Rehabbing

[DeeinAustin]

Agreed with Rich. Contractors don't mess with me. Maybe you need to learn more about terminology or whatever is making them disrespect you. If you're confident, contractors can't run over you because they know they won't get paid. Everyone likes money.

[BobbiOh]

I don't think it's the terminology. I went through a very similar thing when I became the account manager at the North America branch of a large Japanese eletcronics company. I look younger than I am, I look girly and men tend to fixate below eye level on me. Keeping in mind that it's been my experience that some men treat endowed women like they're less intelligent. Couple that with the fact that I'm generally a happy, quippy person.

On the flip side, I take what we're doing absolutely seriously and I don't tolerate lack of effort from the people I work with. I have the experience of actually building a house and the experience of managing an account that generated $152million per year. I think that some people have a hard time putting the two together and choose not to believe me when I tell them to suck it up because I sign the checks. They go to my husband, who tells them to suck it up because I sign the checks.

My husband never leaves me alone with a male contractor and most have the good sense not to want to aggravate the ex-linebacker. Although, a couple have underestimated how fiercely protective he is of me.

[DeeinAustin]

I'm definitely not happy (smiling or something), quippy, or "girly", especially in business, so can see that difference too. People think I'm pretty serious when they first meet me even though I smile once we're cool and they're doing a good job.

I was 22 or so when I managed a team of 20-30 techs at Apple computer. Maybe it was my serious nature, but I never felt lack of respect. Some people were a little surprised once they met me in person because they figured I'd be older. Other than that, it was a great time and I felt like equals.

When we worked with service providers, I'd had a warning from women that some men may demand to speak to male. I never had anyone ask to talk to someone else and would have loved to deal with some chauvinist who dared to ask me to speak to a guy since I was a woman. 


Too bad I never got that chance. I left Apple to invest.