I think I've just been threatened in my workplace...

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
61

[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
Subtle animosity, as per the OP. Jesus…I’d need my own cabinet at the police department if I filed a report on every co-worker I felt “subtle animosity” toward. This kind of reaction to something so innocuous will certainly earn you a reputation around the office! See ya, dream job!
[/QUOTE]

In my case, they’d have a whole cabinet dedicated to me - probably have a form letter for everyone to sign.

“Do you feel subtle animosity towards D_Odds? Check one:”
___ Yes
___ Hell yeah
___ Subtle?
___ I never met him, yet I still despise him.

62

You people that go crying the blues to HR every time you get a little sand in your swim suit are ruiners of workplace fun.

At my last job, my boss hit me in the nads with a rubber football within an hour on my first day. So I put a bunch of salt in his coffee. That was the best jobs I’ve ever had. We worked like mad, but had plenty of ways to entertain ourselves and keep our spirits up.

But somebody didn’t like it. She went to HR with a real sob story. No more ball throwing, no more pranks, no more swearing, no more office feats of skill. The lady and the knee jerk brigade down in HR crushed the morale of a 40 person trading floor.

Fortunately, she got fired a few weeks later (not for blowing the whistle) so it all worked out and we could go back to our old shenanigans and monkey shines, but that was a rough few weeks.

My point is: no one likes a whiner.

And you should always laugh at your boss’s jokes. It’s a rule right up there with letting the client win at golf.

63

Michael Scott? Is that you?

64

[QUOTE=Count Blucher]
…She stuck her fingers into my chest [. . .] and yelled ‘Bang’…
[/QUOTE]

I hate when that happens. In my case, though, the boss actually yelled “Kali ma…shuk ti de!”

65

[QUOTE=T_SQUARE]
You people that go crying the blues to HR every time you get a little sand in your swim suit are ruiners of workplace fun.

At my last job, my boss hit me in the nads with a rubber football within an hour on my first day. So I put a bunch of salt in his coffee. That was the best jobs I’ve ever had. We worked like mad, but had plenty of ways to entertain ourselves and keep our spirits up.

But somebody didn’t like it. She went to HR with a real sob story. No more ball throwing, no more pranks, no more swearing, no more office feats of skill. The lady and the knee jerk brigade down in HR crushed the morale of a 40 person trading floor.

Fortunately, she got fired a few weeks later (not for blowing the whistle) so it all worked out and we could go back to our old shenanigans and monkey shines, but that was a rough few weeks.

My point is: no one likes a whiner.

And you should always laugh at your boss’s jokes. It’s a rule right up there with letting the client win at golf.
[/QUOTE]

Damn right- we used to have 40 people in our office cussing like mad, telling bawdy jokes (male and female) and everyone took part, till we get a friggin temp of all things who can’t handle hearing the word shit or whatever and all of sudden, no more merriment.

66

[QUOTE=Count Blucher]
This was my Dream job. I don’t give up my dreams easy or cheap.
[/QUOTE]
No, actually, you do. The price was a bit of whiny, self-pitying drama.

You still have the job, but unless this boss is universally despised, you’ve identified yourself as someone to be handled with kid gloves or simply avoided. Based on what you’ve told us here, expect co-workers to be leery of dealing closely with you, and definitely don’t count on getting invited to drinks after work. It may well severely hamper your enjoyment of the job.

67

[QUOTE=Count Blucher]
I just want this to be over with so that I can get back to doing my job.
[/QUOTE]
Unless you’re still standing by the door reliving the experience in excruciating detail, how can this even be an issue? I don’t mean to be crass. However, you’ve addressed an inappropriate event already by notifying a couple of agencies. What’s now keeping you from working, from addressing what’s current?

68

Count me on the side of bewildered on account of 1) the OP, which I initially thought was a joke and 2) the near universal whooshing sound near Mr Floppy, who I initially understood as being the only one getting the joke in the OP. As I see it, if this has anything whatsoever to do with VT, this woman made a joke based on the supposed sudden irrational fear of whites that Asians are going to gun them down and that apparently the OP’s response proves the point. “. . . but looking back I can see where she might have thought that she was just making a joke and not implying that someday soon, she was going to kill me.” Are you serious?

