But What If Your ‘Whole Self’ Is, Frankly, Aggravating?
And back in the world of contrived racial grievance,
Job postings and corporate ‘About Us’ pages often include a statement about the company fostering an environment where employees can bring their ‘whole selves’ to work. But how often do these claims reflect reality?
At risk of being difficult, I have questions about the premise. For one, why on God’s Fragrant Earth would an employer, or indeed their customers, want employees to drag every last piece of their personal baggage into the workplace and then inflict that inexhaustible tedium on everyone else? If, say, I’m buying groceries, I am as a rule friendly towards the person at the checkout. There’s always eye contact, a smile, and a word of appreciation. However, I rarely have the time or inclination to hear about the cashier’s extensive list of ailments or her difficulties finding a babysitter, or a lover, or a suitable shampoo. Nor do I wish to hear her views on politics. It’s not why I’m there. And ditto her.
Bringing your whole self to your job can be challenging at best and career limiting at worst, specifically for marginalized and racialized peoples.
There we go. At this point, we could, I think, just paraphrase and save a lot of time:
Self-Involvement Not Entirely Practical In The Workplace. Magic Brown People Hardest Hit.
But no. We must push on.
Tanya Sinclair is the founder of Black Human Resources Professionals of Canada, a not-for-profit founded in 2020… Ms Sinclair says bringing your whole self to work is a great goal, “if you can,” but that “there is inherent risk that comes with bringing your full self to work for Black people.”
Those alleged risks, supposedly unique to black people, will, I’m sure, be made both clear and convincing at some point; though, alas, not in the article. However, the author of the piece, Ms Shellene Drakes-Tull, is determined to wring from her readers some pretentious sympathy:
In the face of precarious work situations, the idea of being vulnerable and sharing all parts of your identity can compound the difficulties of finding and keeping sustained, stable employment – even when employers encourage it.
Again, I’m still not clear on why “sharing all parts of your identity” is what a workplace should be for. It seems to me that a key part of being professional is not allowing a necessary task to be derailed by personal irritation, or a frustrating commute, or a bad hair day, or just habitual self-preoccupation.
“I was taught that there are certain things that you don’t say or certain things that you keep your mouth shut about,” says Julisha Roache, a recent graduate of the University of Lethbridge who is entering the work force. “You just don’t disrupt the peace, because at that point, you’re disposable,” she says.
Shocking revelations from a recent graduate. Positively bulging with worldly knowledge.
Ms Sinclair believes that employers need to be aware that Black employees may navigate the workplace differently than other employees.
Again, magic brown people. Not like thee and me. Bring the offerings.
“Chances are your Black employees may not be bringing their full selves to work for many reasons that are linked to systemic barriers, that are linked to intersectionalities, but that are also linked to your own workplace culture,” she says. “I think [employers] have to own and acknowledge that if you have provided some training and you did a series of events for Black History Month, it’s not just checked and done.”
Ah. Systemic barriers. Systemic barriers that are linked to intersectionalities. Again, details are somewhat sketchy here, as is so often the way, but it all sounds terribly serious. A toe-hold for outrage, albeit performative. And despite the lack of particulars, it seems that employers must, as a bare minimum, submit to some racial grifting. Before their education, and their confessions of inadequacy, can begin in earnest.
Excuse me a minute. The High-Maintenance Nightmare light seems to be flashing.
There follows some obligatory rumbling about the “freedom” to have ostentatious hairstyles “without negative repercussions,” before we are informed of black employees’ entitlement to speak and behave in ways that are likely to be “interpreted as violent or aggressive.” No, really.
Ms Sinclair mentions tone policing, which means dismissing or misinterpreting what someone is saying because of how they are saying it.
You see, if an employee is surly, or starts cursing and shouting, while invading your personal space and flailing their arms about – such that these things can be “interpreted as violent or aggressive” – this is something that employers must tolerate, and of course defer to. Because of those intersectionalities, presumably. Ms Sinclair shares other thoughts on the matter. We’re told, for instance, that a dislike of being shouted at or bullied by the emotionally incontinent can only be evidence of “deep, inherent bias and deeply inherent systemic racism.”
Sorry, just a sec. The High-Maintenance Nightmare light is flashing again.
And yes, we’ve been here before. Different gown, same dance.
As the thrust of the article appears to be the scolding and correction of pale-skinned employers – who must disavow their wicked, oppressive habit of holding all employees to the same standards of behaviour – we turn again to our recent graduate, Ms Roache, whose thesis is an exercise in racial self-absorption, and whose favourite class was, shockingly, “Decolonising Ethnography.”
