Let’s say you’re at work. Let’s say you listen to a couple of co-workers speaking about, perhaps, some kind of racial issue or illegal immigration. Let’s say the nature of the conversation is such that you think someone passing by might be in the slightest fashion uncomfortable or offended. It is now your responsibility to report this potentially-offensive incident to your supervisor or manager, or you could find yourself subject to punitive actions in the workplace.
“No, BZ, this cannot be true,” you say.
Yes. In Fornicalia it is true.
Employees of the State of Fornicalia must go through sensitivity/sexual harrassment/racial discrimination training every two years.
As a supervisor for a county in Fornicalia, I must have this training regularly. One of the examples used in the class, as I am taught (by an attorney) is this:
A manager comes up to a female employee and says something similar to “Good job Jennifer, I really liked the job you did on the report, you made the division chief look good.” Then he pats her on the shoulder in passing and leaves.
Jennifer, not liking to be touched, may file a complaint with the company or agency EEOC representative. The manager may then be confronted at a later date (if the complaint cannot be resolved at the lowest level and/or the employee insists on a formal resolution) and interviewed — but the subject of the complaint does not have the right to view the complaint, know the precise nature of the complaint or know the identity of the complainant.
If you doubt the above scenario, directly from my department’s general order:
IV. Reporting Responsibility
A. Each employee who witnesses discrimination or sexual harassment has a responsibility to address it or report it to a supervisor, even if he or she is not the direct recipient of such conduct.
B. Each manager and supervisor has a duty to address discrimination and sexual harassment. Failure to take appropriate action when aware of such conduct is grounds for disciplinary action.
This issue emerged recently when my brother called, agog, that something like this could occur in the business world.
My reply was: calm down. This is the nature of private business and the government world these days. It doesn’t make it proper; it just makes it true. And it gets down to one word:
Money.
Sexual harrassment and racial discrimination (not to mention OSHA, HIPAA and ADA — another good idea gone around-the-bend with insanity) are Big Business and a Big Industry unto themselves.
There are attorneys, judges, private arbitrators, counselors, psychologists, trainers, consultants, brigands, charlatans and the mentally unstable whose job it is to profit financially from the Victimhood of those who believe they are deserving of a deep fiscal remuneration from any slight, real or perceived, of the most minor of natures.
It is all about the money. Period.
And those who sit on various civil cases revolving around the entire encompassing system of victimology have one final thought coursing through their paltry little brains when they make a massive award: IF IT WERE ME SITTING AT THE PLAINTIFF’S TABLE, I WOULD WANT TO BE AWARDED THE MONEY.
Which is why I say that, ultimately, politics gets down to:
- Whoever controls education controls the future;
- Whoever controls the US Supreme Court controls the future;
Looks to me like the Demorats are, indeed, well on their way to complete control — and the Republicans pretty much don’t have the first damned clue.
BZ
P.S.
Places to go for reference:
http://www.eeoc.gov/ (federal)
http://www.dfeh.ca.gov/ (State of Fornicalia)
I go thru the same shit, and basically, anybody can call anything harassment. all you have to do is hurt somebody’s feelings and they can file a complaint against you. it’s bullshit! you can say “good morning”, and if that person does not like to be greeted in the morning hours, they can file a complaint. and if your department’s system works like my companies,if you perchance get two or three complaints for something just that harmless, you will have to get the expanded “sensitivity training” and be threatened with termination.
say good morning and smile when you say that, hell, that’s grounds for a lawsuit!
there’s just too many lawyers in this country, and theyare f–king up everything.
When my Brother was still on the Dept, before he retired, he was a Division commander and on the wall of his office was a plaque, it read:
In this office, sexual harassment isn’t reported, it’s graded…
Never had a complaint either, but it wasn’t the land of fruits, nuts and PC flakes either…
04 24 08
How utterly upsetting. It is as though they wish to institute the thought police! 😉 PS: Thanks for checking in from time to time, hope all is well on your end.
What an absolute load of crap. How disturbing.
We threw common sense out the door years ago.
In my working time there were a small number of individuals that were known to ‘game’ the EEOC system to get raises, bonuses and even promotions based on alleged grievances of minor workplace infractions. I found it interesting that it was no *black* or *colored* individuals who were the main perpetrators, but white women and that only less than .1% of the feminine workforce. One had built up her own little office empire based on one part of the production cycle and would fight to keep that little fiefdom to the bitter end. Unfortunately for her technology was going to bypass that cycle almost completely and she would have to get back to working for a living… for my efforts to bring in labor saving, materials saving, and time saving equipment and procedures into the government I got an Inspector’s General investigation.