69

Oh good, now that he’s done it let’s make fun of him. :rolleyes: I doubt if I would have reported it either, but most of the posts before he said he reported her told him he should. Not that anyone’s opinion might have made a difference.

[QUOTE=tdn]
I would also suggest that instead of escalating this to HR and the police that the OP could have retaliated by unexpectedly grabbing her tit and saying “Dirty bomb!”
[/QUOTE]

That would have shut her up. I know your kidding but my first reaction without thinking would have been to poke her back. Probably a bad idea.

70

[QUOTE=tdn]
I would also suggest that instead of escalating this to HR and the police that the OP could have retaliated by unexpectedly grabbing her tit and saying “Dirty bomb!”
[/QUOTE]

“Unexpectedly grabbing her tit?” Is there a workplace where such behavior isn’t unexpected? Now that might be my dream job.

:smiley: leer

71

[QUOTE=OneCentStamp]
“Unexpectedly grabbing her tit?” Is there a workplace where such behavior isn’t unexpected? Now that might be my dream job.
[/QUOTE]

You don’t do that sort of thing at your job? Huh. You must be a banker. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go “greet” a few girls in the office.

And then comes the oral sex.

72

[QUOTE=tdn]
You don’t do that sort of thing at your job? Huh. You must be a banker. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go “greet” a few girls in the office.

And then comes the oral sex.
[/QUOTE]

Bad, bad Zoot. Wicked. Naughty.

73

If I reported someone to my HR department they’d deal with it by having a word with them or me as they saw fit and if it needed to be escalated they’d do it.

If however, I also reported it to the police and got them involved in a seemingly minor internal matter and possible embarrassed the company in public it would not do my career in that firm any good whatsoever.

[QUOTE=Count Blucher]

Sixth (possibly lastly) if you don’t see me posting further, think ‘discovery’ and ‘litigation’. This was my Dream job. I don’t give up my dreams easy or cheap.
[/QUOTE]
bolding mine
Cha-ching :dubious:

74

[QUOTE=T_SQUARE]
You people that go crying the blues to HR every time you get a little sand in your swim suit are ruiners of workplace fun.

At my last job, my boss hit me in the nads with a rubber football within an hour on my first day. So I put a bunch of salt in his coffee. That was the best jobs I’ve ever had. We worked like mad, but had plenty of ways to entertain ourselves and keep our spirits up.

But somebody didn’t like it. She went to HR with a real sob story. No more ball throwing, no more pranks, no more swearing, no more office feats of skill. The lady and the knee jerk brigade down in HR crushed the morale of a 40 person trading floor.

Fortunately, she got fired a few weeks later (not for blowing the whistle) so it all worked out and we could go back to our old shenanigans and monkey shines, but that was a rough few weeks.

My point is: no one likes a whiner.

And you should always laugh at your boss’s jokes. It’s a rule right up there with letting the client win at golf.
[/QUOTE]

Except, you know, some people spend their whole childhood being the butt of jokes and pranks, and heard the same thing at school when they went to the teacher. They “ruin” people’s fun by refusing to good-naturedly be the target of other people’s fun.

Some people finish school and enter the real world expecting to be finally treated as equals and with respect, only to find that the cool kids are often still in charge, and if you don’t play by their rules you’re no fun, or a loser, and you’re still in the same world you were in when you were 15.

“No one likes a whiner” indeed. If a work place has to be a little restrained in order to ensure that all partners in the office feel comfortable, then so be it. It’s not your personal playground. Sometimes playing nice with everyone means you don’t get to play the game you want to play.

75

I was at work and a guy shot a rubber band at me. I picked it up and shot back. I hit him in the eye and he came after me with a knife. He started it but got furious.
He died in a motorcycle accident 10 months later. So he was irate .After all, the worst that could have happened was he could have been blind in only one eye and not even for a year.
Gees the nerve of some people.