Ms Roache, who is in her early 20s, says she reads on Twitter what people in her community are discussing, like being Black at work. She says there’s “way more pushback” these days from young Black people who want employers to redefine what “professional” means. “Professionalism is in your conduct, not necessarily what you’re wearing or what you look like,” she says.
Well, the doing of the job is the most important thing. Though one wonders how much of it will get done by employees who want to “disrupt the peace,” and whose default setting is to wield unconvincing accusations of “privilege” and “deeply inherent systemic racism,” in between fits of shouting and behaviour that can be “interpreted as violent or aggressive.”
Still, could be worse. 
Excuse me a minute. The High-Maintenance Nightmare light seems to be flashing.
You’re gonna need some spare bulbs. 🙂
cashier’s extensive list of ailments or her difficulties
[SHRIEK MODE ON]
YOU ASSUMED THE CASHIER’S GENDER BECAUSE OF COURSE YOU DID BECAUSE YOU’RE A MISOGYNIST AND PROBABLY ALSO RACIST AND HOMOPHOBIC!!!
(Throws entire contents of store where the cashier is on the floor and glues self to ceiling)
[SHRIEK MODE ON]
I went with the numbers. I regret nothing.
Different gown, same dance.
Seems so.
IOW, change the world to accommodate me.
Just don’t want to act like it, unless, of course, you change the world to accommodate me.
We’ll ignore that she just did speak for everyone, and dragging Canada into that whole 1619 freight train of crap is a mighty leap indeed.
I know it is.
“Chances are your Black employees may not be bringing their full selves to work for many reasons.”
Good. It looks like we’re done here.
Seems so.
Why, it’s almost as if there were a psychological pattern. An arrestedness.
why on God’s Fragrant Earth would an employer, or indeed their customers, want employees to drag every last piece of their personal baggage into the workplace and then inflict that inexhaustible tedium on everyone else?
Two examples: A few years out of university, a coworker informed me, out of the blue, that he really liked anal sex. Better that he had confined his remarks to IT technology and the weather.
Years later, another coworker informed me, again out of the blue, that Hinduism was not a real religion. I refrained from asking him if he heard that bollocks at the mosque. (Which was probably fortunate, since a year later a manager remarked that if he had heard a complaint about that sort of exchange he would have fired both individuals.)
None of these instances of “sharing the whole self” increased my opinion of the sharers.
The High-Maintenance Nightmare Light
[ Adds to list of memorable and vivid expressions. ]
Two examples:
I once worked with someone who occasionally employed local students to do basic clerical work. One young woman arrived and on her very first day, almost immediately, she set about airing her politics, which were exactly what you’d imagine, and starting lively arguments. She – being perhaps twenty – seemed to imagine that she was there to educate the rest of us, as if such presumption would be welcome, and while not actually doing the filing, photocopying and assorted errands for which she was being paid.
There’s definitely a type, and employing them, even for simple tasks, would be unwise.
I went to a Burger King drive thru some years ago. By some verbal clues, I guessed that the order taker was high on the melanin scale. I was ordering off the menu (not item 1, not item 6). While trying to explain what I wanted, the server started macking a female worker. When I remarked that he should be taking my order he flew into a tirade and told me that he was not going to take my order because he was tired of dealing with demanding white assholes.
Per his suggestion, I drove thru with no food. I entered the restaurant and approached the manager to complain. The order taker heard my complaint and came around the wall, continuing his tirade of abuse and profanity. The manager just shrugged with a look of resigned disgust. He took my order, gave me my food, and told me that I did not have to pay.
Well, I know about servers spitting on food, so I trashed the order and went to the local Schlotzky’s to have a hot sandwich and chips. I wrote to the Burger King corporate folks and did not receive even an acknowledgement that they had received or read my complaint. I have never purchased another Burger King product since, and it has been more than a decade ago.
Job postings and corporate ‘About Us’ pages often include a statement about the company fostering an environment where employees can bring their ‘whole selves’ to work.
Astonishing. Is this true? If so, what can it possibly mean? The people quoted in the article keep talking about dress and hair, but both Ms Blackman-Gushway and all the team at the Black Human Resources Professionals of Canada are dressed perfectly conventionally even by my fuddy-duddy standards.
non-Black senior leaders can show empathy for Black employees by doing some introspection about whether they themselves are being authentic at work
Another headscratcher! What on earth does ‘doing some introspection’ mean?
“I was taught that there are certain things that you don’t say or certain things that you keep your mouth shut about,” says Julisha Roache
Me too. Almost like it’s not a racial thing. I wager that a lack of interest in one’s colleague’s opinions about – say – Hinduism and bumsex is pretty much universal.
demanding white assholes
You could use our newfound time travel ability, go back in time and introduce him to pst’s first coworker example.
