Brain Fertilizer

I've said several times before that both my best and worst commanders have all been female. A dream last night helped me realize that the "best" have all been at least 2 levels higher, the "worst" have all been direct commanders.

And it struck me: in my experience, female commanders tend to "judge" the person quite a bit more, whereas male commanders tend to "evaluate" the performance. Under the female commanders I've served with, it doesn't matter what you do as much as what she thinks of the person doing it. Under female commanders, once you get in the doghouse, there is nothing you can do to get out of it.

I'm sure that happens under male commanders, too, but I haven't seen that.

...and yet, I have no problems with female peers. You can try to convince me this is some sort of sexist discomfort working under a female if you want; I don't think you'd be right, but I'd prefer an uncomfortable truth to a comfortable misapprehension, so I'd be willing to listen.