I worked in a place that would be a true hell on earth for an RPer. 95% women on the day shift. The section supervisor hired me because, I think he'd have rather have put a bullet in his brain rather than hire another female. Yeah, I had the skills, so he wasn't gonna grill me for the interview. If I ran away screaming like 9 out of 10 applicants to that factory after a week, oh well! Next!

The first day, no biggie, do some standard assembly line BS, solder things, test things, pass em down the line to the next section.

Of course the week after, they handed me off to the designated trainer, who had been on vacation the week day I was there. and OMFG, she was pissed, at EVERYONE! She was snappy, bitter, and proceeded to tell me everything that everyone there had done wrong for the last 35 years that she'd been there.

After those two weeks, people were surprised I was still there, but whatever. I get moved to an assembly area where most of the women could not handle it. Hands were not big enough, not enough strength, whatever. No problem for me though.

The lady I was partnered with was laid back, and knew more about football that I ever will, she was from Minnesota, had no kids, but was pretty well granny age. Her husband was slowly dying, but given the age, understandable. She was probably employee number 60 in the history of the company. She knew plenty of dirt on the company, but wasn't blurting it out all at once.

A few weeks after, another section. First day, I worked as a third in a 2 person cell, just prepping assemblies, and getting used to some of the more fiddly assemblies. This section was hell because there were about 300 different assemblies, and all of them had their oddities. Day after, the Queen Bee of the company, she'd been a cell lead, section manager, in calibration, various other jobs in the company, and was back to assembly since she was on the retirement track. One husband divorced, perpetually single after that, kind of a swinger on the down low. She trained me on various boards, and was a woman of few words. I found out the most about her from her friends. She'd been with the company 42 years, was one of the first 3-4 dozen employees, and was one of the fasted damned soldering/assembly workers I've seen to date.

A perfect co-worker, she left me alone, and rarely said more than a dozen words in a day. Course, if she was talking to someone in depth, shit was going DOWN, and HARD. She did a lot of work with an asian lady, call her Millie, who was the second fastest assembler.

I worked directly with at least a dozen different women on a regular basis. Usually lower priority work got the newbies, but I quickly ended up working with the top half dozen on a regular basis. Freaky because most people there had over 10 years of experience, and I was a newbie. I guess soldering was not everyone's bag there or something.

So, I end up doing a lot of work with Ms Complains Nonstop, because most women refused to work with her. Also because I'm a guy, and can work the pneumatic part smosher without ripping my arm to pieces.

To my horror, Ms Complains Nonstop decided I was "her's", and that sort of turf war in a factory full of women is going to lead to bad times. If she was bottom dog of the heap, she got it worst after that. Only the fact that she was best friends with the Queen Bee had kept her from getting booted out onto the street for various "problems" in the past.

So how does such a turf war happen? Well, the younger Queen Bees, or section leads decided that. Which meant I was very very often in the section run by Mrs Giggles. Mostly for practical reasons, because for small to average women, the work I did would usually lead to wearing carpel tunnel braces, and bad times. And also to make Ms Complains Nonstop miserable, because she really only got along with the oldest Queen Bee, and Millie. When she wasn't with those two, she was dragging along like someone who'd had a bucket of water dumped on em.

When she was with me, she was energetic as a black lab on amphetamines. Because then she would have a new listener, and she could smack talk about every woman in the place. And this was BAD because there were no walls, and people can still hear!

There was one male cell lead, and she pestered him to have me work with her because I could carry loaded totes, and her arm wouldn't fall off. She had rheumatoid arthritis pretty bad.

Or she would pester the female cell leads, because she could precision solder, and I could handle the part smasher, and eventually because I was one of the top ones at flat pack solder, and doing work under a magnifier.

Now, she'd tried and tried to get a rise out of me since I'd started, about 7-8 months later, she said something rotten, and I'd gotten a little short with her. Nothing overly offensive, or even that rude, but the comment went deep, and she sort of fell apart. Everyone was like, WTF?

Eventually things got to the section supervisor, he got to the bottom of things, and was PISSED. Once again she'd been harassing and badgering co-workers, and got written up. The head Queen Bee was pissed at me, at least until she'd repaired the ego of her friend, and if we had to work together the section leads were watching us like hawks.

The ripple effect of this little tiff was immediate, and people were very quiet around the both of us for a few weeks.

So, once again, I ended up in Mrs Giggle's section. And bounced back and forth between another section, then they tried me on SMT and low temp lines when things were slow.

The tension eased when they hired the asian dude who was used to working on shit they implanted into people for 10 years. He drove the factory problem woman nuts because he said like maybe 2 dozen words in a day. 2 months later, he was out, went to work for an aerospace company. I think I'd mentioned it to him a few times because the pay was $4 an hour better, but doomed to layoffs because it was defense budget tied.

So, a few more shifts in personnel, and I was working with, call her Ramona, but her name has like 5 syllables. Now, she was fun to work with, chat with, etc. And she was WAY into me. Problem was, the hubby worked in that factory, so, nah, not gonna hit on her, no way, no how. It got to sort of crazy obsessive level, and they had to park me in a different section, like it or not, even if I was doing stuff there was no demand for.

End of the quarter, and I find myself transfered to another factory. $2 pay raise, but, no overtime. Was on a better shift, but OMG, boring, boring, boring. Super cool tech toys, different group of crabby people, and daffy duck feet because I was standing all day.

Was looking to change jobs constantly toward the last two months, figured on cutting and running but then they said I had to take a month "break" for every six I worked. Was about 6 days before the enforced break, and the orders drop off to nothing. 2 days later, company stock price dropped to a third, and everyone but long timers got laid off.

Did two different 1 year contracts at other tech companies, got a call from from the old one, interviewed there, and recognized NOBODY! They had a paper pusher engineer running a repair and calibration shop, and a TON of GREEN talent.

Still, proof that for 45 years, women were the bulk of the labor force of a company that was at the head of its market, and still more or less is. The engineers, techs, and other guys, mostly they HID at final assembly, calibration, and repairs. Company execs, even better hidden. :D