FACEBOOK executive Sheryl Sandberg has hit back at accusations that she’s micro-managing, calculated and difficult.

The claims are made in newly ­published book Facebook: The Inside Story, where author Steven Levy writes: “Sandberg could be a challenge to work with.

“Despite her public persona as a corporate goddess of sympathy, she was prone to yelling at subordinates when they did not live up to her considerable demands.”

But Ms Sandberg has responded that women in the workplace are still judged by different standards to men.

“For you to say a man is yelling at the workplace, it has to be Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer (former CEO of Microsoft). He has to, like, scream,” she says.

“For someone to say a woman is yelling, you have to raise your voice or sound tense. It’s a very different thing.”

Whether this sentiment applies to Home Secretary Priti Patel remains to be seen.

Ms Patel stands accused of belittling and bullying staff — a claim her supporters have dismissed as “smears and sexism”.

But her critics have been bolstered by reports that a previous employee received a £25,000 payout after allegedly filing a formal complaint about “an unprovoked level of aggression” from Ms Patel when she was Employment Secretary.

Just as her gender shouldn’t result in her being judged more harshly than a male colleague, equally it should not rule out the possibility that she might have seriously overstepped the mark in the way she speaks to staff.

So the Prime Minister has rightly announced an inquiry to “establish the facts” and the result of it will no doubt determine Ms Patel’s political future.

But putting that firmly to one side, Ms Sandberg’s suggestion that, generally speaking, women in the workplace are judged more harshly than men is an interesting one.

Perhaps it’s because we are deemed to be the “fairer sex” and are therefore expected to be “nicer” or “softer” than our male colleagues?

'BULLYING BEHAVIOUR'

When myself and my fellow Loose Women have a heated debate about an issue of the day, we still get the occasional “miaow” comment from someone who would no doubt view the same conversation between men as a validly expressed difference of opinion.

And, of course, a woman unafraid to say what she thinks is often referred to as “hard” or “a bitch”, whereas the same trait in a man is routinely applauded.

When I started out in the robust climate of busy newsrooms back in the Eighties, raised voices, swearing and “that’s not good enough” remonstrations were commonplace.

You were judged on ability, not gender, and it was countered by plenty of laughter and praise where it was due.

I knew where I stood, learned to stand up for myself, and loved it.

But the modern workplace is a “human resources” minefield.

A couple of years ago, a former colleague of mine went to work in the charity sector where, accustomed to the robust nature of journalists, he politely told one employee that a report they had written wasn’t detailed enough.

They duly reported him to HR for “bullying behaviour”.

He didn’t lose his job but was advised to tread more carefully in future when addressing an employee’s shortcomings.

Seriously? Accusations of bullying in the workplace should be properly investigated and, if proven, treated with the utmost seriousness.

But equally, the word “bully” mustn’t be used as a weapon against bosses of either gender simply asking employees to do their job better.

A Style nightmare

HARRY Styles has told how he rushed into traffic after being mugged in North ­London but no car would stop and help him.

Welcome to modern Britain – a nation of largely decent people so paralysed by fear on our lawless streets that they’d rather turn a blind eye than risk getting harmed themselves.

Mind you, who can blame them?

Imagine driving home late at night when one of the world’s biggest heart-throbs – dressed in ­corduroy flares and pearls – pounds on your ­windscreen and demands to get in.

You’d think someone had spiked your non-alcoholic beer.

Be more like Les

VERNON Kay has called out Hollywood star Jack Black for being horrible to him when he was just starting out in TV.

Vernon, now 45, says: “When you’re so rude, arrogant and pig-faced to a young TV presenter, who’s so nervous and trying to hone his skills, and you’re so arrogant to dismiss that, it’s not on.”

When I was starting out as a young reporter (in the days before electricity), I remember vividly being sent to interview the comedian Les Dawson and feeling sick with nerves.

But he was kind, patient and, of course, side-achingly funny – instantly putting me and the equally young photographer who was with me at our ease.

A true star.

D.I. why I'd call a pro

HATS off to DIY novice Graham Harley who, with a little help from books and YouTube tutorials, managed to build an entire house himself.

OK, it took him ten years. But still.

Many years ago, The Bloke and I went online and ordered a cute little wooden playhouse for our youngest daughter.

It arrived flatpacked with instructions that declared it would take two people around four hours to build.

Two weeks later and on the verge of divorce, we had to fork out an extra £100 for a handyman to come and finish it.

Gaga guy's got it all

LADY Gaga is the talk of showbiz circles for apparently “wearing 2020’s hottest new accessory: A normal boyfriend”.

Just for the record – while Michael Polansky’s job of running a charitable foundation is relatively “normal” in the high-octane world of Planet Celebrity, his rugged looks are anything but.

He makes George Clooney look plain.

You'll wet yourself

FASHION designer Harikrishnan’s balloon trousers have prompted comparisons with Disney’s Aladdin.

But my first thought was the incontinence pants anecdote from An Audience With Billy Connolly.

If you fancy a spot of escapism amid all the gloom and doom of the current news headlines, check it out on YouTube.

You’ll, er, wet yourself.

Drug national scandal

THERE’S an epidemic sweeping Britain that has killed 2,917 people in one year and cost the taxpayer more than £19billion.

No, not the coronavirus. Drug use.

Dame Carol Black’s Home Office review has found a “considerable increase” in children taking illegal highs, while kids and teenagers have been “pulled into drugs supply on an alarming scale”.

It’s a national scandal.

So why isn’t the Government holding emergency Cobra meetings about this?

Shouldn't be a stretch

THE Duchess of Sussex is set to attend New York’s star-studded Met Gala in May.

This year’s theme is Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, in which the novel’s central character changes sex – so attendees are expected to follow a “glamorous androgynous” look.

That shouldn’t be a stretch for someone who clearly wears the trousers at home.

Rule himself out

THE debate over whether Tom Watson should receive a peerage rumbles on.

MOST READ IN OPINION

Jeremy Corbyn has nominated him, but Lady Brittan – whose husband Leon was smeared by Watson over fake paedophile claims – says it “should raise serious questions about how he might use his position in the House of Lords”.

Quite.

But that aside, considering the blight he placed on the lives of the Brittans and others falsely accused, shouldn’t Watson do the decent thing and rule himself out of consideration?

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