“Take your whole self” to work? Bugger that. That’s what the pub is for.
She – being perhaps twenty – seemed to imagine that she was there to educate the rest of us, as if such presumption would be welcome, and while not actually doing the filing, photocopying and assorted errands for which she was being paid.
Seen it many times.
Burger King
Heh. These people ?
Seen it many times.
It was quite a thing. I remember being a little non-plussed by the presumption and incongruity. Sort of, “Why is this conversation happening, here and now, and quite loudly, and where are the bloody folders you were asked to fetch?” I think she lasted two days. It’s one of the experiences that prompted me to write this post, The Blurting, but, for reasons that now escape me, I didn’t include it.
Yes, because bringing your authentic selves, no matter how disruptive, worked so well in the public schools.
It seems like this is trying to be the next “we’re all family here” model to appeal to employees to work more for less. Brought in by management who don’t have to face the consequences of their actions.
From the Blurting comments, this comment by Sam…
When I remarked that he should be taking my order he flew into a tirade and told me that he was not going to take my order because he was tired of dealing with demanding white assholes.
It’s depressing to think about, but nearly all the truly obnoxious retail employees I have encountered have been young blacks: Resentful, angry, hateful, and incompetent. My liberal friends and relatives must have seen this pattern of behavior, but refuse to admit its reality.
Me too. Almost like it’s not a racial thing. I wager that a lack of interest in one’s colleague’s opinions about – say – Hinduism and bumsex is pretty much universal.
Heh. That reminded me of a colleague in my first workplace, back when I was a callow youth. He was apparently determined to remove any doubt as to the fact that he was immensely homosexual. Almost any conversation, any humdrum exchange about stock or invoices, could be derailed by sexual innuendo and incongruous, camp squealing. It was every bit as wearying as you might imagine. All day, every day, everyone within earshot had to be reminded of what would now be called his identity. His “whole self.” At least three other people in the building were gay, albeit unobtrusively, and no-one cared. There was no-one to scandalise. And so, the reason for this unending display, complete with showbiz gestures, was a bit of mystery. And yet the pantomime went on with exhausting shrillness.
immensely homosexual
Band name.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
where employees can bring their ‘whole selves’ to work
“Great, I’m a conservative Christian who’s married with three kids and is active in the pro-life move-”
“You’re fired. Leave immediately.”
My liberal friends and relatives must have seen this pattern of behavior, but refuse to admit its reality.
A few years ago I realized I was on occasion passing by the barber shop owned by a former coworker. Jamaican guy, shop was on the edge of black neighborhoods. Not having seen him in quite a few years, I popped in for a haircut. We had a good time catching up, though I feared we were somewhat monopolizing the barbershop conversation thing. But hey, it was his shop and were he a white guy I would have thought nothing of it. When I left, I noticed that my new-ish truck, one that I had just stopped to have it washed by some high schoolers raising money, one I had just been looking very closely at, had been keyed. When I later related this to other people, be they liberal or conservative…”conservative”, those people who know nothing about that shop, it’s clientele, or anything except for the word “black”, shake their heads and insist that I must be wrong. That it must have happened elsewhere. Even though I drove directly from the car wash to the barber shop.
shake their heads and insist that I must be wrong. That it must have happened elsewhere.
The dishonesty gets wearying. A recurring reaction: “Why even bother to talk to these fools and polyroons?”
Maybe they shouldn’t “racialise” themselves and maybe they won’t feel so marginalized.
If we roll the time machine back to the 1950s, a terribly oppressive time, and look at the white workforce, we see almost everyone wearing some sort of uniform: Black suit, white shirt for IBM, blue for tradesmen, white for dairy workers and house painters, etc. The purpose of course was to MINIMIZE personality and signify (and remind you) that you were there to do the job. Being professional means not staying out all night on work nights or arriving with a hangover, getting the job done even if you had a fight with your wife or have a headache, not insulting your co-workers. Remember, I am talking about an all-white workforce here. Staying focused is critical to the success of any business. Get woke go broke isn’t just a cute expression, it is true because staying profitable is a delicate balancing act. Take your eye off the ball or insult your customers, and go down like Disney or Ulta.
In the short run, employers might put up with all sorts of nonsense for all sorts of faddish reasons.
But in the long run they have to make money, and those employees who detract from that objective tend to get sloughed off.
Maybe they shouldn’t “racialise” themselves and maybe they won’t feel so marginalized.
