I am blessed to work in a department that is more than 3/4 female, with excellent managers who hire excellent staff both in terms of being great at their work and just great people. I wanted to share a little bit about my work partner who I work with side-by-side, day in and day out.

  • This man is very positive and never has a bad thing to say about anyone. He can emphasize with even the most difficult customer and seems to have endless patience.
  • Always grateful and gives credit where credit is due. At our managers promotion/going away party the other day, he gave a lovely speech praising her not just for what she’s taught him, but her personal qualities in a way that showed he pays attention to the good in people. When we work on any projects together and he gets complimented on something, he is always quick to mention my contributions and credit me for what I’ve taught him. Always Is genuine in his praise.
  • literally the most generous and giving person on our team. He’s the to guy for birthday greetings. Always thinks to ask the rest of us in our bullpen if he can get anything for us while he’s going to the corner store. Once he spent his lunch break driving the rest of us to run an errand, couldn’t find parking space, so just circled around and picked us up. Not a single complaint and seemed just happy to be able to help.
  • I know exactly two things outside of work: he is religious—the sort of Christian who absolutely embodies Christian values and never really talks about it unless you ask—and he plays violin at an advance level in his church’s orchestra. So i don’t know if he has LV hobbies, but I’m guessing not just based on his level of commitment to those two aspects of his life.
  • adores his wife. They met at university and married soon after and have a faith-based marriage, where they taught Sunday school together for a while and support each other. We don’t talk too much about our personal lives, but when I was planning my wedding, he told me about his own and the way he was so happy just thinking about his wedding even years down the line was just very sweet.
  • they are having their first child in January, and he is excited. He’s saving up his vacation days so he can take time off as unofficial paternity leave to spend time focused on his wife and child.

It’s kind of the running joke in our corner of the office that he’s the office husband. Not in the way that he’s developed an inappropriate bond with any of us in the office, but more in the way that he has set the standard for the women in our group for what they want a future partner to be like.

Just wanted to share some green flags; there is hope out there for men.