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Working With Women...Working Women


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What does feel like working in an office full of women?

 

I'll soon be working in an office full of women and am curious what to expect. I was told that the women in this office chose me out of candidates to work in this office.

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thefooloftheyear

As long as there are no men around, it would probably be fine....Throw one cock in the hen house and all bets are off....:laugh:

 

TFY

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I'm female and one thing I notice is that if there's a lot of women, it can be extra gossipy. But then with all men, it's all sports all the time, so...

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From being a male nurse in LTC I've noticed a few things being in a majority female environment.

1. Women tend to back stab more than men.

2. A lot more passive aggressive activity. You don't like someone or what they do so you do passive aggressive things to anger them.

3. Gossip. As a man you don't do it.

4. Avoidance of confrontation. You have a problem with someone and talk to everyone else but that person about it. Then when that person comes to talk about it you avoid it.

5. Women do things that if the situation was reversed would be considered sexual harassment. Woman gets rejected by man and she does everything to get him in trouble. Conversations about sex that if were men doing it would be a big no no.

 

In a lot of ways it changed the way I viewed women. I would listen to the conversations and be astonished about a lot of things. It changed my view of cheating. The going perception is that men cheat more. I'd say its neck and neck but the thing is men get caught more. Getting caught more doesn't mean that they do it more. Then I found out why but that if for another thread.

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JustGettingBy

I was the only man in an office filled with women and was fine. Then again, it was an internship and all the women were paid employees, so that might have changed the dynamic.

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BettyDraper
I'm female and one thing I notice is that if there's a lot of women, it can be extra gossipy. But then with all men, it's all sports all the time, so...

 

This. I don't like working with other women...too much cattiness, backstabbing and gossip.

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When I was young, I worked a low paying job in a large office building full of women--most of whom were "lifers" in this dead-end job. It was awful. Lots of gossip, drama, cattiness, etc. I hated it.

 

I currently work in a professional job with women--all the way through management to the top. It's a very satisfying, well paid job. There is none of that drama or gossip. My colleagues are extremely supportive of each other, both professionally and personally. I love it!

 

Put a bunch of people in a miserable position, and unsurprisingly they will be miserable. That's true for men or women.

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Thanks for your feedback. I'll find out one way or another. My father believes working with a bunch of women there will be gossip, high emotions and drama. But I'm hoping being in a high paid, professional setting will circumvent the stigma of how some women are.

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I've never been in an all-women workspace. I've been in all-men ones though, and that wasn't all rainbows and kittens either.

 

In general I tend to believe that mixed gender communities are the best, because the two genders 'balance' each other out in a way, so to speak.

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I've worked in predominately male work places for most of my career. And I've found that I really like the places where I get to work with more women. For me, it's been nice :-) There's a lovely comraderie that you can cultivate with women.

 

However... one small caveat. I do find that there are a small number of women that 'eat their young'. The type that like to set themselves up by specifically making other women look bad. I guess there are probably men that do this too; but in my experience it's women that are better at it due to alllllllll that relationship training from an early age.

 

Just steer clear of the toxic ones (learn to recognise them fast!) and foster good relationships with the genuine ones. You'll have each other's backs. There really are more good people than bad in the world. IMO anyway.

 

Good luck!

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I like a mix. The women I found difficult in my last job joined us as a group from a different company, they literally tried to swarm the place, lots of gossip, bitching, whispering. They continuously tried to involve me even though I said no Every. Single. Time. I remember I emailed the ex I worked with when I got another invite asking when it was going to end. His answer was 'NEVER!' haha!

 

I find generally men more easy going, you say no thank you once and they stop bugging you. Women just keep on and on and on. In a group, that is. I feel sorry for the more submissive ones.

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TaraMaiden2

I'm a woman. I work in an environment with approximately 50 women, and around 5 men (who don't all work the same shift patterns).

 

It's lovely.

There's virtually no gossiping, no bitchiness and never any backstabbing.

There's the occasional chit-chat, but it doesn't last long, and it's trivia....

 

You get one or two square pegs, but there's nothing of long-lasting or perpetual irritation or damage. Things happen, there's chat, it blows over in a day.

 

I've made more good friends in the past year than I ever did in my last 3 jobs.

 

I love my job.

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There is only one man who works in my office building. We all get along well, support each other, and have a lot of fun as well. Everyone is very dedicated and it is a bit like a family.

 

I believe we get what we expect to get.

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My current job is a company of 12 people. Only 3 are men. There is no cattiness.. We don't all love each other, but there's very little drama. And in fact, the boys have had their share of falling outs as well.

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My industry is 90 percent women. It's pretty normal.

 

They will be talking about things that guys don't care about. Especially if there is an age gap.

 

I've noticed that teenage boys and older women are pretty similar in how dirty they get when gossiping.

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My industry is 90 percent women. It's pretty normal.

 

They will be talking about things that guys don't care about. Especially if there is an age gap.

 

I've noticed that teenage boys and older women are pretty similar in how dirty they get when gossiping.

 

Haha oh yes. I prefer to work with women my age. Filthy as.

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I hate it...

 

They're like little girls in high school. They'll pick on you if you're prettier, smarter, etc. They form cliques.

 

Men don't get it. They'll be like "she's ok" and I'm like "dude, she's ok with you cuz you're not a woman...geesh":rolleyes:

 

Worst when they're in positions of power (managers, supervisors). Then you got a Queen Bee who thinks every other thing with a vagina is in competition with her.