That.
employees who detract from that objective tend to get sloughed off
Unless companies are receiving government grants/subsidies and risk losing them unless they comply with DIE/ESG regulations.
Regardless of your color or sex, I do not want to know that you are on your period, I do not want to be told we must have a fragrance-free workplace, I do not want angry people in clown clothes interacting with customers, I do not want to know about your sex life. Just keep all that to yourself. thx
This “asking vs telling” thing. Sure, some bosses are jerks and yell, but at any job they give you things to do because they pay you. Weird, I know.
While it all sounds mildly quaint listening to the self-indulgent hector and lecture us from the Book of Woke™ and having employers bow down to it all. Here in Canuckistan there can be very real and lasting consequences for not bowing down to passive-aggressive and just plain aggressive workplace marxists.
Some of us have mentioned in previous posts that Canadian provinces have something call Human Rights Commissions. They are semi-judicial bodies that are accountable to no one but themselves. Workplace grievances often make their way to these tribunals and people have lost their jobs over incidents barely worthy of a five minute discussion with a supervisor. My brother lost his job after a female co-worker of colour accused him of making her feel unsafe (which in itself was hilarious as she had 2 inches and 30 pounds on my diminutive sibling). She threatened the company with a “Human Rights” complaint and they fired my brother. So here in Canada we have an entire enabled infrastructure that increasingly supports this nonsense.
Well, there’s the problem right there. She’s a “HR Professional”. Everything she says right after that announcement is to be regarded with extreme prejudice and/or dismissed out-of-hand.
By the time I retired, I had been supervising a staff of 41 (I had two assistant sups who were great, but it was always my responsibility to deal with the ‘problem children’) and while I sometimes miss the work and some of the people, I’m so grateful not having to deal with HR and my assigned rep who was a complete nincompoop who felt the best decision to make when dealing with problems is to keep meeting about them without ever solving them. He had the same Professor Irwin Corey-style writings as this idiot.
NO NO NO, I don’t want your “complete authentic self” at work. You have friends and family to help you deal with whatever is going on in your life. You’re here to do “X”, to do it competently and on time and not overtly try to annoy your coworkers in the process.
The workplace is not, should not, be your *life*. Attend church, volunteer to feed the homeless, take a pottery class … your life is OUTSIDE of work.
Now, get out of my office. ARGHHH!
Now, get out of my office. ARGHHH!
Caution: Defenestration is illegal, even if your office is on the first floor. 😉
For the benefit of our American friends:
Canada qua Canada never had slavery. It was abolished throughout the British Empire thirty years before Confederation. As a result, there are virtually no black people in Canada; they make up slightly less than 4% of the population, are concentrated almost entirely in Canada’s three largest cities (none of which are located in Alberta) and most importantly, almost entirely immigrated to Canada after 1990.
Literally everything that comes out of this bint’s mouth has nothing to do with her, or the experiences of black people in Canada. She’s just parroting crap from Black Twitter, which is exclusively American grievance-mongering.
why on God’s Fragrant Earth would an employer, or indeed their customers, want employees to drag every last piece of their personal baggage into the workplace
Because while men generally maintain a psychological and physical separation between their work and home life, women try to make everywhere the home.
On a related note, the level of disconnect of these kinds of people from any history prior to their adolescence is frightening. I opined in a social setting that I didn’t think Black Panther was a very good movie on its technical merits due to problems with casting, pacing, CGI and so on and got rounded on by a young black woman insisting the Black Panther was a very important movie because
Her: “It was the first superhero movie with a black hero!”
Me: “No, it wasn’t. [ names three ]”
Her: “Well, it was the first superhero movie with an all-black cast!”
Me: “No, it wasn’t. [ names three ]”
Her: “Well, it was the first superhero movie to present Pan-Africanism!”
Me: “Pan-Africanism didn’t exist until five minutes ago, and wasn’t the assumption that all black people were somehow the same because of their skin colour considered raaacist ten minutes before that?”
Like I said: artificial cluster B personality disorder.
the idea of being vulnerable
I have had co-workers who brought their ‘whole selves’ to work, and with the exception of one (white) guy who confessed to me that he was an alcoholic (thankfully, I was able to talk him into rehab), not one of them was being ‘vulnerable.’
DIE/ESG regulations
There’s a story arc about that over at Dilbert.
Me: “Pan-Africanism didn’t exist until five minutes ago….”
Longer than that. I heard of it while I was still in high school. Would have been 1968 or ’69. It was very bien-pensant and hopeful — a way of dodging or finessing the difficulties of post-colonial nation-building. Many who became adherents fell away soon after when they saw it breaking on the same shoals as world-government globalism. “Continentalism” is still too overscaled to achieve consensus, or foster human bonds.
