Overheard

I was in the office a little earlier than usual the other morning when I overheard a disturbing conversation. It went a little something like this:

A male co-worker asked some female co-workers about a previous night’s meeting, “How did it go last night?”

“Ugh, awful!” the one female co-worker exclaimed.

“Yeah, it was bad,” the other remarked.

“Can’t you girls just get along?” male co-worker asked.

Inside I groaned. I couldn’t believe he would say such a thing. Unfortunately, I’ve come to expect it from some men, even though it’s not right. However, I thought this guy would know better. But things were about to get worse.

“You don’t even know,” the other female co-worker said. “She wore a blouse cut to HERE and her bra was showing and she looked about 12.”

“Yeah,” the other female said. “And she’s DEFINITELY not. She’s way older than us.”

“You girls,” the male co-worker sighed. “So catty.”

Now I was boiling. Both because the women would stoop to insulting someone on such a frivolous, physical level (actually acting sort of catty) and that the man would comment on it in such a demeaning fashion.

Why do women do this to one another? Do you ever see men talking to another man over a cubicle wall about some guy’s outfit?

“Did you SEE Ted’s pants today?”
“Positively dreadful. I wish he would realize it’s not 1985. Zubas called, they want their pants back.”
“And that hair! Did he even brush it?”
“And he REALLY needs to do something about those roots.”

And would you ever hear a women calling out males as being “full of testosterone ” and “needing to take it out on the football field”–in FRONT of other men?

Maybe you do. I don’t. And when something like this happens, it gets my goat. I wish we, as women, “could all get along,” as the male co-worker said. And I wish men, especially senior-level, example-setting types, wouldn’t rely on such stereotypes–joking or not. Getting equal pay, promotions, and benefits when it comes to the working world is hard enough. It gets even harder when people behave like this.