I'm not anti-authority, I'm anti-evil, there's a difference (long & rambly)

In this thread, I related an incident that happened at work last week. No update, but today, the office manager (a woman (yes it’s important to note that)) came back to work. She wasn’t here when the whole thing happened.

I filled her in on the incident. She poo-pooed the whole thing. When I told her there might be legal action involved she came up with the following comments:

  1. The boss is an old man and people of his generation did things differently.I replied with the same thing I said before: that doesn’t make it right.

  2. The company has loaned this employee a lot of money and this is the thanks it gets. :eek: I asked her whether or not the loan contract included putting up with racial slurs. She didn’t have an answer. Besides, what the hell does loaning money have to do with what happened?

  3. “They” are stealing the company blind and have “the nerve” to bring this up. I have an idea who she is referring to as “they”, but she hasn’t shown any other racist tendencies, so I’ll have to dismiss this. Again, this has nothing to do with the situation. If the company tried to bring this up in court (unlikely, but possible), I’m sure the judge will want proof. True, employee theft IS a problem, but if the company doesn’t want to try and stop it (through security cameras, etc) then the stealing will continue unabated.

  4. People just want a reason to sue these days. True, there’s a LOT of frivolous lawsuits going around, but, again, it doesn’t make this right. I agree with her point about one thing here that has to do with, what I like to call “flexible morality”: Let’s say you find money in a vending machine and there’s no one around, most people would likely take the money, but if the machine TOOK their money, there would be hell to pay. Stealing is wrong, but no one seems to mind taking a few office supplies home (a pen, a notepad, etc.) and saying, “well the compnay expects this and looks the other way.” True to a point, but unless you have absolute permission to do so, it’s still stealing.

After all this, she tells me I’m “anti-corporate” and “anti-authority”! I replied, “No, I’m anti-abuse-of-authority”. I used to work for a “man” (and I use the term only because he was legally, though not mentally, an adult) who would fire people and brag about it. I worked for another company that would do everything possible to deprive employees of basic legal rights whenever possible. I know I’m not management material, you don’t have to remind me. I’ve been in management, and I didn’t like it one bit.

The old man would love nothing more than to have an entire all-white-male workforce if he could get away with it. The fact that this woman is even in charge is a milestone not unlike the invention of the wheel and I told her as much.

Well, I feel much better now. If karma truly exists, these people are in for one helluva surprise one day.

Man, good luck. When you’ve got a whole institution against you it can be tough. But, someone’s got to stick his neck out a little in order for change to happen. Glad you might be up for the task.

Firstly, what’s wrong with being anti-authority? Dissidence won us what democracy we have, dissidence of the trade union (the not always legal right, to withhold labor) movement won us our standard of living. Anti-authority is GOOD, it can be constructive and progressive in the face of those who would have our world remain unchanged to benefit themselves.

Secondly, if I were called “anti-authority” and “anti-corporate” I would take it as a complement for having confidence in my own judgement and being oppossed to a world that revolves around the corporate greed of a capitalist minority instead of a world order emphasing human need.

But thats just me…