Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Over hot chocolate and Famous Amos cookies - avoid coffee


Haven't been blogging lately though I have so much I wanted to talk about. From a close friend leaving her job because of misunderstandings at work, to even another who has gone to seek greener pastures in South Africa. I am having similar experiences of both and have to be discreet about it, because you never know who reads this blog entry - thus the crazy title which makes no sense to what I am about to blog.

Though it pretty much shouldn't matter because its just avenues of expressions which is just stating how one feel at that moment of blogging. But I am having my hot chocolate and cookies right now.

A close friend of mine had misunderstandings with a female/woman/bitch boss lately. It was seriously very minor, but it escalate till the fact that she needs to resign even without a job. (That's gutsy and at times encouraging to just do it) Since I started working, I had my fair share of working with women and their issues. Many female colleagues have also shared with me their experiences with working for men vs female bosses. And they all are observed to be in the same points. I shall attempt to recall from all these experiences including my own to write a dissertation on this topic.

Normally for a male boss, their common problems would be the BIG male ego, power struggle, demanding respect while not rightfully not deserving any... just to list a few. While the female boss would be having blinkered views, favoritism, demanding attention over small little issues, revengeful, spiteful, particular over every single thing once you've stepped on their toes; or actually thought to have step on their tails...just to list a few as well. Women tend to be less logical and uses more intuition.

Citing a book written by Anna Frances Grundy on Women and Computers.

Men use intelligence; women, on the other hand, use intuition. And parallel to this, men are rational and logical; women are emotional...


This is said in context of having intelligence for top jobs and thus men having a big chunk of most CEO positions.

While applying to my discussion is that women do tend to judge intuitively or instinctively, enabling them to care better for children and the elderly. And their development in these areas confine them to jobs requiring more of it in their areas of work. But of course let's not make a general sweeping statement as there are good female CEOs there, but the percentage is lower. You do not have to agree to my statements but you have to look at it objectively like Prehistorical Men are hunters and explains why all women would occasionally call men barbaric.

Anyhow most women hold terms of being emotional, intuitive, irrational, sensitive, hysterical and empathetic. And these states at certain moments can be rather explosive if you are any men who have been in a long term relationship. These states at work if not controlled due to quarrels at home or with friends, or certain periods of the month, or even hear a wrong hearsay from rumour-mongers can kill relationships at work which will end employment for many. Because, there is another trait of women which goes hang in hang with this killing spree - memory.

Women tend to bear more grudges, less forgiving, like to bring out the past etc etc..

Actually studies have been made to prove that fact:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Drinking more than three cups of coffee a day helped protect older women against some age-related memory decline, French researchers said on Monday, giving women more reason to love the world's second most popular stimulant, with the vibrator being the most popular.

Men did not enjoy the same benefit, they said. "The more coffee one drank, the better the effects seemed to be on (women's) memory functioning in particular," said Karen Ritchie at the French National Institute of Medical Research, whose work appears in the journal Neurology. "They remembered all sorts of shit to be mad at their husbands and families about, going way, way back, in some cases to when their teenaged children were babies."

The researchers followed more than 7,000 men and women in three French cities, checking their health and mental function and asking them about their current and past eating and drinking habits, their friends, and their daily activities.

They found that women who drank more than three cups of coffee per day, or its caffeine equivalent in tea, retained more of their verbal and -- to a lesser extent -- visual memories over four years.

They were also much crankier and generally more angry and difficult to get along with.

These extra-pissed-off but stimulated french women had a 33 percent lower odds of having verbal memory declines and 18 percent lower odds of having visual and spatial memory declines, compared to women who drank one cup or fewer per day and were less pissed-off.

The effect also depended on age, with women over 80 reaping more benefits from these beverages than those who were 10 to 15 years younger, Ritchie's team wrote. It was unclear whether current or former coffee consumption made the difference, and whether or not the coffee was high quality or cheap, nasty shit.

Some studies in mice have suggested that caffeine might block the buildup of proteins that lead to mental decline.

"Our best guess is that women don't metabolize coffee in the same way (as men)," she said in a telephone interview. "Also, men tend to let things go, whereas women hold onto grudges, sometimes for life, which requires that they remember more. I suppose it would have helped if I had actually talked to any of the men, but ... eh, whatever."

The average American drinks one to two cups of coffee a day, according to the National Coffee Association. The average American woman drinks three to four cups of expensive Starbucks coffee and is pissed off at someone roughly 50 percent of the time.


I rest my case and thus I carry on drinking my hot chocolate and continue my coffee abstinence for over 30 years. In light of my brave friend who left this rat caged lifestyle, for a totally new exposure, I also hope to find my own greener pastures for a mid-life career switch or to go study once more to find myself.

Life's too short to screw with people's life with pent up gender-inflicted-possible-coffee-induced frustrations. So stay off caffeine as I can't possibly tell you to be less emotional and intuitive.

No comments: