My great friend and co-owner of this blog guided me to a part-time writing job I have enjoyed for just a little over two years now. I’m working for a big institution, and as such, this institution has to follow a great many regulations regarding its employees, part-timers, like me, and full-timers, both. One of these regulations is making sure we are all ‘up to code’ on the current computer safety protocols (which I welcome, seeing as I am not the most conversant on new technology) and the dos and don’ts of employee interaction, although lots of this institution’s employees work from home. Via this semi-regular email prompting, I was just sent an email to partake in what the institution calls:
“Creating a Culture of Respect: Preventing Sexual Harassment and Discrimination”
‘Uh, oh,’ I thought, and I’ll tell you why (thanks for asking).
Luckily, I suffered through this two-hour instruction/quiz, although I didn’t remember doing so until I clicked further into the tutorial, only to be alerted that I had taken the course. Then, as these things often do in the dull organ I call a brain, I did recall that yes, I had more or less breezed through the piece and aced the quiz, because…I am 1.) not too dumb. 2.) kinda would never have nor would intentionally sexually harass a co-worker, save myself (tee hee) and mostly, 3.) realize that this test/instruction, like most of the others I have taken (save maybe the aforementioned computer hacker warning module) can be waylaid by a simple rule we probably should all live our life by: Just don’t be an d*** (I try to keep FU as PG friendly as I can, so feel free to fill in those ***. And please note, although the word I reference here might be taken as mostly ‘male’ I mean all genders here.)
I know this place I work for is not the only one pushing this drek on their workers. I have talked to plenty of friends who get the same regular prompts/instructions/tests from their HR departments and bosses, a seemingly rash of ‘careful where you step, what you say, don’t offend’ cautions popping up in the modern workplace. So, my question is (and God knows I don’t have an answer QeeQay), why are we being so “extra,” as the kids say on how to act with one another?
Put to my buddy Tom today over another of our near-weekly ‘solve all the world’s problems diner breakfast’ symposiums, I postulated my quandary to one of the smartest brains I know. I asked Tom: Have we de-evolved to an even ruder naked ape presently, becoming ever more so sexually aggressive that we need to be corralled with online prompts cutting into our workday? Or: Are we all just a little too oversensitive to things that, decades ago, we wouldn’t ever even notice, nor did we ever define them as offensive, because they weren’t? And furthermore, on this last point: Why indeed do we see certain words, actions, or thoughts as offensive presently? (one of the most important questions, I feel). Or: In seeing ever more workers winning lawsuits brought against their employers, are companies going to the nth degree to protect themselves? Or: Has the current climate brought a problem that always existed more to the fore?
Or? Or? Or?
Again, I don’t have the answer to any of the above, although I do have my suspicions, and these answers I suspect don’t bode well for who we have become. But I’m not a sociologist…I only play one on TV. But when I take tests/suffer through instructional sexual harassment emails, or another I completed recently about workplace etiquette (with a lesson I’ll paraphrase: ‘When you meet a coworker who happens to be in a wheelchair, it is suggested you should not come out and say “Hi Jane, nice to meet you. So, what happened in your life that you are confined to a wheelchair?”) it really comes down to, for me, as it always has: Just don’t be a d***.
Really, no reasoned adult would ever think it’s ok to put their hands on anyone else unless they are welcomed to or maybe assisting the person next to them if they are falling (and in the current climate, you have to even be careful lending someone aid in this manner). But are we breeding/raising/letting into the world more unreasoned adults than ever before?
Again, I don’t know.
What I do know is that if we all act polite and civil to each other, Georgia Satellite our way through life (I’ll let you ponder that reference) avoid those subjects my mom told me not to ever discuss in public—politics, sex and religion—and generally don’t be an d***, I think we’d be ok.
Maybe.
