Hello beautiful readers!

Since this past Wednesday was International Women’s day, I thought it appropriate to follow up discussing the stereotypes and differences of Men VS Women in the workplace.

Being out of college for 4 years now, it’s easy to pinpoint several of these differences; one of those being that male and female counterparts are expected to email in different ways while in the office.

When I receive emails from my male counterparts, they generally are very black and white and to the point. There’s no fluff in the message and you can immediately interpret the information you need from it. Punctuation may not even be present as it’s not needed to quickly convey facts; I appreciate this type of communication.

When you’re receiving upwards of 400 emails a day, responses really should be short. Otherwise, how on earth are you going to get responses out to all of them? There’s no time for fluff. Exclamation marks, intros, and smiley faces are hindrances when simply looking to communicate specifics.

NOW, being a woman, I found out that we don’t really have the flexibility to email the same way a man does. Please read the two varying responses to the question below:

What can we do differently to land this deal?

Squeeze our margins and aggressively lower bill rates
Hello! How are you today? We are going to squeeze our margins and aggressively lower bill rates!

#1 is similar to emails I receive from male counterparts every day. I started mirroring this format because it’s more efficient.

#2 is what is expected from females; fluff and enthusiastic punctuation.

Anyways, I sent #1 to a colleague, trying to be as effective in my work day as possible, and guess what happened? I got a THREE paragraph response back on how my answer was “curt” and that I potentially misunderstood the question because I seemed “bothered”…

….well I wasn’t bothered…but I am now lol!!

I am 100% a fan of answering a work question concisely, BUT because I’m a woman, I’m now hesitant to answer work related questions without exclamation points or smiley faces for fear of coming off irritated. This seems ridiculous, no? Does leaving out fluff and punctuation really make someone come off as a b*tch? This seems to be the case.

Let’s look at another situation.

I work in the staffing industry; my goal each and every day is to get as many people hired as possible. Staffing throws a lot of curve balls as we’re dealing with people, and at the end of the day, people are uncontrollable. You can do your part of the job flawlessly but ultimately, you can’t 100% regulate the actions of the individual you got the job for.

Example: We received an offer for a consultant and his communication with us was consistently delayed. We finally had to pull his offer because he had gone dark on us, meaning we hadn’t heard from him in several days, for the fourth time. Cue the email I received from him below:

“Im sick and have been bedridden with the flu. You know the epidemic going around the united states. If you feel it so neceasary to ruin a job oppurtunity because your a woman and thats how most women behave. Especially when someone other than their self runs into a problem, than so be it. I would hate for you to have to complicate your day”

Lol people, I can’t with this one. The grammar is one thing and the train of thought is another.

First off, I am in staffing! I hate taking away job opportunities because that takes away from my bank account! & my bank account is hangry! Second off, essentially making a statement that all women are only out for themselves and enjoy ruining people’s days is incredibly misogynistic.

So stay strong in the workplace ladies. We certainly still have a lot of stereotypes to break through; but as we continue to excel in our careers and take over executive positions, the more typecasts we can break down! Get out there and grind babes and have a fabulous work week!

Till next time!

Men VS Women In The Workplace