By Adam Bajan

Here’s an interesting exercise: go to Google and search for “being the only male in a female-dominated workplace.” Google returns 1,930,000 results. Now switch it up and search for “being the only female in a male dominated workplace.” The difference in the search results speaks to an enduring truth—many corporate workplaces remain male-dominated and women are still a minority. However, this is changing, and today there are several fields in which the women outnumber the men.

Oddly enough, this isn’t something that is often talked about in HR.

Alone in an All-Female Workplace
As the sole male in my workplace—working with an otherwise all-female marketing team at Ashton College in Vancouver—I’ve learned a few things about how men and women work, interact, and coexist with one another. That’s why I’d like to take this opportunity to share some of my experiences in the hopes that those who read it can learn from it.

From an HR perspective, this is important because the small but fundamental differences between men and women is often a source for workplace conflict. As important as equality between the sexes is, the fact remains that men and women work quite differently. The end goal might be the same—completing a task, meeting a deadline—but how they get there can be quite different. Let’s break down a few of these differences from an HR perspective and see what we can learn from them.

Bonds Built Differently
First, let’s talk about camaraderie: men and women bond very differently. While men tend to bond over shared experiences, women tend to bond through communication. What this means is that in an office environment where women bond by routinely communicating with one another during the day, the lone male in that environment may feel left out and isolated. From an HR perspective, the key to ensuring that he’s not lonely is to include him in activities so he knows he’s accepted as part of the team. This means inviting him out for lunch or coffee when a group of female employees go off together.

Scope of Interpersonal Communications
When it comes to handling emotions, the difference between men and women in the workplace is also startling. Much of this comes from the solitary nature of men and the way male group dynamics operate. Men typically don’t communicate with one another about how they are feeling; in the stereotypical locker room, if ‘Joe’ decides to share about a fight he had with his wife the night before, there’s a good chance that he’ll be razzed by the other men in the room. In the workplace this usually translates into the man glowering at his computer screen with his headphones plugged in, blocking out everything around him. To the women in the room, this can often be intimidating. The solution? Stop by his desk and ask him what’s wrong. It’s this sort of communication that brings a team of men and women together like a well oiled machine.

Power Dynamics and Diplomacy
Methods of interpersonal communication between men and women in the workplace also differs greatly. Watching a group of men who’ve never met each other before and are immediately put in a work or social situation is an interesting experience. Almost immediately they start jockeying for a leadership position and the strongest one tends to get it. The rest of the men then fall into line, but as soon as the leader shows weakness the cycle repeats itself as the men all try and maneuver themselves into the coveted leadership role.

Women, on the other hand, are considerably more diplomatic. When there is a designated female leader, there isn’t a power struggle and there isn’t conflict. Communication tends to be a little more diplomatic and no one’s ego ends up being bruised.

Of Buffers and Bluntness
For men, blunt communication typically isn’t a source of conflict or resentment, but many women have reported feeling uncomfortable with such a communication style in an all-male workplace. The solution for men, I think, is to learn to buffer their communication styles. I know I’ve learned to. This doesn’t mean walking on eggshells out of fear of being hurtful because this isn’t equality, but what it does mean is being a little more sensitive in how we communicate feedback or constructive criticism in an office environment.

That said, it isn’t smooth sailing all the time. As a man, occasionally I find the tendency in an all-female work environment to constantly chat and converse draining—and when this happens, I usually plug in my headphones and block everything out.

Then there are times when I’ve opened my mouth and instantly regretted it because something I’ve said has resulted in hurt feelings. This usually doesn’t happen in a male-dominated environment; we know that everything is geared toward performance and direct communication goes a long way toward completing tasks. I liken it to being in the military; when an order comes through from above it isn’t prefaced with a ‘please’ and bookended with a ‘thank you.’ Not that I want to rely on stereotypes, but sometimes I think that the female tendency toward diplomacy takes precedence over simply “getting on with it” as the British say.

I can’t count the number of articles that I’ve read in which women are given tips on how to succeed in an all-male workforce. The flip side of that coin is that there aren’t exactly a great number of articles telling men how to succeed in an all-female workforce. At the end of the day however, I don’t think there needs to be—for either gender. We’re all on the same team, and as long as we’re accepting of different communication styles and recognize that our differences can actually complement each other, we can all strive to reach the same goal—and thrive.

Adam Bajan is a digital brand experience assistant at Ashton College, a post-secondary college in Vancouver. Founded in 1998, Ashton College has become a national and international force in the field of higher education.