It isn't only men who create harassing environments

Dear Bob ...

Commenting on your recent article, "Managers who have discriminating tastes," Keep the Joint Running, 5/12/2008) I really like working with women engineers as most of them are very detail oriented (a must-have attribute for engineers) and try to be competent. I can't say that for many men engineers I've worked with. However, some women over-compensate to the point of being snotty.

When it comes to discrimination in the workplace, I see it practiced regularly where the number of women is higher than men. For example, one client has an administrative department made up of women exclusively. The technical department has mostly men and one woman. In the company as a whole, women make up the majority of workers.

The administrative department women are routinely rude and demeaning toward the technical men. I routinely observe sexual harassment and verbal harassment toward the men, although in the local culture it isn't considered harassment, it is business as usual. So, in this case, harassment toward men is okay according to the women, but the women would really whine when something didn't go their way.

What a topsy-turvy world we live in.

- Inverted

Dear Inverted ...

You make a point that needs to be considered. In the modern workplace, overt sexual harassment by men is, increasingly, frowned upon socially as well as being illegal. Equivalent behavior by women is much more tolerated; often it's considered funny.

While I don't have any statistics to back up the observation that this is increasingly common, my own experience certainly includes instances (this old "Survival Guide," provides one example: "Information Technology or the Borg Collective?" InfoWorld, 8/18/1997). Thanks for pointing it out.

It's easy to understand how this happens -- the desire for retaliation is the most obvious explanation. That doesn't make it okay, just easy to understand.

An opinion, for whatever it's worth: Your point would have been more strongly made without your final complaint. Conditional accusations are rarely persuasive and always demeaning: Blaming this group of women for behavior you expect is quite different from blaming them for behavior you've observed.

- Bob