What's an All-Female Workplace Like? Catfights Over Handbags, and Tears in the Toilet

Their simmering fight lasted hours, egged on by spectators taking sides and fuelling the anger. Sometimes other girls would join in, either heckling aggressively or huddling defensively in the toilets. It might sound like a scene from a tawdry reality show such as Big Brother, but the truth is a little more prosaic: it was just a normal morning in my office.

It was an idealistic vision swiftly shattered by the nightmare reality: constant bitchiness, surging hormones, unchecked emotion, attention-seeking and fashion rivalry so fierce it tore my staff apart.

I hired a team of seven staff and set up an office in Richmond upon Thames, Surrey. While the women I interviewed claimed to be enthused by the idea, they still insisted on high salaries. Fair enough, I thought at the time - they are professionals, and I knew most of them were talented and conscientious because I'd worked with them before.

But within a week, two cliques had developed: those who had worked together before and those who were producing 'new ideas'.

Most days would bring a pointed moment when some people were invited out for lunch or a coffee break - and some weren't. Nothing explicit was ever said; the cutting rejection was obvious enough.

Even when we all went to the pub after work, strict divisions remained, made clear according to who sat where around the table and who would be civil - or not - to whom.

I was one of 2 men in an office of 125 people. The job sucked but the women were great. I miss it sometimes. This woman was a total disaster as a leader if this story is true but it plays well to the Daily Fail readership.

I currently work in a female-dominated healthcare environment, maybe 20% of the staff are men. There is little to no interpersonal conflict among the nursing staff, probably because healthcare doesn't attract bitchy mean-girl types. Especially now, when everyone is told to maintain social distancing during breaks!

Television production types, however, DEFINITELY attracts ambitious, competitive, perfectionist, controlling, ruthless personality types - the meanest of the mean girls! Okay, an all female staff means no sexism or sexual harrassment, but Ms. Brick should have still realized these are not the sort of people who will turn their workplace into a New Michfest.

R4 real men don't want to work in an office with one other man and 123 women. I will treat your post as a cry for help.

Watch the last 10 minutes of 9 to 5. Everything ship-shape.

R6 I know you have a problem with women and you posted this because if confirmed your bias but kindly fuck off a gay forum with the 'real man' bullshit because a real man certainly doesn't bitch on the internet about his hatred of teenage girls as you do.

I guess this anecdotal story is supposed to serve as a warning to anyone who even THINKS about having an all-female workplace, while any all-male workplace remains a non-story.

I once worked in a small office that had 6 women. They were all in their 40s through 60s, and it was the kindest, most supportive atmosphere ever. Maybe it was just luck...or maybe these women had outgrown the pettiness that sometimes comes with youth.

Samantha Brick hates women and got famous by being a massive troll.

I’m sure any bitchiness and toxicity was started by her, probably as article fodder.

Why would a woman who despises other women start an all-female company?

I work in a Women Only health club and have zero complaints.

And no Rose, I'm not a lesbian.

I'm a woman who's worked in both heavily male-dominated and heavily female-dominated government agencies. I've met a lot more highly intelligent and talented women than I have men, but give me the male-dominated workplace every time. The other kind is exhausting. Intelligence and talent are great, but they don't stack up in the absence of calm professionalism and the capacity to distinguish work relationships from personal ones.

Everyone has a dynamic that works. I think straight men make the best bosses, followed in a distant, distant second by women. Most women hate having female bosses themselves. Women are driven by emotion and proving to everyone they have power if they have it, men just use it, but don't make a big deal out of it. By far, my abolsute worst bosses were older gay men.

It smell like bad tuna a couple days each week. Also, can’t keep Q-tips around cause they end up in some girls snatch cuz they forgot a tampon on heavy flow day. Eventually all the women start having massive orgies on their desks and in the lobby of the building- just like them porno movies.

This is why Mother won’t let me work with women. They are evil, plus they ain’t got no dicks for me to suck as a service to others

Women's periods stink. It smells very metallic and disgusting. I've seen a woman have an accident in a khaki pants at work.

I interned in a huge all woman office. It was so sick and backwards. The repulsive troll woman boss started coming on to me LOL. Never again. It was for a degree and I decided to switch careers!

