Your answer, it turns out, could make you richer or poorer than your female colleagues.
In an Essex University study called Does It Pay to Be Nice?, researcher Guido Heineck found that women who exhibited so-called "masculine" traits (aggressiveness or assertiveness, I imagine) earned about four percent more than their nicer or more passive colleagues over the course of their lives. To put a number on it, these Alpha Females earned about 40,000 pounds (or $65,224) more in their lifetime.
Conscientious women, or "women who displayed self-control and persistence" earned up to five percent more than their lazier co-workers. Neurotic women, however, or women who were more anxious and moody on the job, earned about three percent less than their co-workers.
None of this is a surprise, if you think about it, but what's frustrating is that although personality traits were deemed as important as intelligence in women, this hardly factored in at all when it came to a man's earning potential. Researcher Heineck: "Our statistics show that being nice does not pay for women, whereas working hard does. This is probably, in part, because agreeable people are too passive in conflict situations and are poorer wage negotiators."
Ben Sherman
Paul & Joe
APC
I am completely alpha type, assertive, but I also really do display "self control and persistence" as well. Which isn't exactly opposite of Alpha anyway. But seriously, I have no room for being passive, lazy or neurotic. It's not conducive to being successful or getting what you want.
1The kind of employee I am depends on the kind of boss I have. I am the conscientious type normally, but I turn into the lazy type when my work is unappreciated and I get yelled at for everything.
2I'm not working in my field right now (teaching), since I'm still in college. I work part-time in a library and I bust my ass. People are surprised when I tell them how much work it is. But my employer doesn't give raises like that; there are standard rates for whatever position you work in (clerk, librarian, janitor, etc.)
I think that when I begin my career I'll still be conscientious.
3I am not an employee. I can't stand working for someone else than myself.
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