 

I've gotten to the point where I dress down, and/or hide my skills, abilities, etc. to see if I can deflect them to focusing on another target for their angst.

 

Oh, and I've worked in situations with a mix of maie-femaie. So, you don't have to have a majority of females to have female pettiness and drama.

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whichwayisup
I'm female and one thing I notice is that if there's a lot of women, it can be extra gossipy. But then with all men, it's all sports all the time, so...

 

In my experience this is so not true. Men can be just as gossipy as women. Also they don't just talk about sports.

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I'm in an office of four women. Things were great, until my contract was up for renewal and I asked to be able to work from home two days a week (the job is 50 miles away from my home). Well, the boss (who lives in another country) agreed; but one of the women, who's under a different contract, isn't allowed to work from home at all. She was PISSED, with capital, bolded, and underlined letters. She and one of the other women attacked me as soon as I came in the next day, gave me the third degree, basically accused me of 'cheating' on them by asking for something she couldn't get. I tried to explain it had nothing to do with them, I was just a temporary worker and I had to do what was right for me, it had nothing to do with them.

 

This was at the beginning of December. That woman turned her nose up at me every single time we had to cross paths all the way into mid February. Never spoke a SINGLE word to me the entire two months. It was torture. The others told me that SHE said it was ME who wouldn't talk to HER. So I swallowed my pride and tried to kiss up to her, and she started responding here and there.

 

But now she's back to openly ignoring me. And now the others are, too. I can't win. I'm not being included in conversations. I walked up to them to join a conversation yesterday, and the one woman literally stood in front of me talking to them and wouldn't move over to let me join in, so I stood there facing her back the whole time, making a couple comments here and there, until I just gave up and went back to my desk.

 

We're being moved, and we were supposed to go look at the new possible locations after lunch yesterday. Well, I went to lunch to run an errand, came back to the office...and all three were gone. Looking at the new offices (which I didn't know where they were). For two hours. I sent them an email saying 'you went without me? :('

 

Nobody said a word to me about it when they got back.

 

After that, I just couldn't deal with it anymore. I left work early. And went and drank a whole bottle of wine, lol.

 

So, there you are - working with women.

 

Have fun!

Edited by turnera
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Turnera, I'm so sorry you have to deal with that cattiness. At least you tried and kudos to you on getting an approved working from home.

 

Thanks for sharing.

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Well, they ended up cutting my hours from 40/week to 16/week, so now I'm only in the office one day a week. Hopefully I'll find a new job soon. Now I know why I always get along better with men.

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I had a contract renewal this last December, I've taken on another department under my wing. This new department consists of 4 girls. (3 of them are normal co-workers and 1 is an apprentice), basically the department was all girls.

 

The reason for me being there is because all 4 of them don't get long with each other or at least 2 gang up on the other 2, back and forth. So it was CFO's decision that there should be a Male presence in that department so the backstabbing and everything else would stop.

 

From what I've noticed, if things are going fine, everything is nice and dandy when you have an understanding with each other. If there isn't, all hell breaks lose. I have been working since the beginning of January in that department, every singe one of them have complained to me about the other, that what the other one does wrong.

 

It all boils down to how mature are the co-workers, speaking of the department I'm in, they are quite immature.

 

- They constantly backstab each other

- They constantly keep an eye out on what the other one is doing wrong

- They shift blames to each other

- They expect others to do a perfect job, when they are incapable of doing the same task

- They are all very gossipy

- Each one thinks that she's queen of the house and has more right than the other

 

Throw a Male in the mix and they try to get you on their side, I have listened to both sides, but I stand my ground on what is right & what is wrong. A lot of things have lessened since I've joined or should I say that they are still active in the background but they don't hinder the work that is suppose to be done.

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In my experience this is so not true. Men can be just as gossipy as women. Also they don't just talk about sports.

 

Absolutely! A lot of men out there really love to gossip. And it's not necessarily a bad thing either. There's a bit of a myth that men who enjoy gossiping aren't "real men" I've found that the men who like gossiping are often very good with people, interested in people, have strong emotional intelligence etc. Usually pretty extroverted, very confidently sociable types.

 

When gossip becomes a toxic thing is hard to measure. At one end of the scale you have people who gossip primarily because they care about others. So they want to know who's suffering poor health, who might need their help and support etc. At the other end of the scale, people who don't care at all for the people they're gossiping about and just want to tear their reputation to shreds.

 

In the middle, people who are caught between the two extremes at times. Who enjoy the humorously bitchy element that often features in gossip, but who will distance themselves when it becomes more mean-spirited than they're comfortable with.

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I think it's one thing to gossip on a friday in a pub and it's another when someone is going around whispering... looking around... back to whispering. I used to put music on to block them out but they would just start talking to me anyway. Usually about themselves so nothing caring/sharing going on.

 

I think it's a group dynamics thing often and whether the ring leaders are nice people. Because women can be submissive, they will put up with the dynamic unfortunately, making it worse.

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I think it just depends on the office environment. One office was a very professional setting, and all the women were very kind to each other and the overall environment was very positive, encouraging and welcoming.

 

 

The other office I was in long-term was in a manufacturing facility. There the women were catty and gossipy, and it was completely different. Lots of cliques and backstabbing.

 

 

In both offices there were no male peers, but both had male bosses.

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