Was her name Pat R16?

Almost all the administrative people in my company were female, probably about 35 or 40, periodically they would have clean out the drains or traps in the bathrooms because they flushed tampons and pads down the drains. Like a giant trash bag full. The women would sit around and say "tsk-tsk now who would do a thing like that?" The maintenance manager's head would almost explode.

I’d guess it’s not much different than an all gay workplace.

I've been in two work environments dominated by women, one sucked and the other was heaven.

I worked at a Micheal's as a teenager, one of only 4 males that worked there at the time. It was awful. The general manager (female) ended up getting fired for sexual harassment because one of the other guys reported her.

I have always worked in female dominated environments. It always comes down to personality. One job was always good. Another was terrible from the start and the third was great unless one certain person was around. My partner works in an almost exclusively male environment and has exactly the same issues.

Both the insurance company and the brokerage I worked at were primarily staffed by women, with men almost exclusively in the supervisory roles. The brokerage lost 75% of its employees in one week because the straight fratbros wouldn't stop harassing the women. The head of the department at the insurance company was an utter choad, stealing the food the ladies brought to holiday potlucks and groping the women he thought wouldn't nark on him.

The poster claiming to be a woman who prefers men because they have "calm professionalism" and women don't sounds like one of Milo Y's leftover shitposters.

My theory is that it isn't having mostly men or mostly women in a workplace that causes problems. It's having Repug men or women in a workplace that causes problems. Think about all the worst people you've worked with over the years. Even if you weren't cognizant of their actual political affiliation, I bet there was some inkling. I work in a competely liberal almost exclusively female environment and we get shit done and all get along. In the past it has always been the same unless you mix in a conservative man or woman. The conservative Repug mindset is a mental illness that created discord wherever it shows up.

R10 has admitted to being a lesbian elsewhere.

It always works out well!

My two managers are women and I love them both. Kind, patient and practical. I have 25 co-workers, all but three are women and we get along fine.

I knew that name rang a bell. Samantha Brick is the narcissistic nutcase who became internet infamous about 10 years ago by claiming that all other women hated her because she was so beautiful.

The picture below (hope the link works) should tell you just how rational this woman beautiful-only-in-her-own-disordered-mind woman is.

So the very idea that she would start an all-female company is at most the setup to a very bad joke.

This is such a strangely written piece. If you look past the obvious agenda, you see what a really poor manager she was. She couldn't manage her employees, plain and simple. It also sounded like she made some poor hiring decisions from the get-go. [italic]Every[/italic] employee that you hired was an emotional freak show of insecurities, rage, lack of boundaries and "hormones?" Really? Because if I'm to believe that, it makes me think more that you're a really shitty decision-maker and not "bitches be crazy."

And all of them would fall to pieces at the sight of a man? They'd all go gaga when they showed up in the office, fighting over who could sink their claws into him fastest? Really? Did she not hire queer or married women as a policy? VERY suspect if true.

Also, the random, breathless stories of female-rage and drama all pile up one after another, but there's little context or explanation if you examine them individually. The story about the handbags makes ZERO sense; two women received "the same surprise gift" of handbags -- "the same?" Identical brand, styles, color? Received from whom? Did [italic]she[/italic] gift these bags to her two employees, or did another individual? Or did these two co-workers coincidentally receive the same gift from their own personal relationships?

This is never explained, just that they "clocked (?) the matching handbags at the office," whatever that means, and it "was like pistols at dawn." I'm sorry, what? Two co-workers showed up with the same handbag, and then... what happened? The next line starts "They forced a few compliments," "they" meaning each other? They "forced?" What? How? Were threats exchanged? Were they complimenting each other, or receiving compliments from the other co-workers?

That sentence in full reads "They forced a few compliments,[bold] but relations never recovered, to the expense of my company." [/bold] "Relations?" Between the two with "matching" handbags? Were they close with each other to begin with? Or is she saying "relations" within the whole office deteriorated over two handbags?

And "to the expense of my company?" That means what, exactly, in regards to this particular story about two women, 2 handbags, "forced compliments," and some vague thing about "relations?" What a load of CRAP. The author is full of shit.

