Disclosure

This isn't my own original post, but a repost from a user on an Aaron Clarey video. The author of the below is a female nurse who describes a medical workplace environment dominated by women.


The Story

I am not the best of storytellers when it is a funny story but I will give you some examples for sure. In a hospital I worked in a few years back we had two groups form between the female nurses and the female doctors: those who had worked together before and those who were young nurses.

Most days would bring a pointed moment when some people were invited out planned to meet for lunch or a coffee break - and some weren't. The more expensive the place the better for the female doctors. Nothing explicit was ever said; the cutting rejection was obvious enough to some of the girls.

Fashion was a great divider, though in this battlefield everyone was on their own. Sly remarks about people looking over-dressed to the merits of their fake tan application.

I always felt sorry for anyone who naively showed off a new boyfriend or item (these women viewed men and items as just utilities remember), because everyone would coo appreciatively to that persons face - then harshly criticise them as soon as they were out of earshot. This happened always without exception.

One of the female doctors first showed how much the pecking order among these women mattered when the department advertised for a new radiographer and refused to hire the best-qualified person, a man, because he was too tall. Management didn't challenge the decision not to hire him because they had a policy of siding with the female doctors.

The department was like Marks and Spencers, but with the competitiveness of the super bowl - and the low cunning of the game of thrones.

When female doctors brought matching bags in the office, it was like pistols at dawn. They forced a few compliments, but relations never recovered, to the expense staffing relationships.

Another time, when two members of staff bought the same shoes, one proclaimed: 'They'll look better on me, because I'm a size six and she has clown feet.'

It didn't take long for the department to become divided between the women who wore make-up and those who didn't. Comments from the former were typically ”she has more spots then a teenager” or ”Someone is having a bad hair day”, while the no-make-up side were equally scathing, with remarks - behind their backs, naturally - such as ”she looks like a prostitute”; or ”She looks like a slapper”.

The obsession with appearance and looking youthful meant nearly all the staff were on diets. The older female doctors despised the younger nurses openly and covertly disliked the junior female doctors.

Two of the skinny junior female doctors often snidely said about the largest girl, a nurse: “She should have her own area code”.

Female doctors and nurses considered it acceptable to take time off for almost everything - beauty treatments, just too tired today, had an argument with my boyfriend, my kids are sick, their periods - and not out of their holiday allowance. One female doctor regularly came in late because she was getting her hair coloured – peroxide blonde, and when I mentioned this, as a senior nurse involved in work scheduling, she blew up in outrage. Though at least she had a reason; most just turned up late regardless, and huffed 'That's the time my train gets in' if anyone pointed at the clock.

From my observations it is as though, in a women-only environment, staff were unable to keep their defined roles. Arguments are a daily occurrence. It would start with snide comments between two people then, as others joined in, emotion and anger would grow until an eruption - shouting, screaming, swearing - which always left someone in tears – often the new girl or the most junior member of staff. (The male staff avoided these women in general out of fear of false harassment claims which caused more then a few problems with communication.)

Then the friends of the woman who was upset would follow her to console her, leaving one group in the department, another group in the ladies and all the male doctors trying to cover these women's duties and rounds. Both groups of women would then bitch unreservedly about each other - and do absolutely as little work as possible so the orderlies, junior doctors and senior male doctors had to cover the slack (often the junior doctors bore the brunt of this).

It reached the point that management held mandatory workshops for staff on how to be nice to each other. The advice centred on being respectful to everyone and treating people equally – most of the female staff assumed it was because the men needed to learn about sexual harassment but it was actually because the female staff were always causing issues.

The HR consultant said there should be no more criticising or whispering in the department. But although when people heard this they said they loved the idea, it made no difference.

Many of the women (especially the female doctors) were aggressive or defensive, or both. The most aggressive masked a host of insecurities with their outgoing nature, while the defensive ones opened up only when provoked.

The worst type I encountered, however, was the 'passive aggressive- a woman who doesn't seem cruel, but is the worst of the pack, ruthlessly bringing you down in such a sweet and unassuming manner that you don't realise what she's done until long after the event.

But the biggest force wasn't personality type, it was hormones. When one woman started having IVF, she unleashed her rage without warning and without apology. At 'that time of the month' - which in an female dominated work environment meant someone was always at that point - any bad mood was swiftly passed on to the rest of team as if by osmosis.

Hormones came second as an excuse for absence and bad temper only to love life problems. When one female doctors cheated on her husband and started divorce proceedings, the other girls in the department were told in no uncertain terms by her that "we must be very understanding and sensitive towards her at work" - in an email she sent around. A true drama queen, her tears went on for a week. Another girl had a happy accident that she told some of us wasn't an accident and eventually the guy she was dating found out and the relationship hit the rocks. So many arguments that week.

