I (a woman) started working on the same position with another colleague (a man) on the same day. We went together for the onboarding session and had the same starting day. We also had similar work experience (I would even say I was a bit more senior than him in terms of the number of work years, but not too much necessarily + I had 3 years of experience in another, yet relevant field).
From the day one, that man has been talking to me like I don’t know anything and he knows everything. He was ignoring what I was saying, grabbing work tools straight out of my hands while I was working with them, because he felt like “he knew better how to use them and I needed guidance and immediate demonstration from him”. He presumed I don’t know anything about the work I was doing and couldn’t believe I have same years of experience as him.
When I sent some customer service emails responding to customer complaints (I had 3 years of experience in customer communications back then), he would run to the laptop and check that “I didn’t write anything wrong” or ask me “to consult with him before writing”. He wasn’t a manager.
At some point he started to control my actions even during remote work, even unrelated to work. For example, once I bought something urgent for the office with my own money and needed the company to pay me back. It was not a problem, I knew whom to contact. However, when he learned the company “owes me money”, he sent me a dm: “Hi! Please, you must send the receipt to X!”
Interrogating him wasn’t helping — he would pretend he doesn’t understand what I am talking about. When I shared my stories with male colleagues, they were shocked — he was unpleasant with them as well, but not to that extent.
He got fired and I was promoted to a manager position.