Ha! What a shock!

An experiment in the sisterhood... an office with all women:

I hired a team of seven staff and set up an office in Richmond upon Thames, Surrey. While the women I interviewed claimed to be enthused by the idea, they still insisted on high salaries. Fair enough, I thought at the time - they are professionals, and I knew most of them were talented and conscientious because I'd worked with them before.

But within a week, two cliques had developed: those who had worked together before and those who were producing 'new ideas'. 

Most days would bring a pointed moment when some people were invited out for lunch or a coffee break - and some weren't. Nothing explicit was ever said; the cutting rejection was obvious enough.

Even when we all went to the pub after work, strict divisions remained, made clear according to who sat where around the table and who would be civil - or not - to whom.

Fashion was a great divider, though in this battlefield everyone was on their own. Hideously stereotypical and shallow as it sounds, clothes were a huge source of catty comments, from sly remarks about people looking over-dressed to the merits of their fake tan application.

I honestly can't see why she expected anything different. Even women themselves would admit, they do tend to be more petty than men. Men certainly have flaws of their own, but it almost seems that men's flaws are more beneficial to the workplace while women's tend to hurt it.

Anybody who has spent at least a second in a middle school knows that, when it comes to vindictiveness, girls are WAAAAAAY worse than guys.  This can be a big problem in an office when people have to work together everyday to achieve a common goal.

It's not to say that I'm sexist. In fact, I have very few guy friends and a ton of girl friends. I happen to find their company more appealing.