76

[QUOTE= Eonwe]
Except, you know, some people spend their whole childhood being the butt of jokes and pranks, and heard the same thing at school when they went to the teacher. They “ruin” people’s fun by refusing to good-naturedly be the target of other people’s fun.
[/QUOTE]

This sounds more than a little whiny. You’re excluding a middle between “sit there and take it” and “ban it all.” Maybe rather than seeing oneself as a “target,” one should see oneself as a “participant.” It is this sort of self-exclusion that perpetuates the myth of the “adult playground,” not the games that go on in a workplace.

[QUOTE= Eonwe]
Some people finish school and enter the real world expecting to be finally treated as equals and with respect, only to find that the cool kids are often still in charge, and if you don’t play by their rules you’re no fun, or a loser, and you’re still in the same world you were in when you were 15.
[/QUOTE]

See above. The point is that, by being INCLUDED in the games, a person IS being treated with respect. By raining on the parade- THAT’S being both “no fun” and a “loser.” Perhaps, instead of trying to impose the eggshell mentality on one’s entire environment, such a person should attempt to withdraw gracefully from the shenanigans.

[QUOTE= Eonwe]
“No one likes a whiner” indeed. If a work place has to be a little restrained in order to ensure that all partners in the office feel comfortable, then so be it. It’s not your personal playground. Sometimes playing nice with everyone means you don’t get to play the game you want to play.
[/QUOTE]

Sometimes playing nice with everyone means that you don’t get to impose your own idea of what’s appropriate on everyone else in your office environment either.
I find it very, very odd that the people who wave the flag of “equality” are generally the ones expecting others to bend over backwards for them. The office environment is one that evolves according to the participants, not one that is held hostage to the neuroses of one. That environment might evolve to the point where one member of the office doesn’t get the salt in the coffee treatment, because that member is too much of a stick-in-the-mud to give it back, but it shouldn’t be nannied into an entirely new and uncomfortable situation overnight thanks to the arrival of a hall monitor.
:rolleyes:

[sub]waits for the inevitable comparison to rape or assault as “common workplace etiquette…”[/sub]

77

Agreed. If you aren’t sufficiently socialized to where you can have fun messing with co-workers, it’s you who should adjust your behavior; not the rest of the office.

78

I’m all for equality of opportunity in the workplace. That includes by race, culture, gender, sexual orientation and disability.

But the workplace is also a place where real people interact, and pissing about and joking are part of that.

The police?! The fucking POLICE?! I’m more incredulous than I was earlier on. Can anyone say “Milquetoast”?

Or now I $ee it might be $orted out by litigation… hmm.

79

[QUOTE=Happy Scrappy Hero Pup]

This sounds more than a little whiny. You’re excluding a middle between “sit there and take it” and “ban it all.” Maybe rather than seeing oneself as a “target,” one should see oneself as a “participant.” It is this sort of self-exclusion that perpetuates the myth of the “adult playground,” not the games that go on in a workplace.

[/QUOTE]

It was the tone of T_SQUARE’s post that kind of set me off, the lines “no one likes a whiner,” and the opening, “You people that go crying the blues to HR every time you get a little sand in your swim suit are ruiners of workplace fun.”

Sure there is a middle ground. However, going off on whiners doesn’t sound like a middle ground attitude to me; it sounds like Someone who is upset because someone came in and “tattled,” thereby forcing those in charge to actually enforce rules or a level of decorum that’s expected for a workplace. Particularly if you don’t make your free-wheeling ways aparent from the outset and hire accordingly, I don’t see how you can blame someone for being taken aback.

The other piece of it is that not everyone is comfortable being a “participant.” Being forced to be a participant makes one a target. If I don’t want to play your game, but you bring your game to me and force me to play, then you are the spoiled one, not me (of course “you” and “me” are hypothetical you and me’s).

I agree with that completely. My point, I guess, is that if I complain about the fun that you and coworker #2 are having, then I’m obnoxious. If I complain, though, that you’re bringing it to me, then I’m totally within my rights. I’m not a loser or a whiner for not playing the game, I just have a different criteria for fun and a comfortable work space.
And, no worries, didn’t take it personally. Though I am a “he” not a “she.” :slight_smile:

80

This is a conservative satire of the P.C. liberal cult of victimhood run amok… right?