Yeah, like this, but without the excuse of being a dog.
You’ll probably get a kick out of this.
I have a dear friend who just told me that some schmuck at work has started harassing her. You know, in the sexual way.
Now, that’s fucking stupid enough, but it gets dumber. He’s a manager (not directly her boss, but a manager).
Okay, that’s really amping up the stupid. But wait! It goes to eleven:
My friend is the human resources rep.
Now, dear readers, we have entered the realm of epic, epic fail.
Or, in my friend’s words:
Honest to god, I thought people knew better than that. Or at least, if you wanna harass somebody, maybe you choose someone besides the human resource rep?
Yeah, you’d think.
So, do any of you have any similar stories to share? Of harassment, or epic fail, or both? Leave ’em in the comments.
You want some fail? One of my spam subjects today was “Dear Oscar Winner.” Does anyone really think the Academy Awards are announce via e-mail?
On the other hand, I was Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, so I guess anything’s possible …
A.
Behavior made fashionable again by none other than George Bush.
When I worked for state govt in the SouthEast US, my boss was in the middle of a love affair with another person she supervised. All day, rather than obviously standing in his cubicle, she would be on the phone with him.
Did I say cubicle? As in sound travels really good?
Ended up that a long line of people, including myself, quit their positions in the office. She (the boss) divorced her husband and married this coworker (and remained his supervisor for several years before HR thought that may be a problem).
To top it off, her boss was fond of saying, “The Fish stinks from the head.”
Sort of in the same league: one evening I was walking across the playground adjacent to my son’s school and the light must have been perfect because a bunch of skateboarding teens started wolf-whistling me, with one in particular asking if I’d go out on a date. I was at least 37-38 at the time, and in no way look that young in daylight.
I just laughed and walked around the corner to go into the school to pick up my son, and when I walked out again with L. in tow, the amorous one shrieked “YOU’RE AMOM?!?!?!” I almost fell over laughing. It made my day but was also very, very funny.
oh dear god do not get me started
catbert?
really? that is prety stoopid.
Slim, that is ‘teh awesome’!!! 🙂
Elspeth
Now as a right wing male my only question would be, “Is your friend hot?” and then I will go into the “But what if he really likes her and wants to date her and some stupid rules get in the way of true love. Is he supposed to quit his job?”
Then I would go into the whole ‘Political Correctness” “Why can’t I just complement her on her dress?’ (and didja notice that the only people who bring up the term political correctness anymore are RW jackholes?)
——-
That is how they will play it because they can’t admit what this is really about and they hate rules that don’t let them act like rutting dogs and not people with a brain and a college education.
A friend was harassed by this gay boss who said that he would “cut her” if she mentioned his other methods of forcing her out. She found out proof of his financial fraud. He also lied about his advanced degrees on his resume at a place where that is supposedly a firing offense.
She had to get a lawyer and she was forced out. The guy was protected because he was having an affair with his boss, a guy who was the President. So there are ripple effects to having these inter-office affairs that go beyond just sexual harassment.
She ended up leaving but I do wish she would have pushed for a lawsuit, but the thing that they don’t tell you is that when you do a lawsuit that is used to taint you for future work. And they told her so, “You will never work in this town again!” She was black balled in the city and had to leave the area. If she had gone ahead with the lawsuit she might have had some money to not have to work in the town again.
Pre-Anita Hill story. We were living in a pretty small town and attended a local church. I went to a job interview and the HR director was a man that went to our church. So during the interview at some point he recognizes me and I say, yes, I go to the same church. He proceeds to tell me he is a Convert and when he was in high school and wanted to date a loose girl, he would date a catholic girl. His wife was from Costa Rica and a very nice lady. I did not know what to say. I did get the job, but I always stayed clear of him. I worked there when the whole Anita Hill-Clarence THomas thing was going on and let me tell you those men were scared shitless. Things changed alot around there after that. Yay, Anita Hill!!!
I used to work at a science based consulting company where the boss’ sister was the office manager (and a professional artist), and I was the key technical manager. I was annoyed that the office manager was un-making my decisions to please the other staff, rather than on the basis of who was best suited to handle a task. We were very busy, and I was having to waste time rescheduling people.
One day when I informed about 5 junior staff to go back to the original schedule the OM lost her temper with me and swore at me in front of all the junior staff. I asked her for an apology to no avail. I asked her brother to tell her to apologize (I had the smarts to do this privately), and she refused. So I quit that very moment, leaving several dozen projects in the air, and nobody else at my level to even work on them.
Failure to back-up your talent = epic fail.
Putting familiy feelings over business reality = epic fail.
Oddly enough my fiancée used to be the HR administrator where I worked. Hitting on the HR rep sometimes works.