Pan-africanism is built on the conceit that all africans are one big group–they do NOT view themselves that way.
Her: “Well, it was the first superhero movie to present Pan-Africanism!”
Except, as noted earlier, the Wackandans did bupkis for the rest of Africa.
Instalanch!
Better put down more sawdust, David. And hide the good glassware just in case.
Instalanch!
The folks over there use Disqus as the comment engine. David might consider using it himself.
I seem to recall seeing some complaints about Disqus, although I am not certain of their nature.
I do seem to recall that when one does a google search of a specific site that uses Disqus, the comments are not (and cannot) be found and returned by that search. (Can anybody confirm/refute that with certainty?) That would be a significant downside, given that so much of the value of this blog is in the comment threads.
David might consider using it himself.
Consider it and reject the idea with extreme prejudice.
It is unalloyed buggy POS spyware that is little more than Farcebook Lite.
Why the hell anyone with a conscience, other than sheer laziness, can use the fetid piece of troll bait is beyond me.
pst: correct, because unlike with Typepad, Disqus comments are hosted on their server, and (to judge by a cursory search) aren’t accessible via Google or other search engines. So yeah, moving the comments here to that platform would be a terrible idea.
Ironically, my comment about the comment software got posted twice. But at least it was not posted from the future.
Jokes aside, I am okay with the blog as it exists.
Re: Farnsworth M Muldoon | October 20, 2022 at 01:29
You seem to have quoted a source, but you failed to cite it.
“Comment below or sign in with Typepad, Facebook, Twitter and more…” appears above the “Post a comment” box. I wonder if Disqus could be added to the options.
I vote NO on Disqus. This is a democracy, right? It’s not?
“So just what is the governance philosophy here? ” he asked with some trepidation, having suddenly remembered the Henchlesbians, the Corrections Booth, and the coats burning in the alley.
And I DON’T want to see any Holy Grail quotes in response. Ya hear me?
“So just what is the governance philosophy here?”
David is the Supreme Dictator. I’m just wondering if Disqus can be added to the options that include Facebook and Twitter.
Geezer, all you have to do is actually read the “privacy” policy:
…and so on, the problem is you have to make an account which then records and tracks every comment across every site that uses the mess.
If you are good with being a product, fine, me, not so much.
To: Farnsworth M Muldoon | October 20, 2022 at 02:40
Is the policy you quote more intrusive than that of Facebook and Twitter, two of the listed options? (See also the “more…” options.)
Yeah, some years ago I read the protocols for signing up, I didn’t have to go as far as the privacy policy to hear and heed the warning. Ran like hell and no look back.
The “Sign In” options here include: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Yahoo!, AOL/AIM, Blogger, LiveJournal, and WordPress.com.
I ask again: Is Disqus more intrusive than those places?
Is the policy you quote more intrusive than that of Facebook and Twitter, two of the listed options? (See also the “more…” options.)
Don’t know because a) I don’t know why anyone has any kind of “social media” account; b) not going to look them up, but even money is that they are not that different.
Regardless, what I do know is that Farcebook and twitter are also options that should be considered in much the same way one should consider gargling aqua regia.
The “Sign In” options here include: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Yahoo!, AOL/AIM, Blogger, LiveJournal, and WordPress.com.
I don’t know what you are looking at, there is no “sign in” required here, and nothing on four different browsers that show anything about any of those godforsaken sites except “Powered by Typepad”.
You seem to have quoted a source, but you failed to cite it.
Geezer: straight from wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disqus#Criticism,_privacy,_and_security_concerns
@Geezer:
Why don’t you do your own research by comparing the privacy policies of the options you quote with that of Disqus?
NateWhilk
The privacy policy is straight from Disqus”, and if you chase the Wiki footnotes it backs up everything – but wiki, so ignore it, right?
One of the most stupid things about Disqus is the way people have hissy fits if they get “downvotes” and think “upvotes” validate both themselves and their comments.
“I don’t know what you are looking at, there is no “sign in” required here”
Correct. It is not required, but it is allowed.
Start with “Post a comment”. Below that, it says “Comment below or sign in with …” all the options I listed above.
Share blinks and liquor.
Perhaps, Mr. Ream, you should point out what followed the above quote to your fellow Canadians instead of no doubt massive set of ignorant Americans who visit this blog. I suspect that Mr. E. knows the score, so you can leave him out of your mailing list.
I’ve proven that set is not empty, so there’s that.
The workplace is not, should not be, your *life*. Attend church, volunteer to feed the homeless, take a pottery class … your life is OUTSIDE of work.
