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The Working Girl Blog #16:
Working with girls is different from guys, or "Yes, the PowerPoint's fine, except for the font - it's not cute enough" To see all of Bobbie's "Working Girl" blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs |
I hate Mondays, but I think I told you guys that before. Still, we have to make the best of it.
Since I woke up a little late (never go to sleep mad), I tried to finish my morning routine quickly: my Monday dilation & Kegels, bathroom, shower, and toothbrush. I was extra careful with my make-up as I decided to wear white today (probably wasn't a good idea given it's raining, but I wanted something different today): white stretch-cotton bootcuts with a brown patent-leather belt, three-inch camel-colored stretch platform pumps (similar to my usual kind of pumps, which are easy to take off. Though four inches is my limit.), a white long-sleeve bodysuit (so there'd be no visible tuck-ins, y'know) and a nice chocolate vest (unbuttoned) over the top. The bodysuit was pretty sheer and had a fairly low neckline, (for me, that is - I'm a bit of a prude, I guess) so I wore one of a couple of t-shirt demi bras that I had. I picked up my leather motorcycle jacket with the buckle-front, and hurried on out.
Instead of breakfast, I nuked a bagel and took a bottled water instead of my usual travel mug of hot chocolate (didn't want the possibility of stains on my white pants), and munched leisurely as I threaded my way though the usual downtown traffic. Got in before nine (my parking space was empty this time mwahahahah) and then straight to work.
Some of the process and workflow routines were starting to trickle in so it was a priority now to start building test data. I broke the news to my own data gathering team, as well as the other team, that our teams were changing roles, and would now be in charge of creating test data, Not surprisingly, this was greeted with a lot of groans. I said I was gonna be part of it so they didn't all feel so bad. (Or if they did, they kept it from me.)
I closeted myself with my three team-members, plus the girl in charge of the other team and I went over how I thought the test data buildup should go. Lots of back and forth, but we came to a consensus. We looked at the source material they had gathered, and started the tedious process of generating test data, broken down to data entry types and the the document types users were likely to work on. Anyway, I won't go through the entire thing but it was long and verrry tedious. And it was just the beginning, too.
I excused myself to go to my weekly meeting with the boss, where all the managers went over the status of their projects. I was grateful for the department's admin assistant as she had all of my references lined up. I'll be sad when she goes back to the boss fulltime after my project's done. (As an aside, I got lots of compliments for my outfit heehee)
Anyway, the meeting went fine, and the regular lunch thing with the boss was typical (I think), although most of the small talk was directed at me coz I was the newbie. (We had it in her office because of the rain.) I found it a little disconcerting that the other girls were asking me for fashion tips, but I did my best, relying mostly on that old standby question, "what do you think?" The guys were a bit flirty but I suppose it was just the normal guy thing - they were also acting the same with the other two girls, after all. Maybe after a while, I'll take all these things in stride and quit being so... jumpy about it.
When I got back to my office, I resumed work. In the short time that I have been part of this team, I've always tried to keep an open door policy (not literally, of course, but you know what I mean heehee), and some of the younger ones make full use of it actually, especially this one girl - a curly-haired chatty girl that had requested a transfer out of the call center unit. Not as quick as the others but trying real hard. Anyway, she had this habit of asking me her questions instead of her team-mates, and, though I felt slightly put out, she was actually one of the brighter spots in a very tedious afternoon.
Towards the end of the day, others started gravitating to my little office to chat, I suppose because of the girl's example. I was worried that productivity would drop off so after maybe half an hour, I gently said that we should all get back to work. Most took it with good grace, and I think we did a good day's work today.
During the course of the day, I again saw the main differences in how girls tended to work as opposed to guys. Whether my observations are colored by my own... special circumstances - I can't say. For example, I observed that guys are more objective-oriented than girls, who are more goal-oriented. Confusing, huh? Here's an example: a girl would concern herself with getting her assignment done on time, whereas a guy liked to compare his progress to the entire project deadline and not just his specific assignment's deadline. And indulging in... non-essentials is uniquely a girl thing: spending fifteen minutes in selecting the background color of her PowerPoint presentation is decidedly a girl thing. Also, ask a guy and he would probably say that a girl is less direct. If I were the one asked, I would say that a girl is more considerate - a girl would ask first before she trashed your program.
Also, girls are so much neater. Whether it's an unconscious thing of mine to try and emulate girls or not, since living full time as a girl, I've found myself preferring to keep my work-area neat and organized. Although my own personal space - my dresser table at home and the inside of my car, for example, are as messy as they can be. Whether or not this dichotomy is a common thing to girls or if it's just me, I don't know.
In my old job, I was more or less ignored. Here, I wasn't. I tried to keep thinking that it's partly because I'm their boss. It's flattering, and a great ego-boo. I wouldn't say it was a case of kissing up, but in their shoes, I would also give my boss more allowance and consideration simply because she was in a position of authority. I prayed that all of this wasn't all just kissing up. Which made me think: I wonder what the other managers thought of me.
