Whining? Just pointing out the obvious. I was not actually expecting the argument to end with the program. I merely pointed out that there was coincidentally a program showing that Annie has some possible validity. It will come back on and I will point it out. Then you will dismiss it because it is not news you have grown accustomed to . If you think business does not impact the news stations they sponsor, you are living in Neverland Ranch. Then you may think Fox is news. Watch the news on CNBC and note the pro stock market financial slant. Note those involved in finance that were totally oblivious to the dangers in our economy are still shown as experts. How wrong do you have to be finally rejected as a quack?
I knew it would come back on. It is called "Whistle Where You Work’. It is the last 12 minutes of the half hour show. You can watch it on line if you choose to.
So laugh away. Of course i will watch the Dorkness show since anyone can get a show . It should be fun when you explain how everything on Free Speech TV should be dismissed. Of course the high degree of education and expertise of the shows participants must be totally dismissed ,for reason only you can comprehend.
I’m siding with the “Annie is a loon” party.
- She didn’t lose her job, she quit her job.
- Anyone that freaks out at work once or twice needs to do some serious deep thinking about his/her life. A few times, you need to start seeing a professional. Hundreds of times? You’re not looking for help–you’re happy with your insanity. She’s extremely lucky to have had a job, much less hang onto it for that long. I’m almost feeling sorry for the boss, assuming it was her empathy that kept Annie from getting axed. I can only imagine how betrayed that boss must feel, with Annie throwing a major temper tantrum and walking out/quitting.
There are so many holes and half-truths in Annie’s story that I can’t believe anyone on this message board gave her the time of day.
You’re such a complete idiot. Seriously. Does it take courage to give a lunatic like Annie empathy, or gullibility? Here’s a woman that has had a serious problem for, I’m guessing, many many years, and has probably done little or nothing to correct it. Clearly she has anger management issues and emotional issues, and is in denial about both. Why the fuck should I have any empathy for someone like that? As much as people like her piss me off, asshats like you, that practically condone and wring their hands over the repeated uncontrolled behavior Annie admits to, piss me off even more. Grow a fucking spine, take off the rose-colored glasses, and call the duck a fucking duck already.
Annie came in with an emotional, ill-adivsed, and ill-thought-out OP. The OP was vague, and in her attempt to clarify, only made the hole she’d dug deeper. That she’s gotten “thoughtful” and “respectful” is lucky. She certainly doesn’t deserve it.
I have never worked with a woman who didn’t do something I’d describe as “freaking out” at work once or twice a year.
It’s more difficult to define a male freakout. Slamming your fist into a desk? Yelling at a subordinate? Maybe you’re freaking out, maybe you’re just frustrated.
Idiot.
I would raise holy hell. I would be freaked out. I would be pissed, scared, confused, and surprised if I was falsely accused and arrested for a $5,000 offense.
My emotions would go crazy. I find that part of Annie’s story very believable.
Dude, I was attending workshops given by FAIR before you’d ever heard of them. Not my fault you’re an idiot.
Random ad hominem aside, Scènes de roulette au cinema - is the episode in question.
I’m on crappy edge internet now, so I’ll have to wait till I’m on a hotspot to comment on it.
Just finished watching it. Thanks for the link!
It’s a reasonably interesting episode. Because everyone on the show has the same viewpoint and it’s on a subject I’m completely unfamiliar with, I’ll reserve judgment: it’s hard to tell whether we’re dealing with a genuine problem or disgruntled employees in the first segment, and hard to tell how common or severe the problem of employer-ordered psych evaluations are when the only people talking about them all think they’re terrible.
But I can say this: this episode has fuck all to do with the situation at hand. It’s about employers who putatively want to isolate or get rid of problem employees ordering them to take a “fitness-for-duty” psychological evaluation, with the understanding that they’ll be disciplined or fired if they don’t take it. The alarming quote from gonzomax:
is balderdash, at least as far as this show is concerned. According to the show, companies are accusing their employees of being psychologically unfit for duty and attempting to demote or fire them, not attempting to commit them.
You do realize this is a sexist and idiotic generalization to make, right? You have NEVER worked with a woman who didn’t freak out at work? Really? Wow. Color me skeptical. Also, I find it hard to agree that defining a male freak out is sooo much harder. I’d say punching a wall at work counts as a totally inappropriate action at work and can’t understand why you’d make an excuse for it, or compare it favorably to what these women in your workplace allegedly do.
If we’re going to speak in anecdotes, I’ve seen the biggest workplace meltdowns in my current job committed by men. They were pretty damn easy to define, too. But I’ve seen both genders behave badly, in relatively equal numbers. So obviously your experience is not universal, and it doesn’t represent your objectivity about the genders in a very good light either.
I have worked in a few different office jobs, and have never, ever, seen any co-worker, male or female, do anything that I would consider “freaking out.” I have definitely never seen anyone slam their fist into a desk, raise their voice to someone else, or burst into tears. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I have trouble imagining that “freak-outs” are all that common an occurrence in most jobs.
I did see some impressive freaking out from the cooks in the kitchen I worked at as a teenager, but I figure that the restaurant industry is a bit different in this respect.
