Is anyone else seen as "one of the guys" at work?

I work in a pretty male dominated kitchen. I work morning shifts so I am alone in the bakery from 5am-9am every day. The kitchen has usually 5 guys working by 7am. I have to run down there quite often as the resturant is attached to the kitchen, plus that is where most of my stuff is kept that I need.

I was told the other day I am seen as one of the guys. To be honest, that is not what I wanted to hear. I mean, I know it is not the worst thing to be. It kind of makes me insecure though. "Man I was at the gym and these hot blonde girls were showing me up." "Woah, so-and-so is pulling off the sexy librarian look quite well!"

It totally shoots down my confidence. I mean, I know I am far from hot and sexy, but hey, I am girl! We don't like to know what girls you think are hot. Especially when I work with them every day.

So is anyone else seen as "one of the guys" at work? Does it bother you? DO you not care?

I don't understand. Last time someone at work tried to hit on you, we had to talk you down off the ledge, it was so horrifying. Now they don't think of you like that, and you're equally horrified. So, which one do you actually want?

Can't you be treated like a girl without being hit on? It just sucks having to hear about how hot everyone else is.

I talked to my brother though and he said that he thinks of his girlfriend as one of the guys and that to him it means she is not all "omg guess what this person said to this person! How could she do that!" but instead focus's on joking around and having fun. So I guess it is not a terrible thing to be "one of the guys".

I guess I can't help it if I would rather talk about action movies and hockey then chick flicks and gossip.

I thought being one of the guys was a bad thing which is why I posted this. I have been told it is not though. Still curious as to who else is seen as "one of the guys" though.

Guys don't know how to treat girls "like girls", whatever that means. Guys don't get girly stuff, they're certainly not going to celebrate it. (My husband says that hitting on a girl is how a guy treats a girl like a girl. YMMV, of course, but he is a dude, and we're not, so...)

The people I work with treat each other as fellow employees.

If you don't want to hear that stuff, tell them you don't want to hear it, or ignore it. You just work with them, their opinion on randoms means nothing to you.

So what, people aren't allowed to talk about what they want to talk about, because YOU don't want to hear it? It's a free world, they can talk about the attractiveness of other females if they so wish.

As for the "one of the guys" thing, if they talk to you about what you want to talk about, and you don't want them hitting on you, then what difference does it make what gender they see you as?

When I worked in a male dominated environment, absolutely. But I worked hard to earn the trust and respect of each male in the group for my own place within the group. Not all guys will accept any old person as their buddy all willy nilly. Being one of very few girls at work, I was treated as an equal, but I was also their queen. It was like having 50 older brothers. I was never without (any sort of) help, should I had needed it. Nobody could ever even try to hurt me. When the police didn't want to reprimand the stalker outside my house, they did. When my grandmother needed help moving, they helped.

I loved it and would go back to it in a heart beat. It's a hell of a lot better than working with a slew of competitive women who are all vying for the attention of one man.

geez I just asked a simple question. I mean, there are down sides to being one of the guys, but now that I have thought about it, it is kind of fun. Like SaraTheGrouch said, they are always looking out for me. I had two guys come down to the bakery and help me garnish for 30 minutes because I was stressed about time once. I didn't even ask. They saw I was stressed and came to help me. Then they assured me had it been anyone else working they would not have done it Then I have one guy who I am getting close too and I ended up talking to him about something personal that was bothering me. He told me at the end that I come to him anytime I need help or to vent. So really, it is pretty awesome being one of the guys. Oh and they make me food all the time

I am going to be more positive about this and think about how much it rocks.

geez I just asked a simple question

And you just got simple answers. If you think this is me losing my cool, thank your deity of choice that you don't have to live with me. You don't even know me unglued...

I'd love to be one of the guys, but my bartending job means mostly flirtation. Fortunately, it also means that there's often a guy around to do my heavy lifting or bussing or whatever, so I take the good with the bad. As long as my coworkers stay reasonably respectful and not aggressively sexual, I try to take their comments as compliments- which they are. But there's a difference between "wow, you look really sexy in that dress" and "great boobs, I'd love to see them" or whatever. It's a balance, and restaurants have the kind of culture in which that kind of thing happens a lot.