Amen and amen! Our culture is awash with hysterical warnings about "toxic masculinity," but toxic femininity gets a pass. Women have moved away from motherhood and into middle management, ruining both the home and the workplace in the process. Among the younger generations, the females are doing better by practically every metric, yet the females still get preferential DEI treatment to make up for a Patriarchy that hasn't existed for at least 30 years. We are overdue for a correction going back the other way. And if no such correction occurs, the countries that haven't feminized their cultures and militaries will inevitably topple us. The future is not female; it is human, with male and female restored to their proper harmony. Our country may have to learn that lesson the hard way.
At times I thought about writing this article, but now that you have, I don’t need to. Truly outstanding. I have escaped to a small company run by men. Work has never been so good. I am sure I will have PTSD for years because of my 20 years in female environments.
These workplaces have always driven me crazy. I worked for three years at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. All my colleagues, save one, were female. Our boss was male. I used to describe the situation as "too many hens, not enough roosters." I'm still in this line of work, with a defense contractor, but now my chain of command is male to male to...and I'm so much happier. I can just drill down on my competence and not worry about all of the stupid interpersonal shit that I don't grasp.
There's another type of management clone that I've noticed - male, but barely, probably not gay but can be mistaken for it, always speaking with a distinctive, soft, passive-aggressive uptalk. This seems to me the mirror image of the Dread Woman den mother you describe. A self-castrated man perfectly adapted to the digital Longhouse.
So-called "women's liberation" has had the same adverse effect on the workplace as affirmative action for blacks. Both movements were in the name of civil rights but empowered and favored people who lack merit, which was a civil wrong.
I broke out in a cold sweat and contemplated pulling my fingernails out with pliers several times as I read this article, but then I remembered it’s only an article and it can’t hurt me. You,my friend, have been residing somewhere in between the 8th and 9th circles of Hell. Condolences. You are in the belly of the beast.
This is such a work of art. I'm just some blue collar guy masquerading as an embedded systems engineer and for ten years in Silicon Valley. The Meta gig was the worst.
This is a very interesting essay. The bit about how projects are run these days is spot on with my experience, much to my unhappiness.
The bit about check boxes is interesting; I had always thought of that as a result of the popularity of “Taylorization”, or scientific management of the industrial plant being applied to the office (often badly or inappropriately.) I wonder now if I am mistaken, or if Taylorization methods just really appeal to women by coincidence given their tendencies as you describe.
As someone who is both female and has worked in HR/Employment law for many years, I sadly recognise all of this. Early on I realised I was more comfortable working with men and the female dominated places I have worked along the way have been hellish. A lot of the problems I deal with professionally relate either to emotions based actions/decisions characteristic of women or are the result of struggles for dominance/group identity. Women can be truly awful human beings. We saw some of this play out during covid - the sniping, spying on others, vaccine mandates; all of it eminates from the feminised workplace and society we have created. Great article, bravo.
"A divorced girl in her mid-thirties brought her large dog to work everyday, and for some inexplicable reason relating to seniority, perhaps, they had an entire enclosed office space to themselves, her and the dog..." This was almost certainly some kind of ADA accommodation of the "emotional support animal" variety, or at least pitched as such to a HR department that did not feel that Mount Labrador was an optically sound hill to die on and declined to push back.
I'm retired (from banking and tech) and do not miss THE bullshit for a second. Should of stayed in cribbing and swapped shit talk with my peers on the patriarchal job site rather than marinate in the brine of the matriarchal longhouse and made the same living.
Amen and amen! Our culture is awash with hysterical warnings about "toxic masculinity," but toxic femininity gets a pass. Women have moved away from motherhood and into middle management, ruining both the home and the workplace in the process. Among the younger generations, the females are doing better by practically every metric, yet the females still get preferential DEI treatment to make up for a Patriarchy that hasn't existed for at least 30 years. We are overdue for a correction going back the other way. And if no such correction occurs, the countries that haven't feminized their cultures and militaries will inevitably topple us. The future is not female; it is human, with male and female restored to their proper harmony. Our country may have to learn that lesson the hard way.
At times I thought about writing this article, but now that you have, I don’t need to. Truly outstanding. I have escaped to a small company run by men. Work has never been so good. I am sure I will have PTSD for years because of my 20 years in female environments.
Let's get this out of the way...I'm female.
These workplaces have always driven me crazy. I worked for three years at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. All my colleagues, save one, were female. Our boss was male. I used to describe the situation as "too many hens, not enough roosters." I'm still in this line of work, with a defense contractor, but now my chain of command is male to male to...and I'm so much happier. I can just drill down on my competence and not worry about all of the stupid interpersonal shit that I don't grasp.
This was brilliant.
There's another type of management clone that I've noticed - male, but barely, probably not gay but can be mistaken for it, always speaking with a distinctive, soft, passive-aggressive uptalk. This seems to me the mirror image of the Dread Woman den mother you describe. A self-castrated man perfectly adapted to the digital Longhouse.
So-called "women's liberation" has had the same adverse effect on the workplace as affirmative action for blacks. Both movements were in the name of civil rights but empowered and favored people who lack merit, which was a civil wrong.
I broke out in a cold sweat and contemplated pulling my fingernails out with pliers several times as I read this article, but then I remembered it’s only an article and it can’t hurt me. You,my friend, have been residing somewhere in between the 8th and 9th circles of Hell. Condolences. You are in the belly of the beast.
I’m gonna renounce my degree and be an auto mechanic.
This is such a work of art. I'm just some blue collar guy masquerading as an embedded systems engineer and for ten years in Silicon Valley. The Meta gig was the worst.
This is a very interesting essay. The bit about how projects are run these days is spot on with my experience, much to my unhappiness.
The bit about check boxes is interesting; I had always thought of that as a result of the popularity of “Taylorization”, or scientific management of the industrial plant being applied to the office (often badly or inappropriately.) I wonder now if I am mistaken, or if Taylorization methods just really appeal to women by coincidence given their tendencies as you describe.
RG, I believe you have nailed it, sir.
Entrepreneurial patriarchy drives frat boy abuse. Collectivist matriarchy drives mean girl Woke -- working is a hell of a way to make a living.
As someone who is both female and has worked in HR/Employment law for many years, I sadly recognise all of this. Early on I realised I was more comfortable working with men and the female dominated places I have worked along the way have been hellish. A lot of the problems I deal with professionally relate either to emotions based actions/decisions characteristic of women or are the result of struggles for dominance/group identity. Women can be truly awful human beings. We saw some of this play out during covid - the sniping, spying on others, vaccine mandates; all of it eminates from the feminised workplace and society we have created. Great article, bravo.
"A divorced girl in her mid-thirties brought her large dog to work everyday, and for some inexplicable reason relating to seniority, perhaps, they had an entire enclosed office space to themselves, her and the dog..." This was almost certainly some kind of ADA accommodation of the "emotional support animal" variety, or at least pitched as such to a HR department that did not feel that Mount Labrador was an optically sound hill to die on and declined to push back.
I have only found one environment dominated by women that this is not true. Emergency Room Medicine.
This column should be required reading in every school of business.
Frat Boys and Mean Girls. Wow, that says it all.
I'm retired (from banking and tech) and do not miss THE bullshit for a second. Should of stayed in cribbing and swapped shit talk with my peers on the patriarchal job site rather than marinate in the brine of the matriarchal longhouse and made the same living.
Chaos, indeed.