But if students have been led to believe that regurgitating their lecturers’ identitarian politics is the way to convey their own intelligence and status – and their personal worth – they may well bring these sad habits into the workplace. (See the young woman mentioned upthread, who imagined that the workplace was merely a stage for the performative airing of her own political views. I say her own views, but they appeared to have been bought wholesale.)
[ Added: ]
By bought wholesale I mean not originated or synthesised by autonomous mental activity, or not accumulated via experience. Just bought off-the-peg as a package of slogans and assumptions. I realise that when you’re 20, you don’t usually have much experience to draw on, or with which to test those to-you shiny ideas, but that’s why 20-year-olds should probably resist any urges to inflict their politics on others. Say, when they should be filing stuff, or fetching stuff, or digging out invoices.
Perhaps, Mr. Ream […]
I have no idea what that word salad was supposed to convey. I assume that most Americans have neither knowledge of nor interest in the fine details of Canadian racial demographics because it’s irrelevant information from an irrelevant country.
Because while men generally maintain a psychological and physical separation between their work and home life, women try to make everywhere the home.
[ Hides breakables. ]
Sure. Go with that.
But if students have been led to believe that regurgitating their lecturers’ identitarian politics is the way to convey their own intelligence and status – and their personal worth – they may well bring these sad habits into the workplace.
As damaging as the academic institutions are in this regard, we should not loose track of how the overall culture, including (what is left of) religion and its similar substitutes contributes to this problem. Even non-Marxist religious institutions soften the ground. Not sure how to convey this but I see a parallel of the misunderstanding of religion and the dangers of mob-influenced democracy.
Finally got around to reading…”reading” … the G&M article. This must be what’s known as a nothing burger. Author asked some of her contacts what they thought of when they heard the expression “Bring your whole self to work.” Then she strung together their off-the-top-of-my-head responses and framed them as grievances that must be addressed. The respondents didn’t seem as worked up about the issue … “issue” … as the author implied, but … You know the drill: We as a society can do better.
Which goes without saying. But you don’t get a byline and paid for going without saying.
Looking back over the article for something, anything, worth the time I’d already given to it, I wondered about the peculiar wording, “post-secondary education” — What’s that when it’s at home? Wikopedia enlightens me:
Abbot and Costello did this better, but okay.
Further enlightenment from an education-specific site which shall be nameless:
They only do it to annoy
[Thanks and a tip o’ the Hatlo hat to WTP]
Diverting for a moment, but still in the realm of entitled morons, we find a group of “scientists” (you can tell because they wear lab coats) glue themselves to the floor of of a Porsche exhibit in the Volkswagen museum and then bitch because VW won’t give them a pot to piss in, their choice of food, and have the audacity to keep lights on at night and have security guards.
One would think they would applaud the heat being turned off to save the carbons or something, but they are cheesed about that too.
Meanwhile…
I wonder if the morons noted that.
…we find a group of “scientists” (you can tell because they wear lab coats) glue themselves to the floor of of a Porsche exhibit
And we all know there is nothing performative or deceptive about a “researcher in social psychology” wearing a white lab coat.
Good News Everyone! The Chinese Communists are white!
“post-secondary education”
It’s called Life.
“post-secondary education”–it isn’t just college. It could be a trade school or junior (2-yr) college.
“whole self”–there were some interns at some US company who started organizing to protest something within the company (dress code?) without realizing that this made them a nascent union, which has rules for formation, and the company fired them. More companies need such a backbone. The idea that you can have protests within a company like out on the street is…what is the word?–nuts.
irrelevant information from an irrelevant country
When I said that we should honor David’s invitation to “share links and bicker”, I wasn’t thinking of a knock-down, drag-out brawl in which I might actually get hurt. [ Puts on crash helmet. Retreats to corner. Attempts to look small and unobtrusive. ]
More companies need such a backbone.
This is where the dreaded “intersectionality” comes into play. As Steve E noted upthread, Certain Classes of People are unfirable, which is why they are so often over-represented among the people protesting such things. It’s also why such protests rarely involve purely economic or administrative issues and instead focus on some Class of People or other being “disadvantaged”.
As David has noted, many companies are quietly beginning to realize that not hiring them in the first place is the only safe move. Or moving them all to a single department and then cutting the department. In the tech manufacturing sector, I’ve seen a few companies execute large, expensive migrations to employee benefits self-service via a third-party web app – and then eliminate their internal HR department.
[ Hides breakables. ]
Something something crying in toilets.
Something something crying in toilets.
I’ve worked for two female managers in my life. Both were awful.
