Years ago, I worked for a datacenter company in a downtown highrise. I spent years studying, and years more looking for a job in a tough market. When pipes above burst and muddy water flowed into the datacenter, I had to find a place to get rid of the water, and thus needed a janitors station key.
The building "maintenance manager" was a mid twenties blond woman, dolled up with makeup. When I saw this I initially avoided going to them, due to the fear of misunderstandings etc which I had read about online. After a while I thought, no this is crazy, this is a normal professional conversation and there will be witnesses. There is no way there could possibly be problems, I should not fall to the stereotypes which admittedly seemed over the top. So, I decided to just go talk to her and get it over with.
Immediately she began getting angry. What do you mean water in the datacenter? This is a secured building, she said. People arent allowed to do this or that or go out certain doors. The "maintenance manager" could not comprehend that computers dont like water and that water must go somewhere.
I then said "its ok, its fine, and left". So the water problem wasnt resolved, but at least I still have my job, I thought. It was a calm normal conversation, apart from her getting agitated. I mad sure to be calm and professional.
Next day the company president wanted to talk to me to hear "my version of the story". It didn't matter, my fate was sealed no matter what I said. She had "called for security" and "requested an escort to her car".
My career, the time I spent there, all destroyed.
Because, a woman felt like it. Just to randomly destroy a man's life over nothing, a standard workplace conversation. Of course then she left for a different job afterwards, not content to be getting paid to do nothing.
Thankfully years later I work for a place with a union, it has allowed me to befriend and get to know both female co-workers and clients. With some we have very happy friendships, others seem to love to flirt. This makes life a happy condition. However even here, two women out of many dozens dont seem to like me. I understand that without the union, these two outliers would be the cause of my termination, even though I am considerate of their feelings and respect their boundaries out of care for them and humankind in general.
Moral of the story, men need unions to protect them from (the minority few) of predatory women who would otherwise casually discard male co-workers at a whim.
(The majority of women I know are very cool, friendly, and fun. Many of them much smarter than me. Others though total nutcases)
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