Politically hostile work environment, or over-sensitivity?

[Aquadementia]

I’ve seen “Wash Me” written on cars a few times and rarely is the driver someone I’d have fun washing up.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@Procrustus

Contact some friends who don’t work there and are not associated with you as far as your employers know. Have them send in come complaints about obnoxious political slogans on dirty trucks.

ETA: I’d be happy to send in a complaint myself. Just PM me who to send it to.

Seconded!

[half-elf]

@Czarcasm

No, the vast majority of the drivers are company drivers, apparently what is meant by the “No Politics” is that the admins want things to go smoothly so the drivers don’t go looking for greener pastures, so don’t say anything that might rile them up.

The only thing I can offer to your conundrum is that the Head of Security at my place of work would absolutely make something like that his business, so maybe you could get all official about it, too.

[enipla]

@Czarcasm

The trailers are company-owned, and they are not tankers.
The yard is secure, and the only people who have access to them are the mechanics, the drivers and whatever office personnel want to wander out into the yard. Of those three, the drivers have the most access so, no, the drivers are not the least likely suspects…*

Huh. So no loading docks where those folks could scrawl a message.

As others have said, I wouldn’t make a big deal about it, as it seems to be a good job for you. It would, really, really piss me off though.

I work for County Gov. I have some pull as I’ve been there for 26 years. If I saw one of our trucks or busses with such political slogans (of any stripe) I would make a very large stink until it was addressed.

[Ace309]

@ZPG_Zealot

My condolences on your situation. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is much you can do considering how “right-to-work” laws allow employers a lot of room to be insensitive jerks. Whenever you have some extra money, you might consider making a small donation to Planned Parenthood, so you can have the satisfaction of using money earned from Covenant going to support abortion.

What do right to work laws have to do with this thread?

[ExTank]

@Czarcasm

Are you hiring? I am 62 years old with a family to support, so it’s a little late in the game to start at the bottom rung wage-wise. Have you got any practical solutions?

If you’re 62 and changing jobs will cause you “…to start at the bottom rung wage-wise…,” then you have much bigger problems than political graffiti scribbled on the back of over-the-road trailers and complicit (or at best indifferent) management.

Since, by your own admission, you’re 62, and pretty much dead-ended wage-wise, and with family financial obligations, I strongly suggest you heed the phrase, “Survival Cancels Programming,” give up on politics, and focus on keeping a roof over your family’s head, and food on the table.

Or, you can be all principled, Take A Stand for what you believe in, leave/get fired from that job, and then live with the possible consequences of you and your family living out of your car, or out of a homeless shelter, if you can’t regain steady employment quickly enough.

[Czarcasm]

@ExTank

If you’re 62 and changing jobs will cause you “…to start at the bottom rung wage-wise…,” then you have much bigger problems than political graffiti scribbled on the back of over-the-road trailers and complicit (or at best indifferent) management.

Since, by your own admission, you’re 62, and pretty much dead-ended wage-wise, and with family financial obligations, I strongly suggest you heed the phrase, “Survival Cancels Programming,” give up on politics, and focus on keeping a roof over your family’s head, and food on the table.

Or, you can be all principled, Take A Stand for what you believe in, leave/get fired from that job, and then live with the possible consequences of you and your family living out of your car, or out of a homeless shelter, if you can’t regain steady employment quickly enough.

I’m glad somebody is getting a little joy out of my predicament.

[Scumpup]

@Czarcasm

I’m glad somebody is getting a little joy out of my predicament.

You don’t have a “predicament.”

[enipla]

@chappachula

yep!
This thread seems like something the snowflakes on a college campus would get all worked up about.

Slogans scratched in mud…oh, what a threat!!

And of the two slogans, one is perfectly legitimate, and the other is just plain so stupid that you can’t take it seriously.
(to clarify: 1)“Build that wall” is a perfectly legitimate political slogan. I hate it , too, just like you. But it was the slogan used throughout the democratic process of the election, and 60 million voters approved it. 2) “Dems are communists” is just plain stupid. It’s not worth getting your panties in a twist over.)

The world is full of stupid people. Some of them are your bosses. Deal with it.

What actually worries me more than the muddy slogans is the overly smug attitude expressed by the OP: seeing things he disagrees with hurts his feelings too much, and he wants protection.

You’re at work; not in a safe space with trigger warnings.

So racist and misogynistic slogans scrawled by employees on company property is ok with you. Got it.

[Doctor_Jackson]

@you_with_the_face

And 1 second of thought should’ve told you don’t know enough to say this.

As I said before, it actually doesn’t matter who is doing it. What’s with all the ink you’re giving this tangent? For all any us knows or cares, Becky from the McDonalds across the goddamn street is doing it. So the fuck what? The operative issue is management’s apathy towards these messages and what their persistence says about the organization’s culture.

