If the average worker can't even live in the city they work, there is a problem.

Your manager sounds awesome.

That gives hope. I have a few former coworkers that jumped to other departments, and they love it too. I have heard from a few folks that the department of Environmental Quality is heaven on earth if you can get a job there.

I think the systemic problem opens the door for people in positions of power to judge, hire, and fire using gender as a preferred metric. When a leader is not held accountable then whatever "ism" that leader has is allowed to fester and grow. In my managers case, it's sexism, but it could be another ism depending on the leader.

It's bizarre I am getting downvoted for saying precisely what another person on here is getting upvoted from. It's almost like some of y'all can't see past my gender when judging this situation.

A little from column A, little from column B

I think the issue is power is seen as righteousness in state government and there is no accountability of the leadership to their employees. It's why I posted in the original comment about a fellow coworker that is female that was also facing sexism.

I think it's more a problem of leadership in state government not being reviewed often, or trained well enough. It's like the higher up you go in the Virginia state government the less accountable and more protected you are. That should not be the case

There is no such thing as a job satisfaction survey here or even a manager satisfaction survey. There is no way for a manager to get reviewed by the people they have power over. At least nowhere, I work in Virginia. To me, that shows a huge lack of accountability.

The Homophobia is real! I went to work last week with painted nails, and the comments I got for being a male with black nail polish were insane! Things from people assuming my sexual orientation to people just outright ignoring and ghosting. and the worst part is when its a whole year of probation they can easily find something they don't like to make your probation not go through.

You are 10000% right.

My boss wrote me up when I asked for a written process for accountability. My first project on the job went through 27 revisions, was highly inefficient, and went in circles, wasting a lot of time and taxpayer money. When I mentioned that we needed to be held accountable for a process, she wrote me up, stating I was disgruntled and trying to control outside my role. When I tried to explain my situation to HR and my boss, I was told the " happy wife, happy life" comment.

I have won equity and inclusion awards for my work. My work has won awards for its diversity, equity, and inclusion. I even had a plaque for passing the equity and inclusion course within the top 5% of the 600-person class.

But none of that seems to matter here in Virginia. Most dont seem to see past gender and skin color here.

When I worked in Seattle, my boss and the majority of my coworkers were women, and I had zero issues. but once I moved to Virginia, it was like I went from being seen as an ally to being seen as the enemy.

All these sexist beliefs are just accepted across the board in the work environment. Like when I made a comment about why are only the men in the office being tasked with moving boxes, a lot of folks in the office were taken aback like I was asking why the sky was blue.

I just want to work in a job environment that treats people as whole people and doesn't discriminate against others based on perceived differences.