Boss insists project engineer takes notes at every meeting, gets offended when she refuses after he claims it's 'women's work': 'My wife takes notes at her job all the time'

Nobody enjoys being stereotyped, and especially not in the workplace.

Unfortunately, there are plenty of people in the working world and beyond who happily ignore this basic wisdom, creating problems for themselves further down the line. Discriminating against a coworker or employee because of something like gender is, in many cases, technically illegal, but that does not stop some from believing that they are immune from any negative consequences, or not even realizing that there could be some in the first place. It can come as a surprise.

Still, the sympathies have to be with those on the receiving end of this discrimination. It can be truly infuriating, not least when the person doing it seems to think that it is some kind of compliment. Despite this kind of thing being blatantly wrong, it is a situation that has to be treated with sensitivity. There is a lot that goes into it.