My workplace is very similar to yours, I’m a guy and work.almost exclusively with women. Many people will treat me better and assume I have a higher position than my coworkers, it boils down to sexism. The same thing is happening to you, you are being treated better by this patient because you are a man. Your coworkers are just looking for some compassion or empathy from you. It would be good for you to offer that to them. You should also think about why you never saw this before and why you jump to this being a mean girls type situation.
If you work in a mostly female workplace, are you expected to hate/dislike the patients your female coworkers dislike?
cross-posted from: linux.community/post/482215...