That woman did not know what she was tangling with and my boss asked for a Desk Audit of my position… the reason that was a trump card is that it is an investigation by the employment classification folks in HR to look at your work schedule and work load, plus responsibilities and compare them to your job description. The IG inspection fizzled as my Department backed me and the Desk Audit demonstrated I was doing the work of at least two individuals at two labor grades higher than my current one: all EEOC lines of attack were thwarted as the production personnel I was helping to train were *not* coming from the fiefdom. That is what you get for stonewalling – your position is shunted to the side. She could have helped, could have seen the handwriting on the wall and gotten herself a better position with more influence… but instead it was trench warfare mentality.
The EEOC process made me recognize that the problems it engendered needed trump cards from elsewhere in the organization and getting those stacked up for a couple of years allowed me to counter each and every individual who tried to complain about the changes coming down the pipeline. It is hard to claim EEOC bias when the individual is reaching out to offer you a *better* position. The mentality of ‘I gots mine and no one dare threaten it’ closes off thought.
I can’t say I ever learned anything from the annual EEO training sessions or, really, any of the other ‘workforce improvement’ sessions mandated from Congress. They are a pure waste of time: if you know common courtesy they are irrelevent, and if you don’t then it is not the role of the *workplace* to teach that.
Each of the ‘disadvantaged’ programs had those who gamed the system, the disabled group had a tiny but nearly impossible group of misfits, incompetents and outright incapable people that had no business in the working environment of classified material. And if you wanted to *fire them* it took at least three years of gathering annual reports, demonstrating you had given out warnings and training options, counseling options, etcetera, ad nauseum. That long chain could be broken by one higher up acting *nice* and giving a minor recommendation for something not work related and you would then see the RESET button hit.
I felt sorry for the loading dock guys (the ones operating the forklifts, moving pallets and crates around, working with heavy machinery) as they had to take down very well hidden ‘cheescake’ pictures because someone might look into a one of those areas and be offended. Even better the women in shipping and receiving had clearly stated, to management, that they were not offended! Needless to say the pictures went: rules trump morale, and picayune rules were the the Gospel Engraved on Stone Tablets from On High.
And seeing how the bluenoses in Congress don’t want Maxim, Playboy and such at the PX, you can figure out for yourself which is more important: National Security or anal-retentive, moralistic school-marmish views on prudery.
Remember when the contest between the USA and USSR was said to be:
“We follow the Rule of Law,
They follow the Law of Rules.”
Guess who actually won the Cold War, just looking at societal results? Why are we following that path towards Rules trumping common sense, and the removal of liberty to make a homogenized society free of any sort of individual view?
The Nation is slipping and has been doing so in that direction for decades, as *both* parties try to dictate societal standards by government fiat. That is why a small government is necessary and vital to democracy: Society rules Government, not the other way around.
Yep, the pendulum is swinging way to the other side and it is based on a few incidents that happened in the work place a long time ago. Most likely they don’t happen very often, but the libs must make it so that the normal course of every day human expression is considered harrasment. That way there is more money to be made and they have more control over people. That is the libs quest, to have more control over us and demand we live and believe the way they do.
That is why they see no problem with extreme Islam yet see issues with Christianity which is the true religion of freedom of choice. Christianity threatens their very mission in life. I am sure if someone had a Koran on their desk in the office it would be o.k., but NOT a bible. If someone speaks about Jesus in the work place they will probably get fired, yet they would bend over back wards to give a Muslim access to a foot bath and prayer times during the day.
And as California goes, so goes the rest of the country! At least it has always seemed so. I’m glad my husband and I are retired.
I’m not saying there isn’t sexual or racial discrimination but, these days, those are the RARE exceptions and not the rule — simply because of the monetary exposure to the agency or business. And yes, in my experience and that of my wife we both observe: females are the key “gamers” of the system AND the MOST corrosive work environment is an all-female or predominantly-female one. I had the extreme displeasure to my department’s Communications Sergeant for a VERY short time in 2001 and I couldn’t WAIT to LEAVE. No one was happy, every one was gaming everyone else (including every attempt at me), sick leave was astronomical, backbiting, tension, petty complaints, formal complaints; I learned quickly: get the FUCK outta there. Never again. My first wife said that, other girlfriends and my current wife. Women come right out and say: working in an all-female area is the worst. And I concur.
BZ