I didn't fit in at SEIU, and that's a really positive thing, because I feel like I narrowly avoided joining a high-control group.
The jobs are all-encompassing, working long hours, including nights and weekends, and being contacted by colleagues for non-urgent matters on weekends, at a wage that turns out to be very low once you do the math of how much you're working. If SEIU members were subjected to these same conditions, SEIU would be holding rallies and protests. The amount of work that was piled on to me when I started was unconscionable. Often, the amount of work that staff were expected to do meant that the work product was very, very poor, and we publicly embarrassed ourselves on more than a few occasions.
One of my colleagues told me that there was some angst about me, that the higher-ups were talking about how exceptional my work was and it was irritating my peers who had been there longer. That positive feedback never made it back to me, and I think that was on purpose, to keep me on a treadmill of working harder and trying to please everyone.
SEIU was by far the most sexist job I've ever had, where I was constantly subjected to sexist comments, mansplaining, and microaggressions. I was expected to perform high-level work, while being treated like a waitress. Overall, I noticed that women staffers did most of the heavy lifting, and men showed up to meetings late and underprepared and then dominated the meetings.
We harped constantly about how hard life was for the working poor, but when I started to hit the point of burnout, people acted like it was a personal responsibility issue. (I was not given a reduction in my workload) When I started to set some healthy boundaries with my boss around my availability on weekends, I was swiftly "frozen out."
I thought I wanted to build a career in the labor movement, and I returned to the for-profit sector for a less sexist work environment. I am the only socialist I know who does not support big labor unions.
