How to survive a toxic female dominated work environment.
You wonder “how can she go home and be a cosy mum and wife, she is such a b*tch!”
There are hundreds of articles on how tough it can be to work in a male dominated environment.
You need to prove your worth and prove you’re just as good.
You are constantly battling against the big egos and the “alpha males” and the abundance of testosterone…
Even though it is not often spoken of, it can be just as hard working in a female dominated environment.
There is the gossip, the dramas, the back stabbing, the game playing and the manipulation.
You feel like you are in a girl’s high school playground.
Judged and looked at from top to bottom.
Unless you are in a position of influence (and even then) there is not much you can do to change or control the situation. It is all about survival.
Even though you can’t change the external factors, you can control how you act, behave and feel.
You can make sure you know how to protect yourself and keep your own integrity.
8 ways to protect yourself:
- Find an outlet to blow off steam, don’t hold everything in. If you keep this to yourself you can become physically sick, you can become depressed and lose any desire to grow and develop in your job and career.
- Protect yourself: create a mantra and say it to yourself every time you feel the need to. You might say this more than 10 times a day in the beginning and the more you say it, the more you believe it and the better you can handle and manage your environment.
- Focus on what your current job can bring you, the extra skills, industry knowledge you can take with you to the next job.
- Be as objective as possible. You are certainly not the only one thinking and feeling this way. Try to interact with different people in the organisation.
- Don’t take it personal, look at it from an external point and try to rationalise.
- See if the organisation offers you any training you can take advantage of.
- Observe the situation from a behavior point of view. Observe how people react and how it impact company performance. Pretend it to be a case study you are part of and try to understand what drives people to behave the way they do.
- Count to 100. When worse comes to worst and you feel you are going to have an emotional outburst or meltdown, count to 100. Not saying this is the best way of dealing with a situation, but it has helped me so many times to just breath and count.
These are short term, quick fix options, no one should work in an environment that’s toxic and that physically and mentally affects you.
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