Oh, itunes, quit playing games with my heart

Some days, my job is about as radical as they come. I work from the inside out and get to Fuck Shit Up. On other days however, it's all the same as any other office job. Which is not something I expected. But everyone in the University-Industrial-Complex isn't trying to bring down the capitalistic, racist, sexist patriarchy that runs this place, they're just trying to make it to the weekend with a little spending cash. So on a day like today my current situation is testing my loyalties within the department. I'm still learning the system, but I do a lot of different work for a lot of different people and I have been here for over a year and a half, and believe it or not, that and a genuine smile and hello really have gotten me pretty far. So do I undermine The Big Boss White Man and wait for the sexist-in-her-own-way, above-me-in-the-pecking-order-but-in-a-different-chicken-coup-and-'below'-TBBWM to return from vacation, or do I just do as I'm told and stiff her out of 20 bucks? Am I willing to piss off TBBWM and lose some of the favor I've worked so hard to earn for the sake of fairness? For the sake that this woman not getting her full amount reimbursed due to his own judgements and maybe greed is in charge of the bonus I may be getting any time now? Does my loyalty lie in the future with TBBWM and my continued employment and intense need for a raise eventually (fuck.), or does it lie with knowing he's wielding his power unfairly and wanting this woman to give me at least as much as I deserve for all the extra work I'm doing for her without being compensated? (How feminist is it of me to do unpaid labor? Well, it felt a little more feminist to me once she said she'd "take care of me" and get me a "big bonus".)

So there's the fairness argument. Technically TBBWM has jurisdiction and can choose reimburse how much he chooses. But according to The Business Policy and Procedure Manual (sec 2:090, I kid you not) she's eligible for all of that $42 and if he doesn't want to give it all to her, he needed to let her know ahead of time. So there's that. And the fact that on my own reimbursement from this summer, I did exactly what she did--except I remembered to put the "E" in the correct box on the form--and got reimbursed for my full amounts. She left out the E and he happens to think she just spent too much, but that's his opinion isn't it. And if he wanted to interject his own opinion, he needed to let her know ahead of time.

On the fairness argument, I side with her.

But is it enough? Especially if this is a fight I might lose? I think he does have the power to make this call. I'm not going to rock the boat for her, but should I wait until she's back from vacation and let her rock the boat for all of us? I'm not sure it's worth it.

Do I have a responsibility through my work, through my feminist values and ethics, or through my co-worker friendship to let her know he's forcing her to pay for her own dinner because he doesn't argue with what she got on the menu?

This sounds like a question for Awesome Feminist Boss who should be back this afternoon. IN the meantime, I guess I'll post long philosophical thought processes and maybe send some overdue personal emails. While being paid through TBBWM...