Has anyone got experience similar to mine? I've been in this job for 2 years now, am quite happy, but the entire department (about 45 people) is mostly female. I'm one of only 5 males in the department, and in the short time I've been here there has been an ongoing trend of men leaving. Most of them never leave quietly either…theres always a notable conflict involved.
Lo and Behold the same thing has crept up on me. The culture of the place is dominated by bitchiness, gossip, and clans. Most of the women are constantly taking time off which makes it impossible to get any work done if you rely on internal stakeholders. The women get threatened and complain any time sometime tries to take initiative or suggest a better way of doing something. Worse yet, I've been trying everything possible to move up and increase my pay, but the department receives limited budget because all the managers (women) are too afraid to ask for more money.
At this stage I can only consider moving on and leaving, but sadly the company is a great place to work…good pay, great benefits, convenient for me, etc.
Similar to an earlier poster, I have also worked in some very toxic offices, both male and female dominated. Of the two, it disappoints me to say the women were the worst.
On three separate occasions in one very large organisation, my contract was not renewed due each time to a nasty, vicious female in the Division I was in at the time. It was never about my work, no-one was ever able to fault that, and it was widely recognised that the work I did was outstanding. That was the reason I returned to the same organisation over and over again either on contract or as a temp. I was known throughout the organisation, and people would always call me or my agency to see if I was free for some work. In fact several organisations used to call my agency and ask for me. So I knew it wasn't me. The reasons for my treatement were unfathomable to most of my colleagues. I was no threat to anyone as I was just a humble worker bee. I went in, did my job and went home. I tried hard to stay right out of the office politics - easier when your just a temp or on short term contract.
It was hard work dealing with these people, particulary as the OP said about making suggestions to get things working more efficiently. I worked in a hospital once on a short term contract that was extended several times over about 18 months. In this particular all female office we had an old manual system of writing things in big books. A new computer system had been installed to replace it but the women didn't trust it, they liked the old system. So we double handled everything wasting so much time in an exceptionally busy office. That wasn't helped by one staff member (who lived 5 minutes walk away) coming late into the office every day and then taking up to half an hour to get coffee, chat and finally sit down and turn on her computer. She did the least amount of work of anyone. After several months of this, I talked to the manager and suggested we run a two week trial of just using the computer system. She agreed as she could see the sense in it. We never went back to the old manual system.. But those women never let me forget it. I went on to introduce a couple more new streamlined processes which really made a difference, but…. In the end our really great (and supportive of me) but ineffective manager was "let go" and the new manager took a dislike to me and my contract was not renewed again.
In the last job I had before I was "forcibly" retired, I worked in a female dominated office with a "youngish" male Divisional head. He and I were the only males and I was his Exec Assistant, but I also provided admin support for the rest of the team. Everything went along really well for quite a while and the team were working well together without any problems. But then one of the managers moved and a new person came in. She should not have even been a manager but got her previous manageriral position due to favouritism and underhanded shenigans during the selection process, though I was the only person in the office who knew that and I never revealed it to anyone. She turned out to be an absolute bitch, a fact that was well known in the organisation anyway. My fate was sealed when I made a silly off the cuff remark about something I was asked to do. It was nothing serious, and I went off and did the job immediately without any fuss. She was a snitch, and went running to my boss to tell him. This woman was a Manager! She could have "spoken" to me and that would have been the end of the matter. My contract was up for renewal for at least another six months, and no prizes for guessing what happened. I was replaced by a woman who was totally useless according to my friends who kept me informed of what was going on.
But having said all that, I also worked with some fantastic women in my 45 odd years in the workforce. One of them turned out to be one of the best bosses I have had. She was fantastic, and I achieved some of my biggest successes while working for her, all because she trusted me and gave me the opportunities to shine. She also defended me unconditionally against a couple of dissidents in the office who had issues with me beacuse I did things by the book or was given jobs that they felt more senior people (ie, themselves) should have been given to do.