Boy howdy. From the substitute teacher who hissed racist comments at girls in the class, to the dishwasher who punched a coworker (the world’s most gentle puppydog coworker, too–I think it was half-startle-reflex, half-crazydude-anger), from the animal control officer who intimated that he’d been building bombs at home and that we were due a big surprise, to the boss who literally screamed at an employee over a phone bill, the worst freakouts have been male. I’ve certainly seen some from women as well, especially some truly creepy ones, but I think the exhibition of violence or use of racist insults in the workplace counts as a no-second-chance freakout.
Many people are taking freaking out to mean loud, violent and physical – to mean anger or action reflected outward at others, but is that the only way one can freak out?
Personally, I consider freaking out to be hyperventilating, crying and not thinking rationally.
For example, when there was an altercation with our dog and a couple, I honestly was freaking out during the confrontation. But I wasn’t yelling at them, I was freaking out by shaking, being on the verge of tears, hyperventilating and not being coherent (I managed ‘I’m so sorry’ and ‘Oh my god, oh my god’, but that was about it.)
I was not handling the situation rationally, and it was noticeable, but I wasn’t angry, nor was I throwing things, I was just honestly too overwhelmed to BE rational. I thought they were going to demand we put our dog down, and I just didn’t know what to do. 
Er…not that I know if this is what Annie meant, but, we just don’t know…
Yeah, but even if that’s what Annie meant, she still says she has “freaked out” at work *hundreds *of times. That’s not normal, no matter how you look at it.
To me, a “freakout” is about losing control of yourself because of your emotions: racist comments or bomb threats are worse, but they aren’t the same thing. I’d consider crying that you can’t control well enough to excuse yourself first a freakout, or saying things that you never would have said if you hadn’t been overwhelmed, or any other substantial deviation from the sort of behavior/image you want to display because emotions have overwhelmed you: a person who makes racist comments all the time is a total ass, but he isn’t freaking out, but a person who discovers they’ve had $1000 stolen out of their office and wildly makes racist accusations about a coworker IS freaking out (and may be revealing that they are, actually, a total ass). A man slamming a fist down or throwing a pencil would certainly be freaking out.
The sub I mentioned apologized profusely afterward and said he’d just been overwhelmed by behavior problems in the class. Obviously that didn’t excuse his behavior, but I think it was a loss of control because of emotions. The bomb threats probably weren’t, but when that same guy stalked out of a meeting because I was (at my boss’s behest) reading some budget figures from a spreadsheet I’d done, saying, “I don’t have time for this!”, I think that’d count.
Without making an across-the-board-generalization, I think it’s fair to say that, on average, male freakouts tend to be more physically demonstrative whereas female freakouts tend to be more teary.
You are correct, that is unusual, no matter how you look at it, it’s unusual.
Granted, I’ve been viewing Annie’s situation from the point of view of ‘what if it were me?’, and I admit I’m sympathetic as I’ve had a vindictive boss to work for in the past.
…but, yes, if one is freaking out at work that much, something is wrong somewhere.
It’s not a sexist or idiotic generalization. It’s not a generalization at all. It’s an observation.
Are the implications sexist and/or idiotic? Possibly.
Look, all I’m saying is that every female I’ve worked with has burst into tears at some point. I’m not saying they weren’t justified in doing so; I’m including learning of a death in the family and suchlike in that.
I worked in an office that was staffed with all women, for a period of 3 years (it wasn’t an official females-only office; it just worked out that way) and never saw a single one of them burst into tears, ever. Not once.
My personal anecdote trumps your personal anecdote.
I think your standard for a freak out is different from mine, and possibly in a sexist place. Crying over the death of a family member is not a “work place freak out” as it is being discussed in this thread. That’s human, and I doubt anyone with an iota of compassion would consider it a freak out or hold it against her. If you work with someone long enough and closely enough, there is bound to be a situation in their personal life that causes them enough distress that they can’t hide it at work. Women tend to cry about stuff like that, so by definition, you’re setting the bar in a place where women are bound to fail it.
That’s not the same thing as a" work place freak out," where the person is losing their shit because of something that happened at work, and making a scene. I’ve seen both men and women do this, and as LHoD stated, when men do it, it tends to be much more physically demonstrative, while women tend to cry. Tears don’t scare me, and I’m not even sure every instance of crying constitutes a freak out either. At my job, there’s a math teacher on the other team who cries at the drop of a hat. It is literally a weekly occurrence. She’s not freaking out, she’s just one of those people. As long as it doesn’t happen in front of the kids, you’re OK IMO. People who cry often at work and with little provocation are annoying and unprofessional, I agree, but people who shout, slam doors, make threats, and cuss at coworkers are a bit more scary. They also tend to be male, and such situations are rare-- it’s usually the same couple of people who do it.
In any case, if someone accused me of stealing $5000 from my job (which is pretty much impossible, but anyway), I would probably lose my shit more than a little. There’s a gap between that rather normal and expected freak out, and being institutionalized, and I’m not sure what happen to fill that gap. We may never know.