A Note: This is a continuation from my post last week. I began to write this, depressed myself, wrote the other one to cheer up, and the returned to this one to finish it. This is about the hard moments that come between the triumphs.
My job gets harder when my voice gets silenced by (well
meaning) coworkers who speak for me. My voice gets silenced usually because I
don’t speak Spanish enough to completely keep up with everything. On every rig is someone(s) who gets upset
with having to repeat things even once. Many find it easier to just go around
me; to ask my secondhand (who often has far less experience than me) for things,
or ask my coworker to ask me for things (often relayed from Spanish to Spanish)
or to just refuse to talk to me completely. When this happens it frustrates me
to no end.
Frustrates might not be the
correct word. It kills me. It absolutely destroys me each and every time I
receive indication that I am not competent to do my job. I love my job. And I’m
good at it. I know this because I work hard at it. I am competent to do my job,
in English and in Spanish. And every time I receive signals that I’m not… it
hurts and I feel more silenced.
I have more than the language working for and against
me. This may be a surprise, but women
are not treated equally in the oilfield. It’s a fact, a truth that no one who
has been on a rig or platform anywhere in the world will debate with you. The debate centers around whether that makes
it easier or harder to be a woman in the field.
Do I always have help picking up heavy things? Yes. Do I always have a
rig hand helping me do the most mundane task like measuring the drillpipe
joint? Yes. Does this make my life easier? Sure.
However, I’m still not convinced the advantages outweigh the
benefits.
