If you have ever worked side by side with a person of the opposite sex in a job, then you know we aren’t wired the same. Very few people can completely and consistently effectively bridge the communication and work style gap effectively. From my personal experience, they both think the other one isn’t working or is oblivious to what is around them. The truth is that both accomplish the same job effectively, but it’s accomplished differently. Neither will accomplish anything if they waste their time trying to rewire the brain of the opposite sex.
Here are some typical differences between the two sexes at an office job.
Men tend to laser focus on whatever task is at hand. Their entire brain is engaged on that task. If they’re on the computer, phone, paperwork, or whatever that task is, the world could burn around them and they do not notice. They don’t want to be interrupted and nothing else is important until that one task is done. Even if it takes the entire day and everything else including clients are stacking up to the moon. It’s one task until it’s completed after another. They are very effective at completing tasks one after another. Usually they take what most people consider a brain break according to that one task or when it’s done. Men are not verbal. They do not speak as many words a day as a woman. For women, that is extremely frustrating. It’s maddening and we want to smack you in the head that you can only do one thing at a time and cannot be interrupted even when your pantleg is on fire. My goodness, is it really that difficult for you to accomplish that one task? That’s her frustration. No, it may not be that difficult. It’s simply how their brain is wired to work.
Women multitask continuously, from watching ALL of their kids run in different directions while stirring the gravy, doing the laundry, and talking on the phone. It’s difficult to shut off using all of your brain and only use a part of it for one task. Women will look like they aren’t focusing or getting anything done because they are on the phone while doing something else on the computer or looking at the paperwork. Women will ask questions or make comments about any of the numerous things they are doing at the same time. Women are verbal. Often talking is a constructive means of thinking your way through a task or problem. Even if we aren’t talking about the task or problem, the other part of our brain is still working on it. At the end of the day, multiple tasks are completed or partially completed and can be continued the next day. Their brain breaks seem random to men, but they aren’t. Their comments seem random and out of context to men but not to other women. Women can be extremely overwhelming and distracting to men at work who aren’t wired to work or think that way. Sorry ladies, but men don’t know what the hell you’re talking about and think you’re an idiot because they were laser focused on their task at hand. Stop talking or doing the other things and focus on the task at hand. That’s what men are thinking. They don’t understand that you were.
Yes, there are exceptions in both sexes who can laser focus or multitask. But, biology is biology. We aren’t made to think or behave in the same way. Some things do come more naturally to one sex than the other. It doesn’t mean we both can’t do most anything. It simply means that we do it differently and we need to learn to respect each other’s differences and work together. Fact is, depending on the situation, either one can have an advantage over the other.
Middle of the Muddy Road 