Work Confessions

I also had a queen bee problem. My manager could never find an issue with my work, so she called me out on minor administrative thing. I always felt like she was out to get me. It got so bad, my husband said, "Just quit!" when he got tired of seeing me cry because I felt like I couldn't do anything right. Many people, including two women who'd had the same experience on her team, told me she was jealous that I was asked by many across the company to help with other projects.

I know tech companies have a long way to go, but the women at my company are actually paid better than the men for the same positions. I have literally never had a man come on asking for a higher salary than we were offering, but almost all of the women have. I wish they knew, but I can't just tell them other people's salaries. (Secret high five!)

I've been a contractor for a large tech company for over five years. Over the past year, I have been consistently singled out and harassed by the Queen Bee of publishing because I am smart and capable - things she is not. She has stolen my thunder on large, public projects by sending my managers emails that I "don't know my role"; she went over my local managers to talk to my corporate leaders about getting me fired. Rumor mill is not kind to her on why she's kept around by her male manager.

I was rocking my job– managing multiple teams and sought out for all kinds of things across the company. This was all great until I asked for a promotion into upper management. My CTO told me he'd get back to me the next week, but he didn't. After a couple of weeks, I approached him again and he asked me why I needed a "grandiose title" when I was obviously seen as an important person. Since then, I've felt like a schmuck for working so hard and giving them my all.

So my company has a strict policy against vendors coming in to our office to distribute, but this cute girl selling handbags came in and my boss let her in anyway. As the female receptionist, "P", I was shocked, and he even said right in front of me that this handbag lady was like "P 6.0". I could tell the rest of my office members were shocked, but they didn't say anything. She sold handbags and continued to be harassed and asked out on dates by my boss and male coworkers right in the office.