I also wondered: are all girls this neurotic?
Anyway, better stop all this blogging while on company time heheh. Besides, it's already about five. I think I'll put my heels back on, pack up and go home early for a change. See you guys later.
To see ALL of Bobbie's blogposts, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/bobbie-c
To see Bobbie's stories in BCTS, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/14775/roberta-j-cabot
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Comments
The Working Girl Blog #16: Working with girls is different from
Bobbie, have you given any thought that you are a Leader? You are in charge of a team and show leadership skills that can't be taught unless that person has leadership qualities.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Girls neater?
I don't know about that one, but then maybe my view is clouded by my friend down the hall. She is a really bright, hard worker and a good friend and awesome listener. But OMG, her cube is a disaster!
I do hope you're right though about girls being neater - then my daughters might have a chance. Apparently nobody has filled them in on your theory yet!
Hmmm...
Hey, Alison.
I guess I shouldn't generalize. I guess most of the girl co-workers I've gotten to work with over the past four-five years have had neat work areas. Mite be coincidence. But all I can say is my mom keeps their house neat as a pin. These are the things that led me to that conclusion... ;-)
To see the rest of Bobbie's "Working Girl" blogs, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs
To see ALL of Bobbie's blogposts, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/blog/bobbie-c
To see Bobbie's stories in BCTS, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/14775/roberta-j-cabot
It just made me laugh!
I can laugh about it now that it is over. See, we had company over the weekend. We spent the better part of the week picking up after our girls, 'the tornado' and 'the hurricane', to get the guest bedroom/toy extravaganza back to a guest room state (picture a 10x20 ft. room ankle deep, wall to wall in Barbies, Lincoln logs, plastic food, craft supplies...). It was brutal. There was crying and screaming, and then the kids saw what was going on with their stuff...
No...
As I said in my comment, there ARE observable differences. But, there are also exceptions to everything. In our house (when my older daughter is home - four females) any horizontal surface above the floor is a candidate to be covered over the course of a busy week. Eventually, my wife or I will say "enough" and restore order. LOL Neither daughter has this need, apparently. *sighs* Getting them to clean/straighten their rooms. No, let's not go there, it's not safe. :)
Ann
The comment about ...
how guys work and girls work... Yeah, that's some stereotyping. But, studies have been done in our industry that show that there IS a statistically significant difference. It's not just on work, but on management styles.
I tried, but can't find the references. *sighs* But, this is a paraphrase of what I recall - some of it just what you observed.
Guys tend to measure themselves with things like how FAST they can code something or how "powerful" their code is or how few lines of code they needed. Guys tend to cram as much code into as little space as possible. It's been described that they write job security into their code, by intentionally making it difficult to read/follow. Guys are more likely to "jump" into the coding, and then "tweek" it until it works. Their user interfaces - or program interfaces tend to be functional and busy. The terms "Geeky" and "Nerdy" are commonly used to describe them. Male programmers are very prone to the "not invented here" syndrome - where they are more likely to write it themselves, than borrow someone else's code (perhaps because they don't want to admit they cant? Perhaps they just can't take time to figure out how it works). They are also more likely to use their existing skills to solve problems (all you have is a hammer, then everything is a nail - even if it has threads like a screw). Male managers are more oriented on the details and more likely to manage by fiat.
Female developers code tends to be better formatted (for ease of reading). They are more likely to plan out in advance what to write and then write it once. Girls tend to comment their code far more than guys. They are more likely to get others opinions before actually writing code and ask for help if they run into a problem. Girls are more likely to look for the right tool for the job (is that a screw? What kind? Get a screwdriver or what kind of nail is that, get the right hammer).Female managers are more "people" oriented. The work to understand how the PERSON does things and needs, rather than what is being done. Female managers are also more likely to work toward consensus.
It was also noted that ALL of these were just tendencies, and that there were examples of male and females that exhibited all, or most of the tendencies generally attributed to the other sex. There was also a large group that exhibited attributes generally assigned to both groups. So, while useful at times, stereotypes can also blind.
Interesting to note - one client last year, asked me to pull in a "project manager" (he was the CTO, and didn't have time to manage the project and the internal guy just couldn't get his head out of the details to manage it) to manage all the various work lines that I was coming up with. He said "I know this isn't politically correct, but make sure they send a female manager." Then, he went on to explain that he was actually looking for someone that exhibited many of the attributes attributed to female managers because he'd seen that the CFO (a primary sponsor and one that had to contribute) worked better with them.
Yes, the difference is there. It's up to us to use the information.
I love reading your "Working Girl" blog! So informative and helpful. As it's in the IT sector, I hope to eventually have similar experiences of acceptance!
Regards,
Annette