Ignore my name for this one, men. I just came across a conversation between my co workers and one of the cleaning staff in our office. I'm the only man in the room, my other two co-workers are female, and the cleaning staffer that came in was female.

The cleaning staffer starts cleaning around our desks and complaining about the trash left behind by the mailroom, saying that it's heavy. She mouths off about the company and how they laid off all of the men and won't hire any male workers. She complains to my co-workers that they need men to take out the trash, and that the men in the mail room should be doing that job instead of her.

I ask the obvious question: "What's the problem with taking the trash out?"

Her answer, and I shit you not, "PMS."

"So what does PMS have anything to do with your physical strength?" I asked her.

Her friendlier tone disappeared pretty quick. "When you're going through PMS, you can't go around lifting things."

"So you can't do your job when you're PMSing? Should I ask what happens when your cycle starts?"

She told me "Women aren't supposed to be doing certain things when they're PMSing, you don't understand."

"Like your job? You'd want to be paid the same as a man, right?"

"Well duh."

"Then why do you want a man to do the harder work?"

"You just don't understand, you're a man."

At that point, my co-workers were glaring at me. Apparently, I'm an asshole for thinking that way. I just ended the conversation with "Yeah, that's gotta be it." She went on with my co-workers about it, saying that she'd better not be picking up heavy things while a man is around.

My co-workers aren't much better about this, so it isn't just cleaning days I have to listen to this kind of crap.