These intersectional type people are uniformly afraid that if they allow a functioning dynamic market based on merit, or delivered/tangible value, and not status/credential, the market will discover that they are not as valuable as their self-perception and they will lose status.
These people are not competent at functioning in a market that rewards delivery of tangible value – they are only competent at convincing others to act as if they are valued. This is why they succeed at academics, where *actual* value doesn’t matter – the only thing that matters is the ability to convince others of your value.
In fact, when it comes right down to the quick, the only intrinsic value these people have is the bottomless capacity to complain and destroy.
Grievances: many have pointed out that the entire feminist argument about being oppressed is based on lies. 60% of college students are women. Single urban women in their 20s make more than men the same age/location. The entire wage differential is due to a) choice of career and b) women staying home for family [ie choice]. Women often make career choices with the thought that they might want to have kids (a reasonable choice). They avoid jobs with danger, long hours, and lots of travel. Sensible. But it does hurt their income. The professional feminists will never declare victory and go home.
For race, never in history has a dominant ethnic group voluntarily helped a minority as much as in the US. Never before has the gap closed so rapidly and so thoroughly. If you consider blacks who attended college and are married, the income gap is tiny. Inner city culture does inflict damage but that is a self-own.
This is a test.
This is a test.
If this had been an actual emergency you would have been directed to seek shelter in the sub-sub-basement. (All who have “experienced” the Correction Booth will know the way and should assist other patrons.)
I was wondering about text size changing in posts.
I was wondering about text size changing in posts.
In blockquoted text, the first paragraph is okay, but in subsequent paragraphs of the same quote the point size is for some reason enlarged. Hence the test above to illustrate the issue. I’ve corrected some of them manually, but that’s not a job I want.
I do not want angry people in clown clothes interacting with customers, I do not want to know about your sex life. Just keep all that to yourself. thx
Not by choice, I have learned more about voluntary mutilation procedures and how they are or are not covered by our insurance providers than 90% of my coworkers.
I’ve seen a few companies execute large, expensive migrations to employee benefits self-service via a third-party web app – and then eliminate their internal HR department.
HR is never eliminated. It just becomes another program management team but instead of managing offshore developers or chinese factories they’re managing the outsourced services that previously defined their job. Pay question? Call the payroll provider. Leave? Call the LOA provider. Even the creation of company policies is outsourced to those defined by various certification companies like Great Place to Work. Now nobody in your own company is responsible for anything because these outside companies are contractually obligated to do the job and some “Institute” has certified all the right boxes are checked.
HR is never eliminated. It just becomes another program management team but instead of managing offshore developers or chinese factories they’re managing the outsourced services that previously defined their job. Pay question? Call the payroll provider. Leave? Call the LOA provider. Even the creation of company policies is outsourced to those defined by various certification companies like Great Place to Work. Now nobody in your own company is responsible for anything because these outside companies are contractually obligated to do the job and some “Institute” has certified all the right boxes are checked.
All driven by lawsuits, the various new outsourced companies run, for the most part, by lawyers.
I see the Babylon Bee had a headline:
“Feminists Rejoice As All-Time Record For Shortest Term As Prime Minister Now Held By A Woman”
And they say that Boris is tanned and rested. And all this because UK inflation is running >10% and she wanted to drastically cut taxes. The horrors. Though if she didn’t have complementary spending cuts, I suppose she got what she deserves. I didn’t see anything definitive on the spending part, but the implication seemed to be that there were no spending cuts.
WTP: without knowing Brit politics at all, I heard the excuse about Truss not having spending cuts but it boggles my mind that the pols there suddenly got all “balance the budget” crazy. Maybe it was the close call about banning fracking.
…we find a group of “scientists” (you can tell because they wear lab coats) glue themselves to the floor of of a Porsche exhibit
No food, no water, and they’ll have soiled themselves before much longer. Good.
HR is never eliminated. It just becomes another program management team
And thus, much productivity is regained and many expensive lawsuits are avoided.
And thus, much productivity is regained and many expensive lawsuits are avoided.
Not avoided, just pre-mitigated. Rather than take the risk of an expensive lawsuit down the road, one that may or may not happen, they actualize that cost by paying the third party corporation more money now than they would have paid for those HR services in-house but less than any bad-luck lawsuit would have cost them. Also helps with any potential PR risks. I’m sure the accountants (basically lawyers who can do math) are happy with it as well. In the end, the lawyers get even more money from which they toss crumbs to the HR harpies and the process continues. At some point the greedy parasites outstep the limited, temporary productivity gains and the whole process collapses.