Another girl, fresh out of a divorce, frequently primed everyone in the department about what to say to whom whenever any of the male doctors were around.

Another girl, a student nurse, had a voracious sexual appetite and, in a female-only environment, saw nothing wrong with screeching across the staff room details of her marathon sex sessions or how many ”c*#ks she had in her mouth last night”. The department received frequent complaints about her crude language. Incidentally I found out from a friend of mine who still works there that that "voracious nurse" left after she caught chlamydia which she gave to her boyfriend (one of the security guards at the hospital).

When we had departmental meetings with male doctors, female staff turned ferocious, each out to prove that they were the sexiest in the room. With a male consultant of cardiology, one nurse said ”Watch this!”, then stuck her hands around her breasts and lifted them up while shaking them. The men were speechless.

Also, student nurses trying to sleep with Senior doctors is always a problem and most of these men are married. If the men decline, as most do, then there is the awkward environment to deal with as the other female staff gossip if they get wind of it. False sexual harassment claims happen a lot too.

I believe the work environments are ruined by the destructive jealousy and in-fighting of female staff. Selfishness and insecurities lead to nothing but problems and often times it is the male staff left to clean up the mess.

Finally on to a more serious note and guys this is very serious. Female doctos work drastically less then male counterparts even taking account them as groups (and male doctors are a minority now and male doctors collectively still work more hours the female doctors collectively). This published article outlines this and the necessity for more doctors (when they really mean more male doctors).

Pub Med - Why do women physicians work fewer hours than men physicians?

Brain Blogger - Female Physicians Responsible for Shortage of Doctors?

Story continued

Yes, nurses, even with seniority take a lot of abuse from junior female doctors because a lot of the female doctors are insecure (rightly so sometimes since they are not on par with their male counterparts). Male doctors rarely cause upset and generally treat men and women of all staff with a certain degree of decorum. I have a doctorate in nursing science and I attended several workshops as part of the mandatory credits we needed, and I had years experience over the other women there, that the women in the class were coddled, some of these were going to be future doctors. The best and highest marks were always the guys but the university tried to balance it out by making things more assignment based or team based since on an individual basis the girls couldn't handle it. Now, that isn't saying women are stupid. It is just that they were coddled because they were young female students. the male students worked their asses off. The female students spent half the lecture on facebook on their phones or taking snapchats. Most of these girls were on women only scholarships too. It is madness.

I am a female nurse myself and I have worked with great doctors of both sexes but it is clear that the vast majority of them are men and the competent female doctors wind up getting burned out and dropping out to become stay at home mothers, part time consultants or general practitioners (even that is part time).

End of Story


Some really basic take aways include:

Female - Doctors and Nurses

(a - 0) women devolve into workplace tribalism based on wealth and more importantly beauty

(a - 1) older higher status women either doctors or nurses resent their younger juniors because of their beauty giving them access to the male doctors

(a - 2) despite obvious faction rivalries the women still try to protect their reputations as a unified group

(b - 0) a lot of female doctors drop out of the workforce to become stay at home mothers

(b - 1) economic productivity of female doctors is low

(b - 2) government and corporate subsidization of women over qualified men reduces the number of active practitioners in the medical field, increasing costs for private consumers, or lowers access in a communist care system

(b - 3) quality of care is arguably lower

(c - 0) women abuse the workplace system to the maximum while giving the lowest ROI possible

(c - 1) most of them are back stabbing, gossiping, dished out in a given workplace comes from women

(c - 2) excessive narcissism

Male - Doctors and Nurses

(a - 0) male doctors are basically fucked over by what's essentially a welfare system to sign in more female doctors

(a - 1) male doctors crank out the super majority of hours, even as a minority group

(a - 2) male doctors despite qualifications will still meet discrimination because of the ability of women to horde positions of economic interest, despite lacking qualification

(b - 0) women in the modern era tend to view men as commodities

(b - 1) cheating, lying, branch swinging, hypergamy, etc are all to common even with male doctors

(b - 2) so common even male doctors are now averse, or significantly more cautious to marriage

In Closing

In my own anecdotal experience I've known a few med students who opted out of becoming doctors because the grind and debt weren't favorable. They were able to modify their own careers paths to get a "nine to five" which pays really well, without the trappings of a given work environment. Its a brave new world and its worth consideration what you're going to study pays well and just as importantly, what the work environment is going to be like by the time you graduate.