Boss ignores 5 clear warnings from his expert employee, but springs into action the second a male colleague repeats her exact words: ‘They only hear things when a man says it’

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Etai Eshet • Editor
Jun 1, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

We're in the middle of 2025 but some people work on a Middle Ages operating system. Corporate innovation is alive and well; we can see and hear about the latest achievements all around. When it comes to basic listening skills, though, welcome to the boys-only treehouse, complete with a "No Girls Allowed" sign scrawled in permanent marker and a secret knock that only responds to bass voices. 

Forget glass ceilings—try getting through the mahogany doors of the Executive Man Cave, where ideas are only valid if delivered with a handshake and questionable sports metaphors.

It's amazing how, in some offices, a woman's expertise operates like a silent alarm, blaring away in the background while everyone in charge keeps sipping their coffee, blissfully ignoring the fire until a man mentions the smoke. 

Our expert employee does her due diligence by warning her boss not once, not twice, but enough times to rival a broken record, but her boss, an aficionado of cutting-edge technology and 1980s management techniques, replies with the kind of vacant optimism usually reserved for "just walk it off" sports injuries. 

And her advice is received with less credibility than an email from a long-lost prince, because apparently, having the right answer only counts if you have the right chromosomes.

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  • They only hear things when a man says it

    "He doesn't hear what I'm saying unless another man repeats it"|
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • I don't know why I'm surprised.
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  • My boss told me about a new project another team was undertaking that has some overlap with a project my team
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  • Cheezburger Image 10511680256
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    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • had previously completed. I knew from my experience with that project that the other team will have to deal with A Complicated
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  • Thing so I asked my boss, "does the other team know about The Complicated Thing and have a
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  • plan to deal with it because if they don't, it will derail their project."
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  • He says, "The Complicated Thing won't be a problem because the other team will do XYZ instead."
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  • I say, "XYZ won't actually work in this situation."
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  • He says, "don't worry about it, the other team will figure it out."
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  • On several occasions after that I heard about the other team's progress and it was clear they had not thought about or dealt with
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  • The Complicated Thing. I brought it up to my boss a few more times and he dismissed it each time.
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  • Finally, I happened to have a meeting with the lead of the other team and I asked him,
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  • "what are you going to do about The Complicated Thing?" and I explained to him how it would derail his project.
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  • After that meeting, I see a post in a public channel where he communicates to our boss, "Hey, there's A Complicated Thing that will derail our project."
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  • My boss immediately replies, “Oh wow thanks for telling me - that's going to be a problem. Yes, we need to deal with it immediately."
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  • ¡TOLD YOU 5 TIMES ABOUT THE THING ALREADY!
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  • So frustrating that he doesn't really hear what I'm saying unless another man repeats it.
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  • Sour_candy_2345 My favourite is when you add insight, no one acknowledges it, and later a man "comes up" with the same idea and gets recognition for it. I love that
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  • YouStupid Benchc I was at a presentation and asked a question and the guy doing the presentation was clearly not listening. He said how my thing wasn't going to be a problem, and then he paused, and then he pointed at me and told me to "Say that again." I did, and this time he did listen, and then he stared for a second and said he had no idea what to do about it.
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  • Later, my boss told me that the guy doing the presentation had asked some high-ranking VP to transfer me to his department. My first thought was that he just wanted to get me under his authority so he could fire me as revenge for derailing his presentation. My boss asked
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  • if I wanted to move, and I said no. He asked me why not, and I said "Because you always listen to me the first time I talk." (Also: my boss asked what I wanted to do, and the other guy didn't ask me a thing.)
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  • secret_seed It's called the gender credibility gap. Been there, and I keep returning, ha ha......
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  • engineer_but_bored The worst part is, you sometimes can't tell who will be like this, until it's halfway through biting you in the a !
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Tags

management boss workplace-stories hr manager bosses work PTO managers supervisor workplace work-life balance
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