@pst314, one of my better managers was female and Canadian (this was back in my BNR/Nortel days). Hell, I’m always happy to see her after all this time.
So, your experience isn’t universal, although I won’t claim that it isn’t the default.
This is a second test.
This is a second test.
they actualize that cost by paying the third party corporation more money now than they would have paid for those HR services in-house
I’ve been part of one of these and the cost savings to outsourcing is immense. Like, multiple orders of magnitude immense. Do you have any experience to the contrary, or are you talking out of your ass again?
So, your experience isn’t universal
Did you know there are black swans in Australia?
So, your experience isn’t universal, although I won’t claim that it isn’t the default.
I would never dare (stoop?) to say it is universal. Only that a larger percentage of female managers are “problematic”. I also had one very bad male manager (two, if you count part-time jobs as a teen) out of a total of six.
I was wondering about text size changing in posts.
It’s part of the endearing charm of this blog. Sort of like the diversely eccentric farmers in All Creatures Great and Small.
‘ELLO? DAVID? I’M COMMENTING FROM THE COSSACK… THE TELEPHONE COSSACK IN THE VILLAGE. CAN YE COME QUICK? I’VE GOT A COMMENT WITH HTML TROUBLE…
are you talking out of your ass again?
Hey everybody, I found a video of WTP!!!
.
It was more fun when we merely exchanged insults about British vs. American spelling and terminology…and beans on toast.
My position on most things is I simply do not care and that is what I find makes particularly trans people so angry, because they are essentially self-centered individuals who have taken a page out of Meghan Markle’s notebook – all about me, all the time. If you are a transwoman who is my neighbour, I want you lawn mowed more than once a summer, not have wild parties at 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning and if you borrow my tools I expect them back. If you are my co worker, I expect you to arrive on time, be prepared to discuss/contribute to projects and that’s all. I don’t care about your pronouns, I will call you by whatever name you want me to call you. If you dress like a hooker or drag queen in the workplace I will call you out. But I will think to myself that you are delusional and if you demand that I believe in your delusion it is not going to happen. I will be nice to you but that is all. If you demand that I believe in your delusion AND use the force of government to make it happen, then we will have LOTS of problems. But that is just me.
Typepad f’d me again with it’s stupid timeout limit so…redoing this…so…
I’ve been part of one of these and the cost savings to outsourcing is immense. Like, multiple orders of magnitude immense. Do you have any experience to the contrary, or are you talking out of your ass again?
“Multiple orders of magnitude”? Really? Which orders (plural) of magnitude? Numbers. Like $1 million down to $100K? Or plural that? And in what company/industry/context? I could see that in a smaller company context, say < 1000 employees, where HR costs per employee are already high. Perhaps your "orders" is some number greater than 2 but less than 10. Not to go pedantic (OK, whatever) but I hate that term being slopped around. But even then...in a larger S&P level corporation, I would be real curious to know more. The problem is still there and shell games will only help temporarily. The basic problem is lawyers and easily accepted (by the courts) lawsuits. It is a part of a much broader problem. The objective is to employ lawyers and make (legally steal) money. As long as the money is there, the system to exploit it will continue unless the demand is cut by changing the system. @pst314, one of my better managers was female and Canadian (this was back in my BNR/Nortel days). Hell, I’m always happy to see her after all this time.
I’ve had similar experience. One of my best couple of managers, actually more technical leads/managers, were women. But that was long ago and I’ve found the distribution curve in general to be a but…mmmm…dippy. Most recently, and more…uh…broadly, I’ve found them to be way too high on the drama and insecurity to lead. I think early on, like 1990’s or before, women had to excel beyond men to get those types of positions. Once the diversity industry got rolling with pushing women and minorities into positions beyond their individual capacity, things went sideways. I will say the annoyance factor of my last male boss, a man so…arrgh…that he became known as MSD (My Second Dick) was somewhat mitigated by my ability to go around him to a woman manager, his mentor and somewhat leader (matrix management is such a wonderful thing).
And if I may H.L. Mencken myself in defense of woman say…Add one woman to a technical design meeting, she doesn’t even have to be all that technical, in fact a secretary will do, and the girly dick measuring factor goes down considerably. Things stay much, much more on-point.
As for Piper Paul, lawyer or accountant? I’m not sure when I ever pissed in your Cheerios but I’ll try to remember to give it a shake next time.
And Typepad again with the Post/Preview buttons disappearing when I hit “Preview” so “Post” and Pray it will be.
“One of my best couple of managers, actually ”
OK, that reads stupid but I swear I had it right the first time….Should read “Two of my best managers…” Or I think I had it “A couple of my best managers”
Sigh.