I cannot begin to tell you the amount of feedback I have received regarding my previous post. In an attempt at a little humor to make light of a situation which happened to me, that was not only disappointing, but a wake-up call, I have apparently offended quite a few people, namely men. This is the original post explaining what happened to me last week: Women Will Never Be Respected In The Technology Field

I have been called a man-hater, pathetic, I even received a write-up on a blog called the NCP Review, whatever that is, which stated:

Proof that you cannot judge a book by its cover or a blog by its title. I could go on about how this is anti-male bashing on a grant level. But quite frankly put it’s pathetic. Number 7 is amusing if not how the author thinks it should be (yeah, a doctor is going to use highly technical turns like “wee wee”). And in as far as shrinkage, the perfect response is “yeah, vast empty spaces do that to things.” If this is the best the other side has to bring, this is like picking on short bus riders; so fun and yet so wrong at the same time.

(The source is ncprevue.com/blog/?p=346, I’m certainly not providing them an actual back-link). I’m a little confused on the “anti-male bashing” remark and apparently the author of the post failed to actually read 2 posts below to see the reasoning behind my little revenge-seeking, humorous post meant to get a point across.

What I find so fascinating about some of the feedback I received, both via comments and email-is the fact some are more upset that I would write something about revenge. Let’s get a few things straight. I have never sought revenge on anyone. In fact, despite the loss of income, I’m over the entire situation and consider the ordeal as another learning experience in life. Am I a male hater/basher? Of course not. I went through a situation that only a woman could understand, hence the reason the negative emails and some comments I received were from men. Which, ironically, proved my point. Some men feel threatened by strong females. As soon as a woman makes her opinion known and in a tenacious manner, she is automatically deemed a man-hating bitch. Oh, how wrong you are, my fellow male counterparts. I allowed my readers a glimpse into the frustration and loss I experienced as a female working in a traditionally male-dominated field. My personality is such, that when I am hurt and need an outlet, I use a little wit and sarcasm to lighten my mood. I’m not holding a grudge, or ill-will towards anyone as someone commented. If anything I feel relief. Relief because I don’t have to go through the daily belittling, albeit hidden well by those doing the belittling, because I happen to be someone of the opposite sex who knew just as much and could work just as hard. I’ve also chuckled a few times because they will eventually realize, from a business standpoint and dealing with customers 9 hours a day, sometimes a woman’s understanding and patience can help a growing business, not harm it.

So for those of you who believe I’m a man-hater? I’m far from it. I’m simply a strong-willed woman who wants the same chance in a male-dominated field, without having to prove herself over and over again.

As most of my regular readers know, I started a job December 10th as a Help Desk Analyst for a software company. I went to work every day, with the exception of the day the roads were too bad to drive, I was never late, eager and willing to learn and asked questions. I did the “secretarial jobs” they handed over to me, I put up with the guy who was started the same day, being a complete ass and changing the work I had completed behind my back. I listened to the other guy next to me tell a customer one day, “Well, the person who documented the call doesn’t know what she is doing.” I went through more than I let on, especially on this blog. I didn’t feel blogging about my issues at work would solve anything and some would take it as “typical, female complaining.”
Most of the issues began when the guy who was hired the same time as me, started changing the information in help desk calls I documented. The calls came through a software queue instead of the usual phone queue, so we could listen to the calls from the computer and document accordingly with information from the database. Simple. Extremely simple. I let it slide for a day or two until I thought, “Ya know what? I’m taking the time to listen and document the calls, so someone else can change them behind my back?” I confronted him and he acted as if he wasn’t aware I was the one documenting these specific calls. (Duh, we were the only two people documenting calls, in fact, this is basically all I did the entire month I worked). He kept doing it, so I emailed the Operations Manager and explained to him, hey, if I’m doing something wrong, let me know. I’m wanting to learn just like (insert idiots name here), but I don’t appreciate someone going behind my back re-doing work that has already been completed. I never received a reply.
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