My ink? I’m only responding to your guesses, which have no basis in reality. All this says about management is that they are not bothered enough to spend more money to wash the trailers more often than scheduled. How many other messages do they let stand? No one knows, so you cannot have an informed opinion.

@Czarcasm

The trailers are company-owned, and they are not tankers.
The yard is secure, and the only people who have access to them are the mechanics, the drivers and whatever office personnel want to wander out into the yard. Of those three, the drivers have the most access so, no, the drivers are not the least likely suspects.*

So these trailers never leave the yard? They never deliver freight to other sites? They never are parked overnight somewhere outside the yard? Seems like a poor business model. And, again, if you could get disciplined for erasing the messages, why wouldn’t the drivers get disciplined for writing them? Sorry, I was in the business long enough to understand that drivers generally don’t write in the dust on trailers.

@Czarcasm

If anyone is going to be behind the truck it will be the driver who has to do a walkaround inspection before leaving and after dropping it off in the yard.

1. Not some, but a majority have two specific political messages written on the back.
2. Management doesn’t seem to(or want to) recognize this as a problem, so they are not instructing employees to knock it off.
   All manner of crap gets written on these trailers all the time? I cannot recall ever seeing anti-right rhetoric graffiti on trailers, let alone to the extent I am seeing these two particular phrases. Now, as to this theory that all of these trailers are being temporarily defaced by “dock workers”.
3. These trailers go to many different docks up and down the west coast and several in the midwest, so are you claiming that there is some vast dockworker conspiracy going on here?
4. Why are all these dockworkers doing this to the trailers of one particular company, and not any of the others?
   I cannot “show” you that only “anti-left” crap is being written-you either believe that what I said is what is happening, or you don’t.

Your answer to 1. doesn’t convince me it’s not confirmation bias. For your answer to be true you would have to be scanning every trailer for messages. Somehow, I don’t think you have time to do that. And yes, trailers get crap written on them all the time. I spent years buying used semi trailers from all manner of companies all over the country. Almost all had something written in the dirt. As for 2., no one has (or can) show it is your drivers doing this and dock workers/others DO write on various companies. You only see the trailers of one.

Sorry, I still vote for “get over it”.

[Acsenray]

For the people calling the OP a snowflake, can you explain how this is not hostile?

Also the idea that a responsible commercial entity would happily live with political statements on their public facing equipment that they didn’t agree with because of convenience has got to be disingenuous. You don’t believe this.

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

@ZPG_Zealot

My condolences on your situation. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is much you can do considering how “right-to-work” laws allow employers a lot of room to be insensitive jerks.

Right to work laws prohibit employers from discriminating against employees based on union membership. You are presumably thinking of at-will employment laws. However, generally speaking employers are free to discriminate against employees based on political opinions regardless of whether the state is generally at-will. I note that Oregon has a specific prohibition on forcing employees to listen to management’s political views, but does not prohibit discrimination based on political views generally.

@Acsenray

For the people calling the OP a snowflake, can you explain how this is not hostile?

It’s a bunch of messages scrawled in dirt on the backs of trucks. It’s not directed at the OP. He doesn’t even really have to look at it. Mildly annoying, sure; hostile, no (at least not taken alone). That is not to say I’m calling the OP a snowflake, because that term is stupid.

[Shodan]

@enipla

So racist and misogynistic slogans scrawled by employees on company property is ok with you. Got it.

The slogans are apparently OK with management, who apparently don’t feel as you do that they are racist or misogynistic. And it’s their property. Get it?

@Acsenray

For the people calling the OP a snowflake, can you explain how this is not hostile?

I haven’t called anyone a snowflake, but this is missing the point. ‘Hostile work environment’ has a specific legal meaning, and this ain’t it.

Other people get to say what they think, even if you don’t like it.

Someone wrote a pro-Trump message in the dirt. So what? There is no such thing as a right not to be offended.

Regards,
Shodan

[ExTank]

@Czarcasm

I’m glad somebody is getting a little joy out of my predicament.

No joy, just a hard, straight up summation of your dilemma:

A). Stick to principles, take a stand, and be prepared to suffer the consequences (near-, mid, and long-term).
B). Shut up, put up, and tend to the welfare of your family.

The options may not be as stark as I apprehend them to be; there may be nuances and shades of gray in your situation that I don’t (can’t, even) perceive through your postings here in this thread.

In the immediate, everyday sense of life and living, where I need to keep a roof over my head and food on my table, I’d keep my politics in the voting booth and my mouth shut, where they conflict with the known viewpoints of my current employer. If I found my current employer’s politics too alien, too incongruent with my own, I’d quietly begin shopping for a new job, making sure to NOT burn any bridges behind me.