Underpinnings Blog

Category: Unity

  • A Head Start

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Anger We Know, Pain We Don’t A few years ago, a friend talked me into online dating.  I successfully had resisted getting sucked into this activity for a long time, not because I disapprove or think it doesn’t work, but because it is in direct opposition to what I need and want from a relationship. …

  • No Action

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Fighting by Doing Nothing So.  Here we are.  How should I write an introduction for a post in a time when our situation changes every day?  And how do I know what you need when you read this?  Do you want humor to take your mind off the horror of today and the uncertainty of…

  • Because You Can

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    We Need a Little Happy Oh. My. Heavens.  Is the world trying to put us in a bad mood?  Have you had a few dark weeks lately?  Apparently the coronavirus is going to kill us all, and even if it doesn’t the news media is going to scare us into canceling all events and not…

  • The Others

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    More is Better By Guest Contributor Lori Simpson (Editors’ Note:  Lori is our hero.  You can read her brilliance here.  If you are lucky enough to meet her in person, pay attention). The “Member Voices” article in the May 2019 ASCE Civil Engineering magazine hit home for me. Hannah Workman, a student at Fairmont State University…

  • Equal Pay! Equal Pay!

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    A Victory for All Did you watch?  Did you cheer?  Did you cry every time they showed a commercial with a young girl with a hopeful expression? I realize that not all of our Underpinnings community may have been interested in the recent victory by the United States team in the FIFA World Cup, but…

  • When You Get Squashed

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Happy 2019!  Is it fabulous so far?  Don’t let the weather color your answer – it is January, after all, and January must be true to itself.  As a landscaper friend of mine once told me, “How do you expect all those beautiful things to emerge in the spring if they don’t die back in…

  • Time’s Up II

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Part II – Us Previously we addressed the unsuitable behavior of some men in the workplace, and we offered guidelines for those men who were either sincerely or disingenuously unable to tell the difference between appropriate and inappropriate actions. The other variable in the equation that adds up to a happy workplace is our behavior.…

  • Happy Anniversary Us!

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Where’s the Smash Cake? A little over a year ago we decided to do something crazy, and Underpinnings was hatched.  We have built up a fabulous community, and we hear every day from one of our “skirts in dirt” how much they enjoy reading others’ stories and how much it helps them to know they’re…

  • Thankful

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    Thanks Are Not Relative Here at Underpinnings, we strive to figure out how to level the playing field for women in the deep foundations industry and in other male-dominated fields.  We try to listen to the women in our professional and personal communities so that we can understand the many facets of the obstacles women…

  • Are You a Feminist?

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    Peggy Hagerty Duffy
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    What Does That Even Mean? Are you a feminist?  What exactly does that mean? And is it important to you to identify yourself as such? Megyn Kelly, former Fox News host and current NBC news personality, was widely derided in 2016 by her refusal to label herself as a feminist.  She stated that the term…