Bing, I liked you before, but I think I just fell in love. You hit the nail on the head with this mister, either get with a career program or continue to yuk it up; whichever is his priority.
Thanks Dude for telling a section of the population that still live in historic times, how it is, how it is, how it is!

PS. There are a lot of women out there that are as, if not MORE, crass than a lot of men I know and I was born in a part of the country that invented the term “good ole boys”. I testify.

Differences between women and men can be summed in two simple words–estrogen and testosterone. What hormone one is attracted to can render the decision; but work and domestic enviornments are far from the same. “Honey do” does not bode well in an equal emplyment scenario. Coercion is always a work place factor. Beware!

I wonder if the macho man should make the move. Maybe a man who’s more open to working with women and answering to women would be better for the position.

And, speaking as one who majored in linguistics in college, I thank you immensely for your reply to the last letter. Language is always changing, and no one ever likes it when it does (you hate the way kids talk nowadays, your parents hate the way people your age talk, their parents hated the way your parents talked, and so on up). Social groups always adopt particular ways of speaking to set themselves apart from other groups, and people outside those groups never like it. Business is constantly evolving and constantly trying to be onto the Next Big Thing, and so its language constantly changes too. Some people prefer to stay on the cutting edge of that, to show that they’re onto the Next Big Thing and show up all the losers who aren’t… and some people have the guts to just talk the way they talk, although they risk the respect (whatever that’s worth) of the former group. Everyone is entitled to decide what linguistic rules they play by, but sitting around wishing everyone would just “talk the same” and “talk right” (which, incidentally, is probably really close to how you talk) is, sadly, folly.

(I’ll admit, one of my favorite sports in college was picking fights with grammar nazis on topics like “Ain’t IS a word” and “Bad words are only ‘bad’ because you decided they are,” among others.)

Modern sexism isn’t about telling women to be secretaries and quit when they get married. It’s about pretending to be okay working with/for women as long as you just happen to be in control.

Frankly I’m not sure an old dog can be taught new tricks. More likely than not he’ll make himself and everyone else miserable.

As a fellow female, I (honestly) would never work with a female supervisor. Unfortunately, even in today’s modern age, women supervisors have been known to be hostile towards other women in the workplace. This type of “catty behavior” is only detrimental to their own careers. Get a clue – No one will take you seriously!

I’m blown away by Macho Man’s assumption that the job is his. I sure as hell wouldn’t hire him. Thanks for the piece, Bing.

I’ve worked for men and I’ve worked for women (I’m a man). Except for one woman, all of the women were great bosses and wonderful people to work for. One of them has since become a pretty close friend, along with her husband and kids.

In the one job where I had a bad experience, the organization was sick. Prior wage and hiring freezes had caused all the good workers to leave, leaving behind people who didn’t have much to offer — or who were unable to job hop so easily. Most of them were women.

This meant that a lot of women found themselves in supervisory positions because they were there and it was “their turn.” This created a good-old-girl network that was pretty poisonous.

The men I worked for pretty much ran the gamut. Some were great. Some were total jerks.

Bottom line: I think you really need to look at the organization. If it’s a “closed shop,” meaning women-only and you’ll be an interloper, stay away. But if the organization is healthy and just happens to have a lot of women, it could be OK.

Bing, thank you for the great advice during this Ask Bing. I plan on keeping some choice excerpts nearby to remind me how to keep my sanity in an insane business life.