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When to Mansplain to Your Female Colleagues
Never. The answer is never.
Few of my gut-wrenching experiences in life have been work-related. I can count them all on one hand, which is a privilege, but it’s also the reason they’re so personally meaningful.
When I replay one particular story in my mind it makes me cringe, so obviously, I want to share it with you. It’s about “Elevator Elizabeth.”
The Scene
It was early in my career. Each winter, our office was infamous for suffering through a long, multi-month spree of transmissible viruses — colds, the flu, bronchitis — because there was a deeply unfortunate culture of coming to work sick. It wasn’t exactly encouraged, but no single line manager made it a point to ask their people to take care of themselves by staying away from the office when ill.
It was a Friday, and from my far-end of the office, I could hear incessant, raging coughing fits. As the office hypochondriac (a role I still play) I walked over to see who it was. It was “Elizabeth” (not her real name) dripping from the nose with some variation of the plague, generously coughing virus particles into the air for everyone to enjoy.
I bit my tongue and walked back to my desk. “She shouldn’t be here, but she’s not my employee, it’s not my problem,” I…
