Imagine working at a job that isn’t a typical job to hold for someone of your size and gender. Would you be offended if customers underestimated you, or would you enjoy proving them wrong?

In this story, a woman shares how she has to deal with judgement at work all the time in a male dominated field.

Check out the full story.

I’m a woman(21) working in Lumber & Building Materials at Lowes

I’ve been in lumber for over two years and people are weird about it so here are some stories.

I’m closing with one other guy in lumber one night and he’s on lunch.

A pretty regular contractor woman comes in and has the cashier call customer service in lumber to the Pro Desk.

This is where it all gets weird…

Mind you, there are no Pros by this time and she knows this.

I come up there and she gives me the slightly gaped mouth up down look as I ask her how I can help her.

Clearly flabbergasted, she asks if there is anyone else in my department. The answer being no, she explains that she has a verrryyy long list of lumber to pull and there really should be someone else in my department.

I ask to see the list and it is about 8 items with quantities of 5-20 pieces each. Nothing over 12 ft and no pressure treated.

She was already being difficult about it…

I tell her I’d be happy to help her pull it and we wouldn’t really need a forklift with two people.

She huffs and tells me that this is why there should really be someone else in my department.

I just tell her I’ll pull it myself and she can take a seat at the Pro desk while I do.

She could handle it.

I’m not a small woman, 5’6” and 140lbs, but this woman is at least 5’9” and in pretty good shape for her age, I’d guess 40-50 so her help would’ve been nice, but I was fine.

Got her loaded up and sent her on her way and I still don’t think she was very happy about it.

I’m working a mid day shift and it’s about 4pm so the store is slowing down and the non Pros are starting to really trickle in.

I get called up to the Pro desk for customer service and the cashier tells me there is a man who needs help in the plywood aisle.

UH OH…

I approach him and ask him how I can help him.

He’s giving me the stankiest of faces already. He’s in his 50s or 60s and the vibes are already off.

He says he needs me to cut a 3/4in 4x8ft sheet of blonde wood so I ask for the dimensions.

(Now I’m not sure if this is a universal Lowes lumber rule but our store has a sign on the saw saying we do not cut certain things for the safety of associates and the protection of the saw itself. One such rule is that we do not rip 3/4in anything because it weighs too heavily on the blade).

She knew where this was going…

He wants me to rip this thing so I’m explaining to him that I can either rip the 1/2in sheet or he will just have to take the 3/4in with the vertical cuts I can make.

He starts throwing his arms in the air and raising his voice at me.

Things like, “You just cut it this way!” With dramatic arm movements because I was just too dumb to understand it the first time obviously.

We go back and forth a couple more times and he gets so mad he shouts at me to follow him and brings me back to the saw itself. He gestures turning the saw horizontal and screams that it’s that simple and it’s all I have to do.

That’s INSANE!

I’m too glad he brought me back there though because now I can just point at the sign on the saw clearly stating we do not rip 3/4in.

He ends our interaction with the charming, “You’re just so stupid! Get me a man! Get a man!”

The manager I called over is actually so super cool and had my back so no cut wood for that guy!

I honestly have so many of these. Some of the most annoying ones happen while I’m on the forklift or lifting concrete or anything heavy really.

YIKES! That sounds frustrating!

It’s too bad people don’t understand that she’s perfectly capable of doing her job or she wouldn’t have been hired to do that job!

Let’s find out what folks on Reddit think about this situation.

This user knows how common such interactions are!

This user knows how to deal with people like these!

This user knows women can do anything!

This user shares how they tackled things at work!

That’s right! This guy knows how to trust people with their jobs!

It’s awful to be judged by your appearance.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a woman who tracked down a contractor who tried to vanish without a trace.