (I am nice at work, unless you play silly buggers, in which case I am not.)

@Actionreplay

We used to have a female PM but she was a headless chicken type. To be fair she personally got a lot of work done but she made such a fuss about it she negatively impacted everyone else on the team.

I am 53 now. I simply do not give a fuck any more. I can't take work seriously. I just take the piss out of anyone who does, to their faces too.

@robcornelius I am retired. I don't have to care any more.