The worst are the stories about a stolen laptop, and two workers fighting over a free parking that one was gifted by "the landlord." These are obvious examples of unequal treatment of employees, where she or her manager didn't step it and correct an obvious imbalance with a right and a wrong party. She's just a REALLY bad boss/manager, in addition to being a ridiculously vague writer with an obvious agenda.

I wonder how much she got paid for this hit piece on her fellow women. That money probably comes in hand when you're a no-talent hack who blames everything on the people around you, and beneath you as well.

As pointed out above, she doesn't need to get paid to "write" (if that's what you can call this word salad) hit pieces on her fellow women -- she's delighted to do them for free. The bitch is both batshit delusional and a toxic narcissist.

I don't know whom she's blowing at the Daily Fail to be getting space for her rants there, but maybe they figure she's notorious enough that people will hate-read it and generate some clicks? Like a Trump effect...

Lol. Most of my career has been working with mostly women. You want to talk toxic? Women building each other up is a myth.

I work mainly with women and yes, toxic, but a definitely different flavor. I crave spending time around men because of mainly working with women. But men are assholes, women are bitches

It really depends. Working in a hospital, the women who work in OBgyn are the absolute worst people, but those in Pediatrics are the most collegial. The male dominated surgery department is the worst in toxicity with their dick measuring contests and the few women who manage to get there are horrible as well.

The staff at my job (over 120 employees) is probably at least 95% women. I am the only man in most meetings I attend. For the most part, it's always been fine to me. Sometimes you get some women who want to fight for control, but that's been rare.

I've read that even women prefer working for a man over another woman. Uncertain as to any backup data.

Reading the article it's very clear she was the first problem and she hired her second problem as the general manager. No one was disciplined, no one was fired. I would tolerate none of that.

I work with all women directly now and just a few men, mostly women indirectly and it's wonderful. It's the best work environment I have ever had.

[quote]I work with all women directly now and just a few men, mostly women indirectly and it's wonderful. It's the best work environment I have ever had.

You also describe yourself as a radical feminist, so, very biased.

R38 is obviously a man and, therefore, very biased.

Eh, yeah, I'm a gay man. This is Datalounge.

This website is for me, not straight women.

But it is for gay women, r40, so stop being a prick.

Rescue-chick isn't a lesbian.

I've managed restaurants for years. Elder gay here. I'd rather have a staff of males over females anytime. Just a fact.

An old gay man who doesn't like women at R43? I'm so fucking shocked.

Yes, old gay men frequent Datalounge. If you have a problem with our opinions, leave.

I've worked in offices where the men were straight and every bit as bitchy and petty as the women. It all depends on the environment and the sort of behavior upper management will allow to go on.

Sounds like an all-DLers workplace.

They should adapt that article into a sitcom. A very funny read.

There is nothing more wrong with an all female workplace than any other type. Some people suck or are power hungry, some not.

I usually prefer all female because I don't have to worry if there are some other intentions going on (this was more important when I was younger). No favoritism or not based on cuteness or not.

You could say that a gay man would be fine in that mix, but if it's one or two gay guys and a bunch of women, the guys still want to be the Alpha. With a bunch of women (on the same job level) it can be more of a collective or whatever.

Sorry this was so boring. Considering deleting it.

R26, and what does that have to do with my post?

Sounds like a drag. Boring.

[quote] You could say that a gay man would be fine in that mix, but if it's one or two gay guys and a bunch of women, the guys still want to be the Alpha.

This is so true but I never thought about it in this context. When it's been me and another attractive gay guy on the same level, we did not get around when on an all women team. I guess there is that feeling to want to be the only gay, have all the women fawning over you. That's some gayling shit though. Now we just all want to get through the day.

Women are stupid and I hate them!

I think gay men a gay male boss can either be the best or the worst being gay. If you have an start with them when you are young and work well with them, they can often make you rich. On the flip side,If they have a crush and you don't play the game or they are jealous, they can make your life hell.

OP is a freeper who linked to Daily Fail

I once left a job without notice because I was going to be the only male in about 20 women. I lasted 9 days. They all had grudges and gossiped about someone as soon as she left the room. Certain women never spoke. There were tears.

Leave that shit at home, bitch- and grow-up.